MORAL OF THE SERIES

“There is no such thing as bad student. There are only bad teachers.” This first season of Cobra Kai shows us the importance of perspective and how unfair it is to paint the world in black and white or in this case, as bad guys vs. good guys. It is much more complex than that. Everything has its pros and cons including the seemingly malevolent Cobra Kai way that was introduced so many years ago in Karate Kid (1984).

WHO I THINK WOULD MOST ENJOY THIS SERIES

While Cobra Kai obviously caters to fans of the classic Karate Kid film series, there is a lot to be enjoyed for any fan of stories that focus on life lessons, underdogs, and redemption.

ADDITIONAL NOTES/COMMENTARY

Cobra Kai’s first two seasons launched on YouTube Red (now YouTube Premium), but have now been picked up by Netflix for a third season and potentially more. There was critical rave of the first season when it came out but it didn’t get as much of a public recognition because of the streaming platform that it was on. Now that it’s on Netflix, everyone is on the Cobra Kai train, so I hopped on as well. After binging the first season, I must say that all of its attention is well-deserved. This show is an incredibly clever expansion of the Karate Kid universe that makes us rethink what we supposedly know about who’s good and who’s bad. There’s a lot to unpack in this first season of the show such as the effects of different teaching philosophies, mentalities, attitudes, mindsets, etc. There’s something that could be said about the show’s attitudes towards political correctness and gender stereotyping, but I’ll leave that for next season’s review. For now, I’d like to focus on the season’s clever approach to conveying the message that we’re the heroes of our own story and how it’s all a matter of perspective. The Cobra Kai style of karate was first introduced as a tool to for mean-spirited bullies to use against their victims but this show has flipped the script on its head. It shows us how it can be used for good instead. From this, I gathered the moral of the importance of perspective. Funnily enough, I didn’t know who to root for throughout the season because there are no clear good guys or bad guys, it’s just life. I loved that about Cobra Kai because that teaches one of my favorite morals about how life isn’t black and white; it’s full of grey areas. As such, Cobra Kai doesn’t tell you who to root for. Instead, you are given the facts and the perspectives and then you choose for yourself which is truly a brilliant way to expand the one-sided The Karate Kid (1984). Additionally, the show has a lot of 80s nostalgia to go around. Everything you loved about Karate Kid is in this show: training montages, great 80s music, words of wisdom, and lots of karate action. Yet, as nostalgia-ridden as it is, the show still offers so much more as addressed above. You’ll get a modern take on the anti-bullying storylines as the show tackles (or should I say karate kicks?) cyberbullying with the Cobra Kai way of life. You’ll also just have a lot of fun with how the show runners play with what we think we know and expect from these characters. All in all, the first season of Cobra Kai is a fascinating expansion of the Karate Kid film series that is full of fun moments/nostalgia and clever storylines that contain wise morals about life and standing up for yourself.