The Karate Kid movies are very popular around the world and the most recent film in the franchise was released in 2010. Fans were left wondering if any more movies would be made about the popular franchise. In 2018 a new TV show was released that caught the attention of many people because of its name…Cobra Kai. Producer Katrin L. Goodson, most known for her work in producing the series The Blacklist, had decided to put the Karate Kid aspect back into television, however not based on Daniel Larusso’s life but based on Johnny Lawrence’s life. The series moved from YouTube Red to Netflix in the summer of 2020. When Seasons 1 and 2 of Cobra Kai were released on Netflix, it was the most-watched show on Netflix.
The show focused on Johnny’s current life, roughly 34 years after he lost the tournament to Daniel in the first film. Johnny saw a kid getting bullied outside of the store he was in so he decided to go out and help the kid by using his experience in karate. While fighting, he realized that his life was a mess and decided to try and get his life back together. His first step into doing that was opening a karate dojo named after the karate dojo he was in high school, Cobra Kai. His first customer was the kid being bullied in front of the store, Miguel Diaz. Miguel Diaz was this nerdy, asthmatic, skinny kid who was bullied a lot in high school and wanted to defend himself so he joined Cobra Kai. With Johnny teaching him how to defend himself he gets in a fight with a student named Kyler who was spreading rumors about Sam Larusso, Daniel Larusso’s daughter, who he had a crush on. After Miguel beat up Kyler and a bunch of his friends in the lunchroom, word got out that Miguel trained at Cobra Kai. The next day a lot of people joined Cobra Kai because they wanted to learn how to defend themselves, like Miguel. As more students joined Cobra Kai, Daniel decided to teach karate to his daughter Sam, but his teaching reflects Miyagi Do Karate, a more defensive approach to teaching karate which differs from Cobra Kai.
At the end of Season 1, Johnny’s son, Robby was introduced. Robby, who has a strained relationship with his father, joined Miyagi Do Karate and worked for Daniel as a car salesman. The old rivalry between Daniel and Johnny was still going on strong and throughout the series it carries over to a new generation of karate students. During the first few seasons of the show, fans watched the storyline and character development between the two arch enemies develop and evolve into something else. Friendship. Now adults, these characters take on new responsibilities as mentors to their students. There are many interesting turns of events throughout the plot as the rivalry between Johnny’s top student, Miguel and his son Robby unfolds, new characters are introduced, and old favorite characters join the show.
After Cobra Kai’s amazing performance at the All Valley Tournament, more students wanted to join. With all these new students Johnny Lawrance decided to get extra help teaching the kids and he turned to John Kreese, his old sensei.
This show does a really good job bringing back a lot of characters from the original Karate Kid movie and giving them more character development. Daniel and Johnny have their own differences still but they are more alike than they want to admit. They both have children and they both introduce them to karate, they still are competitive with each other, and both have common enemies besides each other. Fans began to root for Johnny, as they learned more about his backstory. Season 6 was split up into three parts and was gradually released on Netflix.During the much anticipated end of the season the show wraps up the stories of Johnny, Daniel, their families and students.
I interviewed Drew Modelski and Vance Esenwein, fans of the show, on how they felt about the show and the ending of it. Vance said, “ The ending was terrible, but it made sense in a broad aspect. I think it should have ended earlier like at the end of season 4. When Miuel was out looking for his dad, Hawk beat Robby in the all Valley.”
Drew felt differently about the show. Drew said, “The show was thrilling. I liked how Johnny pulled through in the end. There should be more seasons to see everyone’s future and how they grow up.”