Genre: TV – Drama
Premise: When former Cobra Kai boss John Kreese moves back into town, he challenges Johnny to take his students to the next level.
About: This is Season 2 of Cobra Kai, the Youtube Premium sensation that became the most unexpected hit of last season. The pilot episode was viewed by over 60 million people. The show dropped its second season last Wednesday, giving people something to do while they waited for Avengers to open. But can the sequel possibly be as good as the original?
Creators: Josh Heald & Jon Hurwitz & Hayden Schlossberg (based on the screenplay, “The Karate Kid” by Robert Mark Kamen)
Details: 10 episodes
I have been waiting for this for the ENTIRE YEAR. Can I please get some Daniel LaRusso with a side of crane kick THANK YOU!
In this newest season of Cobra Kai, the evil John Kreese, the former owner of Cobra Kai and Johnny’s old sensei (the one who infamously told him to “sweep the leg” in that final fight), has come back to town with an eye on rejoining Cobra Kai. Johnny has conflicted feelings about it. Kreese was like a father figure to him. But in many ways, Kreese derailed his life. After giving it some thought, he allows Kreese in as an observer.
Meanwhile, Daniel LaRusso allows Robby (who’s Johnny’s son, remember) to stay at his house. He also starts a little Miagi dojo in the backyard for Robby and Daniel’s daughter, Sam, to get their karate on. And maybe, when Daniel isn’t around, some smooching. That’s right, the chemistry between these two is through the roof. But does Sam still have feelings for Miguel, even though he’s turned to the dark side and become Cobra Kai’s top student?
Kreese strategically works his way back into the Cobra Kai fold. First he’s observing classes, then offering tips, then teaching classes! Kreese is all about “no mercy,” which confuses Johnny’s students, since he’s always taught them that mercy is essential to being a great warrior. Needless to say, something’s going to pop here. And when it does, the Cobra Kai dojo and all of its students will never be the same.
You really get a sense of whether showrunners know what they’re doing in the second season. The first season is always the easiest to map out. Five hours of television is basically one long movie. So you can map out some sort of goal and move all your charaters towards it. Cobra Kai Season 1 uses the state karate tournament as its season goal. And that’s a big reason why the season worked. It had a clear vision of where the storyline was going.
The dirty secret about Season 2 is that most writers have never experienced it before. Almost all pilots that are shot never make it to air. And those that do make it rarely get to a second season. So whenever someone wins the lottery of having their show get to that elusive season 2, they’re in uncharted waters. They’ve never had to worry about this scenario before, so they make it up as they go along.
The one thing they do know is that television is about character. So they end up putting all the focus on character development. And while this is, of course, good, and while this medium is perfect for that approach, if you put all of your focus on character and none of it on plot, your audience is going to start wondering what we’re doing here. Why are we spending so much time with these characters if we don’t know where they’re going?
Cobra Kai’s creators said they weren’t going to do a tournament every season. And they shouldn’t. It would get too predictable. But that doesn’t mean you’re absolved of having any direction to your story. I was a good six episodes into Cobra Kai Season 2 and while I continued to enjoy the characters, there’s no doubt that the missing ingredient was momentum. And that was due to the fact that there was very little plotting.
Outside of a “sort-of there but not really” plot about Daniel starting his own dojo, the main plotting device used in this season is John Creese. Now this is a very important distinction so I want you to pay attention. There are two types of plotting devices you can use. One is to have your characters charge forward and bring the story with them (Rocky Balboa training for the heavyweight title of the world). Two is to throw something at your characters and see how they react. I call this the “disruptor” element. It’s self-explanatory. You throw something at your characters that disrupts them. John Creese is the disruptor. He comes in to shake up the Cobra Kai dojo.
You’ll use both of these plotting devices throughout a TV show. And while it’s certainly possible to only use the disruptor element, it’s dangerous. Because a disruptor merely makes your characters react. Ideally, you want your characters to act on their own. You want them making decisions and charging forward and bringing the story with them. And one of the problems with this particular disruption is that John Creese doesn’t pop the way they were hoping.
Unlike Daniel and Johnny, whose lives in 2019 are somewhat believable, it’s hard to buy that this old man has been doing absolutely nothing for 30 years but waiting to get back involved with a tiny karate dojo in the valley. And he’s old enough now where he’s lost a lot of his menace. So we’re not as afraid of him as we once were. Cobra Kai has been good at balancing reality with cheesy 80s movies logic throughout its run. But they may have pushed their luck with Kreese. And since he’s the only semblance of a plot for the entire season, that puts all of the pressure on the characters to carry the load.
The good news for Cobra Kai is that almost all of their characters are likable. I could watch Daniel and Johnny act together all day. His daughter, Sam, and Robby are also great. Miguel remains awesome, even though he didn’t get enough time this season. I loved the new bad girl. And I continue to perk up every time Hawk is in a scene. All you then have to do is place these characters in scenes with an adequate amount of conflict and your show will be relatively entertaining. For example, Miguel is constantly at odds with whether being a part of Cobra Kai is right. This conflict is carried into every conversation he has with Johnny or Hawk or Kreese, all of whom are ride-or-die Cobra Kai.
And then, of course, Cobra Kai’s secret weapon is its karate. When things get boring, it’s time for some karate in the woods, in the bar, or… AT SCHOOL! I’m telling you, that school battle almost single-handedly made up for the lack of plotting all season. At first I thought it was going to be your typical two people have a fight in the middle of the hallway with the rest of the school cheering them on. Then when the two guys ran up, I thought, “Oh, it’s going to be a four-way thing. That’s kind of cool.” But then when everyone started getting involved, my curmudgeonly screenwriting analyst self evaporated and I just sat back and marveled not only at how good the fight was, what a great payoff it had, but also how difficult it must’ve been to film the thing. I’m always conscious of when shows have to use minors because I know they have to be overly careful about anyone getting hurt. So to somehow pull off this super-stunt with tons of minors beating each other senseless – I was impressed.
And then, of course, that final shot of Johnny tossing his phone across the beach in anger and then seeing a close-up of the screen and it being a friend request from Allie. I was like, “Oh my God, put me in Season 3 right now!” Did they really get Elizabeth Shue to commit? That would be awesome.
Cobra Kai Season 2 wasn’t nearly as good as Season 1. But then again, Season 1 was perfect. It seems to me like Johnny may be teaming up with Daniel to teach at Miagi Dojo for Season 3, pitting them against Kreese. If you introduce a tournament back into the mix, we should be back to the level of Season 1.
[ ] What the hell did I just watch?
[ ] wasn’t for me
[x] worth the stream
[ ] impressive
[ ] genius
What I learned: Character conflict in television is wonderful. It’s what drives the majority of the entertainment. But you need a season-long destination the characters are moving towards to give the season focus. And you want to do that for every season. Not just the first!
