The 1980s are trendy right now. Cyndi Lauper has just played Glastonbury, cameras are rolling on Stranger Things season five, and a new edition of Dungeons and Dragons is on the way. So it’s the perfect time for the farewell season of Cobra Kai, the big-hearted sequel to 1984 teen classic The Karate Kid – the movie that kick-started the 80s martial arts craze and seared the phrase “wax on/wax off” into the frontal-lobe of an entire generation.
Cobra Kai‘s greatest strength is that it doesn’t try to mimic the original film. Instead, it cheerfully catches up with its characters in middle age while honouring the cheesy, feel-good spirit of the source material. Ralph Macchio’s Daniel LaRusso – the eponymous “kid” in the film – is now a slightly smug car dealer. Meanwhile, his old knuckle-headed nemesis Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) has grown up to be a down-his-luck underdog who can’t get his life together.
But they are still united by their love for reverse punches and crane kicks. As part one of this concluding run of episodes begins (the remaining 10 instalments will have staggered releases in November and early 2025), the pair have joined forces at the head of a new karate school named after Danny’s old mentor, Mr Miyagi.
Cobra Kai has thrown a lot at these two 80s teen movie veterans since the series debuted on YouTube in 2018 (it was later acquired by Netflix when YouTube moved away from scripted drama). Last season, Danny and Johnny tangled with the oily Terry Silver, the ponytailed villain from Karate Kid III who returned to take over the Cobra Kai karate dojo from which the programme takes its name.
While Silver has been defeated, John Kreese (Martin Kove), Johnny’s mean-spirited instructor in The Karate Kid, has escaped prison (having faked a life-threatening illness). He is quietly plotting to revive Cobra Kai – defunct since Terry was found to have bribed karate contest judges in series five – and unseat Danny and Johnny as the big cheese in karate in Los Angeles’s San Fernando Valley. They’re merrily ignorant about his return, however. For now, their focus is on preparing their students – including Kreese’s protege, Tory (Peyton List) – for an upcoming international tournament in Barcelona.
Helping them is Chozen (Yuji Okumoto), the baddie from Karate Kid II who, just like Johnny, has set aside his differences with Daniel and become an ally. The three share an easy chemistry, and Cobra Kai is at its most watchable when they’re mucking around together. But all the fun evaporates when the series focuses on the angsty teenagers under the crew’s leadership. The kids are a whiny, interchangeable bunch and far less vividly drawn than the shy Daniel in The Karate Kid.
Cobra Kai expands the Karate Kid universe when Danny and his wife Amanda (Courtney Henggeler) stumble upon an old stash of documents belonging to Mr Miyagi. The discovery sheds light on the rebellious youth he lived before becoming Danny’s solemn instructor. Long curious Karate Kid fans of a certain vintage will no doubt be beside themselves to learn more about the origin story of the mysterious Miyagi.
Nobody will mistake Cobra Kai for top-quality TV. The acting is cheap and cheery (there’s a reason neither Macchio nor Zabka went on to become stars after the original movie), and the dialogue has a daytime soap opera quality. But its heart is in the right place.
As it prepares to take its final bows, Cobra Kai shows how to do nostalgia the right way – by engaging viewers with an interesting new story rather than cashing in on their loyalty and nostalgia for times gone by. At a time when Hollywood is working overtime to exploit our collective obsession with the 1980s, that lack of cynicism is the series’ most endearing attribute.
‘Cobra Kai’ is streaming on Netflix. Part two of the final series will stream from 28 November and part three is expected in 2025.