Cobra Kai-Karate Kid Sequel Series Starring Ralph Macchio and William Zabka

I'm certainly not complaining, but how is that going to work for them? Are they just going to count on the advertising for the free content and hope that some will pay for ad-free content?

 

I haven't read anything in depth, but that sounds about right - the free stuff will have ads in it.

 

Looks like it won't be free until later this year, but I can live with that.

YouTube Will Make ‘Cobra Kai,’ Other Originals Free to Watch Later This Year

The free-to-watch shows from YouTube will include the first two seasons of “Cobra Kai,” YouTube’s popular series that continues the story of the “Karate Kid,” beginning this fall — and which it just renewed for season 3. For two weeks, from Aug. 29 to Sept. 11, YouTube will make all of “Cobra Kai” season 1 available for free. Then on Sept. 11, YouTube will serve up the second season of “Cobra Kai” globally for free, with new episodes released weekly.

 

I’m through three episodes. This season is DEFINITELY not as good as the first (at least so far). The Kreese subplot is unrealistic and the whole Daniel’s daughter and Robby deal is an eye roll. Also, the soundtrack on this is god awful. It’s so teenage angst/pulling on the heartstrings kind of a deal.

God, I hope this gets better. That said, Johnny is still awesome. Everybody else is ‘meh’.

 

Agreed. The opening fight scene was soo silly given Kreese's age and general decrepitude!

I didn't mind it really. It was kinda sweet (hey, I like romcoms! )

Again, it wasn't an issue for me and I didn't really notice it.

Well, no it doesn't, if you don't like teen angst type drama. But things do get a lot worse by the end, arising (very unrealistically imo) from the season's angsty developments.

As I said before, I liked it well enough overall, but it does have some serious OTT scenes, Kreese being the main culprit and the season denouement in particular.

 

Just finished season 2. Absolutely loved it. I thought the finale was outstanding. Way over the top, but so is the show in general. Watched it with my kids, 11, and 14 and they LOVED it, too.

 

The wife and I finished Season 2 last night.

Of course, I knew going in - even with Season 1 - that the show would contain a lot of tropes from the '80s, but that's a part of what makes it fun, if dial your mind back to the days of Ferris Bueller's Day Off or Back to the Future, where nothing happens like that in real life. You just go with it and enjoy the ride. It's not high art; it's popcorn TV on a pretty good level.

That said, there were a couple of episodes in the backhalf of the season that had some extraneous scenes. One of those was Daniel-San's long talk with his mother, which just filled up space. Another was what everybody is talking about: even if you could suspend your disbelief during the battle royale, it lasted a very long time!

Nitpicks aside, this season was the first of the Karate Kid family of flicks where Daniel-San wasn't a complete prick. Last season he was just as douchy as he had always been, but in this season, when faced with adversity, he was a little humbled, putting him on equal footing with Johnny. In fact, it was apparent how Johnny and Daniel's stories ran parallel with one another, culminating in a reluctant truce that showed a glimmer of hope for these two '80s icons.

Outside of the protracted final battle, once the heat cooled off, I thought the ending was done very well (or was it more of a coda at the end?). It sets up some interesting questions for Season 3, some of which I didn't see coming.

Yeah, Season 3 will be a must watch. I simply think it's very cool to have a show like this, juxtaposed against the fairly weighty stuff that I usually watch.

 

The ending that I wanted, in the elevator in the hospital, was Daniel quoting Vito Corleone after Sonny's death - "This war stops now" (not to mention "How did things get so far?")

 

I can’t recall the two movie sequels that well, but Daniel was a prick in the first one? Seems more like he was a fish out of water. Johnny was the jerk in the first one (despite his nearly plausible vantage point shared in the first season).

 

I don't think so. Even back in 1984 I knew something was off with Daniel-San. This is a small primer:



Last Season of Cobra Kai simply amplified the same problems that Daniel had as a kid. Once again, Daniel-San is hell bent on destroying a down-and-out Johnny buy inserting himself into something that has nothing to do with him. In fact, if Daniel (a wealthy man now) hadn't gotten involved in trying to stop Cobra Kai all of this unnecessary violence in both Season 1 & Season 2 would never have happened.

 

But wait! There's more!



EDIT: I'm not saying that Johnny didn't have his faults as a kid, but the way I see, Daniel was worse...much worse. Season 1 showed that, again, with how he started provoking Johnny. Season 2 showed a much better Daniel, but also a more humbled Daniel.

 

That’s a pretty tongue in cheek video I’d say. Anyway, we’re debating a silly 1984 movie by John G. Avildsen!

 

Ha! Well, I mean, look at the series of events in the original Karate Kid flick. Let's just say that none of these kids were saints. I think I wrote somewhere else that really they're fighting over which method to kick somebody's ass is the best. Moreover, neither one of these dudes got the chick they wanted. In essence it was just high school stuff, while most high school problems are just misunderstandings, perpetrated by kids who are feeling their way around life, trying to find a place for themselves.

In that light, though, in Season 1, Daniel was truly an ass, because he brought out all of the same ol' high school angst that Johnny had gotten over. Poor Johnny, yeah, he's not the sharpest tool, but Daniel should have known better and took the high road. Johnny was certainly trying to elevate himself above all of that.

And don't forget: that was an illegal kick.

I have a feeling that Season 3 will show Daniel and Johnny getting together to fight the evil John Krees. Is it that obvious?

 

'Karate Kid' actor Robert Garrison dies at 59

Was in an episode of Cobra Kai season 2 also.

 

With any luck, they will bring back Terry Silver and his ridiculously over the top laughing.

 

Finally got through Season 2 thanks for youtube freebies every Wednesday. Overall, I really enjoyed this season and look forward to the next installment. I will say that the season finally big fight scene was a pretty ridiculous. I enjoyed the addition of Peyton List who I knew from my daughter's Disney shows. And am I the only one hoping Stingray gets his own spin off series?

I'm disappointed that things have gone so wrong for Johnny at the end of this season. I'm sure he'll rebound. I liked Hawk but I guess he's turning going full douche now. And I've been waiting patiently for two seasons for Liz Shue to get involved, so I'm looking forward to what lies ahead.

I hope this thing gets a physical release some day.

 

I thought there was a news item about this series becoming completely free, perhaps with commercials. Is that not true? I kind of forgot about it after watching the first 2 free episodes of season 1. But looking on Youtube now, S1 Ep3 is a "premium" episode.

I do see that the entire first season is just $5 on Amazon Prime Video, so that's not such a bad option.

 

I did not know that! I've got $5 of digital promo bucks about to expire so this is just in a nick of time!

 

Waitaminute....

https://www.amazon.com/Season-Limit..._1_5?keywords=cobra+kai&qid=1573154433&sr=8-5

Is this legit??? DVD??!?

 

Yup. with extras:

‘Cobra Kai’ Seasons 1 & 2 Limited DVD Is Packed with Features and Double-Sided Headband

 

I want to spring for it but worry I'll get burned later when a blu-ray version appears.

 

Daniel's prickitude in the original movie is a little exaggerated IMO. Really, it's Johnny who starts all the crap and then Daniel pulls the very cliche teenage movie thing of trying to pull a nasty prank on Johnny in retaliation which leads to a frightening beat-up and rescue from Mr. Miyagi. For the most part, Daniel is a pretty good kid by 1980's movie standards. He's no angel but IMHO during that period it was common to depict teenagers as having bad attitudes and rough edges even if they were the "good guy." Daniel is rude to his mom and generally ticked off about leaving NJ but that's a normal reaction to a young teen kid getting uprooted.

What I find interesting in Cobra Kai is that grown-up Daniel really IS a jerk! His talk of balance is all talk - he's obsessed with one-upping Johnny even though he's a millionaire car dealer and Johnny eats gas-station tacos and drinks Coors alone in his dumpy apartment. He wants Johnny to always fail and resents it when anyone might think well of Johnny. Amanda is rightly pissed off at his neglect of his business in order to re-live childhood glory and settle petty scores. For all the dumb parts of the series, it's interesting that they didn't take the easy route of keeping Daniel's image upright. In some ways, he's more messed up than Johnny is. And Johnny remains a very flawed and damaged character but most of the time it seems that he's trying to right the ship of his life and facing obstacles on every side.

I love the series so far, despite some very obvious flaws which I won't go to the trouble of cataloging. The ending of season 2 did leave me with the feeling that things are almost TOO messed up now. If they have Miguel make a full recovery and return to karate, I don't know if I can suspend disbelief on that. And how the hell did Kreese actually manage to steal Johnny's business from him. How the hell does that happen?

 

Yeah, the deal with Kreese taking over Johnny's dojo was really kind of a dumb plot move. There was really no logic to how he could have done it.

As I think I detailed in this thread earlier, I didn't like the 2nd season nearly as much as the first. The whole high school melee was absolutely over the top and unrealistic as hell. Anyway, that said, I'm down for season 3. I enjoy the series, but take it with a grain of a salt.

 

Yeah, the melee was a really extreme example of comedy-drama. Stingray mopping up kids in the hallway was comedy, the two nerd kids fighting was comedy, lots of turn-arounds and one-upmanship, and then you have the really serious (but in some ways pretty stupid) dual wars between Sam and Tory and Miguel and Robby.

And I'm not even going to seriously think about Demetri knocking Hawk into a trophy case. He might as well have picked him up and hurled him across a room with one arm; that's how realistic that was.

Hawk, for as much of a jerk as he's turned into, is being mightily misused in this season. Now EVERYONE can beat him up. He's literally incapable of winning a fight. Doesn't make sense.

 

I passed on the DVD set when I saw it at Target. Naturally it turns out it was super limited and is now unavailable at all store and selling for $75 or more on eBay. Damn!