Jump to content
DVDVR Message Board

Cobra Kai


Dolfan in NYC

Recommended Posts

Man, I've only seen KK3 once ever (in '90, I'd guess) and I had no clue that the other finalist in the tournament later changed his name to Deacon Sharpe and wrecked all kinds of shit in the Bold and the Beautiful as well as the Young and the Restless-universe!

The finale was all out awesome! Face and heel turns, reunions! Ali being the voice of reason! Kreese origins story. Amazing. I really should re-watch the 3 movies.

Also, Demitri and Yasmine? That seems like a bit of a stretch, but ok! Let's have that feel-good moment, as well!

Yeah, and I bet Daniel didn't think saving that little girl from the storm decades ago would end up being so important in the future! That was SO good!

Edited by Shartnado
Watched the whole season!
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm amused that this show apparently takes place in a world where the Internet, Facebook, Snapchat is a thing but SECURITY CAMERAS aren't.

Spoiler

"Hey chief, that skinny kid with the giant red mohawk and cleft palate was spotted again at the zoo during that B&E with the stolen cobra. Want us to bring him in as a person of interest?" "Nah, it could be coincidental. Same with the high school assault, the car wash robbery, the arcade theft, the abandoned arcade assault and the mall assault. Without video evidence we have to presume his innocence."

Also, high school kids operate under this Bushido code of honor where no one snitches on anyone else no matter how horrible the crime. It's basically full-contact Degrassi High.

The finale was epic though... the last scene was a thing of beauty. Hawk's arc was excellent as well.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Spoiler

They really handled the Ali stuff perfectly, thankfully they didn't have a "misunderstanding" where Miguel or his Mom sees Johnny with her and bad things happen, same with not having her be the Doctor who came into town to save Miguel. 

I can't wait to see what kind of brawl they'll have to cap off season 4.

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

25 minutes ago, Craig H said:

Cops in Cobra Kai are about as functional or meaningful as refs in wrestling.

Maybe the incompetent Miami police force from Dexter moved to Reseda en masse!

Nice to see Daniel's son go the way of such main character kid luminaries as Chris Brody on Homeland (i.e. you forget the character has a kid, you see them in maybe one episode, then they're quietly written off).  Maybe he'll join Connor Donovan at the military academy.  ?

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

Maybe the incompetent Miami police force from Dexter moved to Reseda en masse!

Nice to see Daniel's son go the way of such main character kid luminaries as Chris Brody on Homeland (i.e. you forget the character has a kid, you see them in maybe one episode, then they're quietly written off).  Maybe he'll join Connor Donovan at the military academy.  ?

My exact thought was Connor from Rey Donovan too. Anthony received all of 3 or 4 lines this whole season, but part of me thinks they reduced his role because he's obviously hitting a growth spurt and he's lost a lot of weight too. Good on the kid.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, Craig H said:

My exact thought was Connor from Rey Donovan too. Anthony received all of 3 or 4 lines this whole season, but part of me thinks they reduced his role because he's obviously hitting a growth spurt and he's lost a lot of weight too. Good on the kid.

Nice!  I thought it was a different actor due to the weight difference.  Like you said, good on him!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/1/2021 at 11:52 PM, Casey said:

What this season built up to for the next season feels like it should have happened in S3. It was good, but I'm not absolutely nuts about any of it.

I’m only 4 episodes in, and it definitely feels like the show is spinning its wheels so far.  Was watching 3.4 with my wife last night, and she enjoys the show but doesn’t follow industry newz or whatever, and she said, “How many seasons are they trying to stretch out of this, because they’re just repeating the same storylines over and over now.”

I told her it hadn’t been renewed for two more, and she was like, makes sense.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Technico Support said:

Maybe the incompetent Miami police force from Dexter moved to Reseda en masse!

Nice to see Daniel's son go the way of such main character kid luminaries as Chris Brody on Homeland (i.e. you forget the character has a kid, you see them in maybe one episode, then they're quietly written off).  Maybe he'll join Connor Donovan at the military academy.  ?

Or they could be holding back doing anything with him until season 5. I can’t see the Sam, Miguel, Robbie stuff being able to carry on past season 4, send Sam to college then center the teen side of the show on Anthony starting high school. Maybe have the heel teen be the son of Ali’s friend who saw through Daniel’s bs back in the day. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Finished S3 last night. Big improvement over season 2,and thankfully trimmed a lot of the silly stuff and forced misunderstandings. Tons of heart, and some really good performances too.

The Hawk slow build and turn was amazing. Johnny and Daniel finally realizing they are practically the same was really cool.

After season 4, the show is going to have to make a big shift to keep going though. It was built on Johnny and Daniel's beef, and if that is truly squashed(it should be), then the focus probably needs to shift towards the kids, with the parents being minor characters.

Probably a good thing Johnny didn't go to Japan, because that is an international incident waiting to happen.

Hope next season brings us the lads.

xxxqGjV.jpg

Edited by RandomAct
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, RandomAct said:

Finished S3 last night. Big improvement over season 2,and thankfully trimmed a lot of the silly stuff and forced misunderstandings. Tons of heart, and some really good performances too.

 

 

THIS.  In the final episode, I was dreading Carmen seeing Johnny and Ali and having everything go wrong, and I was so happy they avoided that trope.

  • Like 8
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/6/2021 at 4:18 PM, Execproducer said:

They can't have all waited until their late 30's to have kids.

No, but for each of them to have at least one kid of appropriate age seems plausable enough. If they had kids when they were younger and then one more when the rest of them have grown up some. It's been known to happen.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Goddamn was that a great season!  I didn't think I would finish it this quickly (by my standards) but time just flew by.  And my wife just couldn't help but get completely sucked in especially for that finale.  She might have been more excited about Hawk than I was.  I also am in full agreement with @RandomActand @Technico Supportabout them avoiding the tired trope with Johnny.  When Ali found out from Daniel's wife we breathed a huge sigh of relief.  But who knows, maybe sometime down the line things don't work out with Johnny and Carmen leading to Ali coming back in.  It could make for a pretty nice long-term build to that if they wish to go that direction.  I also wholeheartedly agree about the wrestling elements to all this.  The Harts/Bulldogs thing was mentioned but they also mentioned that somebody had an armbar like Chris Jericho.  Which was hilarious and also shows that whoever threw that in mainly remembers the old stuff.  It does lead to a disconnect though considering the people saying it are teens though maybe they watched WWE Network.

One thing that really made me feel great throughout it all was the cameos.  I find myself partial to part two so I was very happy to see those characters return.  And like with Ali from part one it was amazing how they not only tied a lovely bow on both those stories but also had it lead to present day.  Whoever wrote this out understands long-term booking better than some wrestling companies apparently.  Next season can't come soon enough though I'll be curious how they approach cameos from part three.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I didn't love this season quite as much as some of you but still liked it a lot.  I absolutely loved all the cameos - we knew Ali was gonna be there

Spoiler

but Tomiko, Chozen and the girl Daniel rescued?  And all the original actors?  LOVED IT.

I thought they did a great job of building to season 4 but was disappointed they didn't do a callback to the "nobody touch the boy" angle from the first movie.  

Can't wait to see more!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is the show of redemption arcs and they certainly set-up Kreese to have the biggest one of all, but I hope they never go there. Personally, I'd be fine ending after four with Kreese beaten and Tory and Robby walking away as his original students did. As long as they never turn Kyler, I'll be along for the ride.

Edited by Execproducer
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I regret to say that this season never came together for me.  By far the worst season so far, and the overall trajectory of the show is worrying, IMO.

The only part that really clicked for me was when they got back to the original heart of the show, which is the Johnny/Miguel relationship.  Johnny helping Miguel rehab while Miguel helped Johnny connect with Ali was as funny and heartfelt as season 1.  And I thought Ali was well-deployed in the last couple of episodes to mend the Johnny/Daniel divide.

But the fact that a Johnny/Daniel divide still existed by that point was super dumb.  The show was already straining to keep them at odds by the end of season 2, and frankly it was downright farcical by the end of season 3.  They ran out of good ideas to keep them apart, because, well, there were literally no more good reasons to keep them apart.

But the poor kids got the worst end of the stick.  The dojo vs. dojo storyline was super repetitious, and I liked all of the kids less by the end than I did at the beginning.  Tory, in particular, is a pretty one-dimensional villain by the end, after being a really interesting character in season 2.  The Sam PTSD storyline wasn’t really deep enough to be affecting, and, I’m sorry(!), but I didn’t buy the Hawk face turn at all.

Its also very weird to me that the climax of season 2 was all about “Actually, these karate fights have consequences” but in season 3 there are even more karate brawls with zero serious consequences.  The worst thing that happens is Dimitri getting his arm broken, which lasts for 2 episodes and he scores the Hot Girl because of it.

I think if the last half of the season had been the first half and whatever they have planned for season 4 was the last half, everybody would’ve been better off.  I’m very concerned about season 4, since they’re clearly going to drag out everything, again, to the tournament in the season finale. 

Edited by EVA
  • Thanks 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The show is critic-proof for me. It's so loaded with  references and Easter eggs that it almost makes each ep worth watching twice. Getting into the weeds of character motivation or repetitive plot points or the absurdity of karate brawls is probably not going to enhance anyone's viewing experience.  It's all about fan service and I'm there for it. Going to end up being one of those shows that I go back to at least a half dozen times.

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Execproducer said:

Getting into the weeds of character motivation or repetitive plot points or the absurdity of karate brawls is probably not going to enhance anyone's viewing experience.  

Before I say this, I just want to be clear that I’m only sharing my opinion, and I’m not trying to say that you or anybody else is wrong for continuing to enjoy the show for whatever your reasons.  That said...

I completely disagree with this statement.

For me personally, what elevated the early seasons of Cobra Kai above your typical modern examples of a studio grabbing a decades-old IP by the ankles and cynically trying to shake some money out of it was the fact that it was way smarter than anyone would’ve expected it to be.  It clearly wasn’t trying to win an Emmy or anything, but the characters were well-drawn, the plotting was crisp and largely made sense for the characters (Johnny’s decisions often weren’t, and aren’t, “logical” but his Unfrozen Caveman Sensei made sense for this world in the way that, say, Michael Scott’s idiocy could make sense for the world of The Office, when it was at its best), and the word of the show was consistent within itself.  All of that absolutely enhanced the show for me.  Being a Karate Kid superfan was not a requirement for loving the first two seasons.  But most of that stuff was absent in season 3 and, without it, I’m not sure how much longer I’m going to be in for.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...