Back in 1984, we fell in love with The Karate Kid. Danny LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) became an instant sensation with a crane kick. While things turned out great for him, for Johnny Lawrence, the guy who he kicked in the face during that All Valley Karate competition, it was the complete opposite.
Something we find out in the sequel Cobra Kai that is now available to binge on YouTube Red. Lawrence is a down-on-his-luck sort of guy, who lives in a small apartment and works as a handyman. Life sucks for him, and it is going to get even worse. He loses his job, he gets arrested for getting into a fight with some teens who are beating up his next-door neighbor, his stepdad wants to kick him out of his place and some teens smash up his car.
Don’t think it can get any worse for him? It does! His car is towed to LaRusso’s. Danny LaRusso is now a big shot who owns several car dealerships in Los Angeles. He is a huge success with the perfect wife, the perfect son and daughter, and the perfect house. He has everything Johnny does not have. That is why Johnny wants to get his car out of his auto shop before he sees Danny. Since Johnny’s last few days have been really sh!tty, of course, he runs into his old rival.
Just when Johnny does not think that anything good can happen to him, something good actually does happen to him. He decides to bring back Cobra Kai and teach his neighbor how to defend himself with Karate. The student is now the Sensei.
Once Danny hears about that, he will do everything he can to shut it down. Proving old rivalries never die.
Another thing we learned, is you can go back to greatness. When I first heard that the show was from Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, the EPs who gave us the Harold & Kumar franchise, I did not know what to expect. I knew I was going to love it, but I thought maybe it would be a comedy. It has it jokes like Danny gives every customer a Bonsai tree, but it is also pretty series.
We see how Johnny, who had it all in high school, has nothing in his 40’s. While Danny who had nothing is a huge success. All because of one match that changed their lives forever.
For years, we focused on Danny, but now it is time to focus on Johnny. Because this time around he is the underdog you are rooting for. If that is not a brilliant switch up, then I do not know what is.
Plus, it is so well done, everyone is going to fall in love with this show. Just like we did, all those years ago, when we saw The Karate Kid for the first time.
I know Pat Morita is looking down from heaven thinking what a great job they did for his legacy.
On that note, we will see old footage of him and the rest of the movie in this show. It will be used as flashbacks to remind us what happened in the original series. They did a really good job editing the old and new stuff together.
Actually, I love everything about Cobra Kai and cannot stop praising it. Make sure to set some time aside to watch all 10 episode. It is a quick, enjoyable binge.
