Watched the whole season. This show just finds such a great balance between cheese, hilarity and some great fights sequences. Unfortunately due to the pact, not a lot of the impromptu battles, which are the most violent (ie most fun). But still a very enjoyable season.
The board meeting had me in stiches. I fastforwarded thru Carrie Underwood. I'm glad I did. Super lame.
I binged watched the entire thing. One of my favorite seasons, especially how they weave in and treat the story arc from Karate Kid 3 (and if you watch to the end it opens it way up for Season 5). Terry Silver's character development over the season is awesome because they didn't fall into the same trope for him as Johnny did with Kreise.
One of the funniest lines in the entire season was from Terry Silver saying "yes, in 80's I was on cocaine". HAHAHA I KNEW IT
The Carrie Underwood pieces was the worst. Ugh. But that's all I really have to complain about it.
This series is one the finest 80s re-hashes ever done. I didn't think it was going to be possible when I heard it was in production but boy was i wrong. It works so well because it harnesses the nostalgia and OG characters with blended new story arcs, and gives new depth to the whole Miyagi-verse while not taking itself too seriously. This has multi-generational appeal and that's no easy task.
Thoughts / Spoilers
NSFW!
- Mike Barnes has to be coming in for Season 5. With Silver in charge he's bringing in the big gun for revenge.
- Love that Chozen is back. Now it's the real Miyagi-Do with the two senior statesmen of that dojo.
- I hope the Kenny storyline gets dark. Much darker.
I love that deep down the two villains, are really people that suffered great trauma and had to survive and it defined everything, and it feels like they didn't get into the Karate thing just to be thugs or evil.
Kenny is an absolute reflection of Cobra Kai.
For sure Mike Barnes is coming back, They need to bring back Snake and Dennis and Michael Ironside from another Karate kid (I kid I kid)
Silver stating that Kreese is his weakness as the cops were showing up was awesome. And yeah, you could see his fall happening, and how at first he wanted to pay back Kreese but in the end destroy him, Kreese showing compassion doomed him.
They really rounded out Torri nicely,she's a really sympathetic character, she answers the question of what happens when a fundamentally good person gets driven into the ground continually. On the other hand, I don't know if its the acting or writing, but Sam is really unlikeable most of the time. Nice nod back to the original KK except Miquel doesn't come out, and even Johnny knew he crossed a serious trust line with him.
Nice to see Eli get his moment, I did enjoy the two championship fights, I really liked that they resisted the good guys win ending.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
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Not having Miyagi-Do win (and suffer their 2nd tournament loss) is another great trope I'm glad they avoided. Having Cobra Kai win again (but under spurious circumstances) lends well to building Silver as a POS and - eventually - a Miyagi-Do tournament victory, although I tend to thing with the way Daniel ended the season I am not sure the series is going to do another tournament.
It would seem to me that Season 5 could be a nice way to wrap-up the entire show, assuming Cobra Kai gets rid of Silver or gets dismantled entirely. There's no way both Robbie and Tori last under his leadership, which leads me to believe Kenny is going to be groomed for the top spot - one of Season 5's biggest villains.
Lots of plot lines, I think Heald, Hurwitz and Schlossberg have a ton of options here.
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I love that deep down the two villains, are really people that suffered great trauma and had to survive and it defined everything, and it feels like they didn't get into the Karate thing just to be thugs or evil.
Kenny is an absolute reflection of Cobra Kai.
For sure Mike Barnes is coming back, They need to bring back Snake and Dennis and Michael Ironside from another Karate kid (I kid I kid)
Silver stating that Kreese is his weakness as the cops were showing up was awesome. And yeah, you could see his fall happening, and how at first he wanted to pay back Kreese but in the end destroy him, Kreese showing compassion doomed him.
They really rounded out Torri nicely,she's a really sympathetic character, she answers the question of what happens when a fundamentally good person gets driven into the ground continually. On the other hand, I don't know if its the acting or writing, but Sam is really unlikeable most of the time. Nice nod back to the original KK except Miquel doesn't come out, and even Johnny knew he crossed a serious trust line with him.
Nice to see Eli get his moment, I did enjoy the two championship fights, I really liked that they resisted the good guys win ending.
Spoiler!
Yeah Tori is great, been one of the better characters the whole time. I was happy to see her win.
Surprised Hawk won, that's two big losses for Robbie, who is very obviously the best of all of them. I wonder where he goes from here. Was half expecting Miguel to see him and Johnny hugging at the end. Pretty heartbreaking when Johnny responds to Miguel with "I love you too, Robbie."
Yeah not a huge fan of Sam either, but I like that her "not getting her way" is becoming a thing and is pushing some decent growth for her. I was expecting her to high-road Tori after her chat with the old friend and thought we'd see Tori leaning towards Miyagi after seeking help from the Larussos.
Found myself laughing a lot in this one. Johnny's whole persona is just pure hilarity. Heart of gold, but man he says some stupid stuff.
Was really hoping for a throw-down at the theatre. My favorite part about the show is as soon as the teen drama gets a bit much, they start kicking the s*** out of each other. Not as much of that in this season. But the final fights were great. The top few (Miguel, Robbie, Hawk, Tori, Sam) obviously have some pretty high level training. There are doubles in the wide shots sometimes, but they are definitely doing a lot of it themselves and I think that's cool.
Machio has also improved dramatically. The fight between him and Johnny actually looked pretty decent.
I could probably go on for a while. My dad came in an watched a few minutes of the 2nd last episode. Showed me you really have to get into this from the beginning or it all probably feels pretty lame and cheesy in short slices. But damn, they lean into it in such a perfect way.
Except the Underwood part. So bad. As soon as she showed up my head was just going "please dont sing please dont sing. Okay maybe just the anthem? Oh...oh no....ffwd."
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Robbie brutalizing Kenny in a completely casual manner was totally Cobra Kai. We saw the same thing with Mike Barnes.
Just think of a Sensei Barnes training Kenny.
I mean lets be honest, not only was Kenny bullied by Kids in school. But they did a nice flip where the Myagi kids came across as complete bullies.
Also as much as Kreese really damaged and bought out the worst in Silver. Daniel didn't help much with his approach in their first meeting, Silver really tried to be the redeemed character. Daniel and Kreese literally released the devil from the chains in hell.
And the only guy that understood that, was Johnny, when he talked about poking the bear with the sprinkler stunt.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
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I think the only characters they have left to re-introduce is basically Daniel's gf from KK3 and Hilary Swank (who seems interested in reprising her role).
Maybe Season 5 they'll have Miyagi come back from the dead in zombie form. Get Sato out from his grave too and they can duke it out in the All-Dead Valley Tournament.
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This show should win all kinds of awards for the look alone. The colour grading and overall cinematography is spectacular don't think I've seen better. In anything. Even the flashback scenes look flawless.
Spoiler!
I have to admit at times Crease gets on my nerves he has 1 note, manipulate people to get what he wants. But somehow the show made me feel sorry for him when he gets framed.
The comment about toxic masculinity completely misses the point of the show and the spirit of things in general. There is toxicity in everyone but it's not portrayed as all bad or some inherent trait, everyone is flawed and capable of terrible things. Even with Crease we eventually see his humanity.
Brilliant show in every possible way it has no right to be this good especially when you look at the original material. Mr. Myogi has become a fully fleshed out character even though he's not even in the show sans flashbacks. Incredible.
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The amount of heart and joy that they inject into every episode is really something. The characters for the most part are well-rounded and fleshed out, and the overall story arc blends in beautifully with the original films.
Johnny continues to be the beating heart of the series, with William Zabka stealing every scene he's in. Not just for the humor that his character brings, but also his dramatic scenes which carry a lot of the emotional weight in terms of the story.
Spoiler!
The scene where Miguel is helping an inebriated Johnny into bed and tells him he loves him, and Johnny says "I love you too, Robby" was really heartbreaking for both characters. Just terrific acting in that scene.
This show should win all kinds of awards for the look alone. The colour grading and overall cinematography is spectacular don't think I've seen better. In anything. Even the flashback scenes look flawless.
Spoiler!
I have to admit at times Crease gets on my nerves he has 1 note, manipulate people to get what he wants. But somehow the show made me feel sorry for him when he gets framed.
The comment about toxic masculinity completely misses the point of the show and the spirit of things in general. There is toxicity in everyone but it's not portrayed as all bad or some inherent trait, everyone is flawed and capable of terrible things. Even with Crease we eventually see his humanity.
Brilliant show in every possible way it has no right to be this good especially when you look at the original material. Mr. Myogi has become a fully fleshed out character even though he's not even in the show sans flashbacks. Incredible.
Spoiler!
I have a lot of sympathy for Kreese and its really understanble that he ended up being the flat out ahole that he turned out to be. I mean just his experiences in Vietnam alone. But when Kreese and Silver started Cobra Kair, they really it seems like wanted to help kids and teach them to win and survive.
This is a guy that probably has nightmares every night. I mean even after Johnny lost to Danny boy, you look at what happened, everyone abandoned him and vilified him, just like when he returned from Nam.
Then after Karate Kid 3, we know he became homeless. I mean he had a rough life, he believes that he helping these kids, and you can see from the advice that he gives, he probably thinks he's giving the right advice.
There's some sneaky really good story beats in this series.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
The lesson I learn from this show is that if I run my own Karate Dojo, I can drink all day, eat absolute crap, and I'll look fantastic by the time I turn 50.
__________________ "Some guys like old balls"
Patriots QB Tom Brady
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The lesson I learn from this show is that if I run my own Karate Dojo, I can drink all day, eat absolute crap, and I'll look fantastic by the time I turn 50.
Don't forget to hang around the local High School and not know gender pronouns
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