Cobra Kai
Why Millions of Netflix Users Celebrate the "Karate Kid" Series
Enemies or friends? Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio, left) and Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka).
© CURTIS BONDS BAKER / NETFLIX (c) 2020
An almost 60-year-old "Karate Kid", a weird story and bells at volume discounts. That's why the Netflix series "Cobra Kai" is so popular.
With the decision to secure the rights to the series "Cobra Kai", Netflix has apparently succeeded in a coup. According to the US industry website "Deadline", the streaming giant is sure that after a month around 41 million households will have streamed the third season, which premiered on January 1st on Netflix. With these numbers, the series would easily land in the top 10, which begs the question: Why is the story, set 34 years after the first "Karate Kid" movie in 1984, so incredibly popular?
Reversed roles
Even the basic idea of the series is special: Because the central protagonist is not the "Karate Kid" of yore, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio, 59), but his final antagonist Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka, 55). In "Cobra Kai" he still has to nibble at LaRusso's illegal crane kick on the head, through which he lost the championship in 1984. How I Met Your Mother fans will know what this means. There, Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris, 47) also advocated the steep thesis that the film villain is the real hero of the "Karate Kid".
Johnny Lawrence loses his job at the beginning of "Cobra Kai" and faces bankruptcy. When his car is demolished and comes to one of the workshops of the successful car dealer and his eternal nemesis Daniel LaRusso, he has enough. With the last of his money, he rents a shop across from LaRusso and re-opens the infamous Cobra-Kai-Dojo there.
Pure nostalgia meets current topics
The first two seasons of "Cobra Kai" appeared on the paid version of YouTube as an in-house production. Both are now available as season three via Netflix. What has always distinguished the series is, on the one hand, the nostalgic love for the movie series from the 80s. On the other hand, the dramedy series by Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg is also devoted to current issues such as "political correctness" and caricatures them.
From season two, the diabolical dojo owner John Kreese, as embodied in parts one to three of the films by Martin Kove (74), joined the cast. A season later, this was also the case with actress Elisabeth Shue (57). In the first part she played the great love of Daniel LaRusso, Ali Mills.
If this casting trend continues, a two-time Oscar winner could even join "Cobra Kai" in the already confirmed fourth season. In "Karate Kid 4: The Next Generation" Hilary Swank (46, "Boys Don't Cry") played the lead role as the female "karate child". Only the absolute star of the series, Pat Morita aka Mr. Kesuke Miyagi, can no longer participate. The actor died in 2005 at the age of 73.
There is no shortage of action
But what would a series about (former) karate professionals be without a good helping of baking pipes? There are plenty of them in "Cobra Kai" and they are also appealingly choreographed. As the first YouTube production ever, the series received an Emmy nomination in 2018 in the category "Best Stunt Coordination for a Comedy Series".