Breaking Down Cobra Kai Season 1-With Spoilers!
It is no secret that I really enjoyed the first season of Cobra Kai. I was thrilled to see that they not only brought the original characters back but also made a flat-out fantastic show! You can listen to a spoiler-free discussion I had with Sensei Jeremy Lesniak and Master Brendan Goodall over at whistlekick Martial Arts Radio to hear more.
Since we have until May of this year before we get to see where Cobra Kai will take its characters, I want to take the time to put down my thoughts on the first season as I watched the episodes. This will be a bit more of a stream-of-consciousness approach. While this will just be my thoughts as I watched the episodes, make sure you let me know what your thoughts are down in the comments section. I would love to have a conversation with you about the show and its characters. I will be posting the links to the previous reviews as new episode reviews are posted.
Previous Episode Reviews
THERE WILL BE SPOILERS!!!!!
If you have not seen the episode being reviewed here, please do so and then come back to this review to get involved in the discussion.
Then and Now
-I love the flashback opening of Johnny discovering the old Cobra Kai dojo with Sensei Kreese barking at his students. Not to mention the cassette player and headphones. Flash to now, and Johnny has his own school full of wet-behind-the-ears prospective students, and he looks comically lost.
-Demetri and Eli continue to be themselves with Eli being barely audible, and Demetri not being thrilled with self-defense or extra physical activity.
-Apparently, Johnny plans to turn all of them into “Cobra Kai Material” by……humiliating them, then kinda-sorta giving them hope that they may improve. Ah, the growing pains of new students!
Daniel-san Is Looking For Students
-I like that Daniel is training hard enough to break a sweat, but he is training alone. Funny, that Sam has a somewhat typical reaction to martial arts as many teenagers do: “Karate?”. And no luck with Amanda either as she reminds him that Anthony was the result of their last training session. Yeah, no more of him, please.
-Funny that Sam is stalking Miguel on social media, but then finds that she is still getting made fun of with Kyler’s lies still circulating. Pretty honest how that brings her down and affects her response to her dad’s request to train with him. It’s obvious that this bothers Daniel as he misses training Sam and the bonding that created.
-And we have Anthony. Daniel is so desperate that he tries to get Anthony to dislodge himself from the digital world to train with him. Cue eye-rolling. “Karate is boring”, “This one has fire-balls”. Honestly, his responses are at least authentic to his character. I’m still waiting for Anthony to be something other than pointless to this show, and for his parents to, I don’t know, DISCIPLINE him instead of looking lost when dealing with him!
Robby’s On The Job
-Robby’s friends stop by and you can tell he is annoyed by them now, doing what they have always done. Of course, they make fun of him for looking presentable too.
-While it’s obvious that Robby’s friends are irritating him and he may not like them as much now, he covers for it by saying that he is doing it to get back at his father.
Back At The Dojo
-Johnny continues to berate his fresh students to “inspire” them. Then he goes after Eli and Demetri comes to his defense. While Johnny is right that people aren’t always nice, he’s going about it in a hilariously bad way. Demetri points out that Johnny can’t hurt them and they pay him.
-I thought it was hilarious that Johnny forced Demetri to take a swing at him, put him on the ground, and then thought that was a good “lesson” for the rest of the class?
-Loved Demetri equating going to Karate class being similar to being a hooker. Then he says he doesn’t need to train because he has Miguel around.
-To highlight the point, Kyler sees Miguel and Demetri coming his way, and changes direction! (Gotta say that I loved that.)
Robby’s Working Hard
-Robby is really, actually, taking the initiative at Larusso Motors and knocking out all of the menial work.
-Wow, Daniel is really desperate to find a training partner as he approaches Anoush about it. Annoush shutting him down is pretty funny.
-Anoush and Louie mess with Robby a bit, you can tell that it actually hurts Robby. Maybe Robby is more than just a “bad kid”.
Sam Is An Outcast
-Poor Sam is still getting harassed with Blow-Pop’s being left in her bag and no one wanting to take her into their science group.
-Miguel shuts down Demetri mildly making fun of Sam and jumps at the chance to have her in their group.
-The corny teacher is a nice touch.
Pranking On The Job
-Louie convinced Robby to move one of the cars inside the showroom with customers present, and got him in trouble with Daniel. Robby looked truly hurt that he’s getting hazed by Louie and storms off.
-When Daniel stopped Robby from storming off, it looks like he noticed a little bit of himself in him with that hot temper. Robby also finds some of himself in Daniel with their mutually-shared upbringings. Hmm…
Distracted At Lab
-So hilarious how Miguel can barely handle being that close to Sam and stumbles all over himself trying to respond to her.
-Really touching how Sam thanked Miguel for “helping her” with the fight, but they keep it going with some witty banter back and forth about Karate technique. Lots of chemistry here.
-It’s obvious that Sam is no pushover, but I wonder if they are holding her back for later in the show?
-I liked that Sam pointed out to Miguel that Kyler and his buddies don’t mess with him anymore now, and opened Miguel’s eyes.
Attrition
-Johnny is actually surprised that about half of the students from yesterday quit. Lol, really? Then he claims that was a test to see if they would rather play on their “iComputers” and eat candy!
-He points out that “Lip” (Eli) is still there, but Eli speaks up for himself, barely. Johnny, in his own backward way, points out that Eli needs to “flip the script” if he doesn’t want to get made fun of. Eli leaves.
-Miguel tries to get Johnny to understand that he needs students and money and to stop turning them away with his hazing.
Louie’s Punishment
-I’m pretty sure that Amanda Larusso has at least one awesome only-adult-in-the-room moment in each episode. If so, this was that moment when she makes Louie apologize to Robby and take over his lowly duties. Louie does a hilariously bad job at “apologizing”, but it was interesting how off-balance Robby looked. Like he has never been apologized to before.
-Of course, Louie suggests to Robby “how to get in Daniel’s good graces”, which seems highly suspect.
Return To Memory Lane
-Johnny stumbling over his old stuff as he comes home already drunk with more beer to seal the deal seems about right.
-Then we get a peek into Johnny’s childhood as he was trying to convince his mom to let him start at Cobra Kai. I loved how excited, energetic, and pure he was at this moment. Long before the rest of his life happened.
-We also get to see how his life was with Sid, and how he treated Johnny and his mom. So sad, but it’s, unfortunately, the reality for many young children. I hated seeing Sid take such a pure excitement from Johnny and turn it negative. Seeing adult Johnny reflect on that memory is illuminating to who he really is. He talks and acts like he is/was one of the “cool kids”, but in reality, he’s not much different than those new “losers” in his dojo earlier today.
-Interesting to know that Johnny didn’t have any friends and was a “social reject” as Sid told it. I always thought Johnny was living the good life in the original Karate Kid movie.
Special Delivery?
-Robby delivers the sales report as Louie suggested, which was just as bogus as I thought it would be.
-However, Daniel may just have found his new student/training partner!
-LOL! “Did you “sense” that I was here?” Yes, in fact, all great sensei have super powers of perception.
Sensei Lawrence
-Johnny is finally “getting it” as he lays it out for the students that are left. As good as the speech was, I still had to giggle when he said “I wasn’t always the badass sensei I am today”!
-It’s interesting how Miguel is not just Johnny’s student, but also the counter-balance that keeps him from going too far off the rails.
-WOW. Did not see the Eli-to-Hawk change coming at all! That was something very unexpected from the show.
Wrap-Up
-I loved the strong finish to the show with Johnny reciting the Cobra Kai mantra to his students and him finally finding his groove with them.
-Really loved seeing Miguel and Sam start to come together.
-I understood Daniel’s plight, trying to find a training partner. Sometimes you hear “No” a lot.
QUIET Counter=1
-Come on, we can do better than this. With all of those new students, there should’ve been at least three QUIET’s!
What did you think of Johnny experiencing the struggles of having his first real class? What about Daniel and Robby? Let me know in the comments section below!
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