Cobra Kai on Y̶o̶u̶T̶u̶b̶e̶ ̶R̶e̶d̶ Netflix

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1

One line synopsis: the Karate Kid and the blonde jock that he crane-kicked in the head, 30 years later.

This show has no right to be good. But it is. I’m 6 episodes in, and it’s just a ton of fun. Recommend it.

I don’t know if it would hold up if you hadn’t watched the Karate Kid and the terrible sequels back 30 years ago. Maybe millenials won’t get it. I expect to see a backlash against the orientalism any minute now, because it totally is. But that’s the point, after all, isn’t it?

I don’t know if this show justifies YouTube Red existing on its own, it’s no Handmaid’s Tale or Daredevil, but Google finally made something worth watching.

And of course they have a free trial month like every other service, so you won’t have to pay anything to watch it.

2

I saw trailers for it while doing my normal YouTube watching. At first I thought it was a Netflix thing, then I saw YouTube Red.

I actually watched the full two minute trailer before watching my two minute actual video. It looked intriguing, and I hopped to IMDB to see if they were the original actors. They are, so your review @stusser probably pushes me to using the trial soon to check it out.

3

Reminded me of this:

4

Ah, cool. I subscribe to Google Music so get YouTube Red for free.

5

I just finished the season, I can’t get over how shocking it is that the show is watchable, much less excellent. It has no right being anything more than pandering horrible crap, and yet it is, it totally is. Total respect for the original material, they even brought back the actress that played Daniel’s mom and one other actor that I honestly thought was dead.

I kept thinking there’s no way to keep it going for a second season, but they set it up perfectly!

6

lol amazing… my son just watched all the karate kid movies (including the one with the girl) last week, he really loved them…

7

It’s much more nuanced and adult than the movies, I wouldn’t show it to a young kid. Not that it’s super-violent or anything, they would just miss a lot of it and would probably find it boring.

8

Did you guys see the episode of How I Met Your Mother about this? It was surprisingly deep.

9

ahh ok… he mostly liked the underdog aspect of the movies…

10

That stuff is definitely still in there, major theme of the movies and the show.

11

To match @stusser’s surprise, the reviews for this show have been overwhelmingly positive. I am going to start watching it possibly today, I think.

12

Really fun and weird take – I enjoyed it. Production quality sometimes feels a bit like an extended College Humor sketch or an ABC Family show.

13

Holy crap @stusser is right. This show sounds terrible on paper and yet is one of the best shows I’ve seen all year. 2 episodes left to watch tonight. DO NOT miss this show!

14

Yes, I concur. This show is quite good, although i don’t think i could describe exactly why.

15

It’s getting really good reviews on Rotten Tomatoes as well. And that’s generally reliable as it is, like Metacritic, a meta-aggregator of all review scores from multiple sources.

16

Should I watch the original movie before watching this?

Uh, again. I mean watch it again. Hah. Of course I’ve seen Karate Kid. hah, hah. . . hahhhhh

17

Omg Armando

18

I’m sorry! I have seen so few movies overall! I’m bad at movies!

edit: but seriously do I need to watch it first or what? Should I watch the new one with Jaden Smith instead? I bet it’s really good, like all of his movies.

19

You should watch the original before watching this series.

20

I noticed it’s free on all the major streaming services at the moment. You can skip all the other other ones, though if you want to watch one more, the second one is passable.