TV Review: “Cobra Kai” Attacks with Nostalgia

Cobra Kai, up to season 5. Series created by Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg. Produced by Counterbalance Entertainment, and broadcast on Netflix.

I didn’t want to start watching Cobra Kai at the beginning. I had seen the theory/headcanon that if you watch The Karate Kid now, you can easily argue that Daniel LaRusso (played by Ralph Macchio) is the real bully / bad guy, and Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) – while not the hero – wasn’t as ‘bad’ as the movie makes out. I had heard the series basically ran with that headcanon. But nostalgia was making reboots and remakes a lot, and I had no desire to revisit this movie from my childhood.

However, my wife caught season 1 when it was still on YouTube Red and loved it. When it moved to Netflix, she encouraged me to catch it with her. So, I had her start watching from the beginning while I worked on the computer – not really watching, but still keeping an eye on it.

And the next thing I knew, I was caught up on the show. Having just finished season 5, I wanted to write about why this show is so addictive.

One of the things I really appreciate is how it weaponizes the idea of nostalgia. As mentioned, reboots and remakes are making the rounds, and all are built on the idea that the 80s (and now even the 90s) were the ‘good old days’ and a time to be fond of.

However, Cobra Kai takes that idea and skewers it. Taking place now, the show follows LaRusso and Lawrence as they deal with being older. And yet they are both still stuck in the past. LaRusso is a car dealer, using his win at the All Valley as a gimmick to sell new cars. Meanwhile, Lawrence is working menial jobs, not really familiar with anything (whether it’s technology or pop culture) that is past the year 2000.

They both have families: LaRusso is married with two kids, while Lawrence is divorced and dealing with a kid that he hasn’t seen in years. And the plot starts when Lawrence gets the idea to re-start the Cobra Kai dojo. For Lawrence, it’s tapping into the time he felt invincible. For LaRusso, when he hears about it, it taps into his impostor syndrome that all he has is a win from the 1980s. This drives the plot as they both have to deal with the reality that we are not living in the 1980s, and that’s both a good thing and a bad. One of the many themes of the show is that we need to move on from the past and start living in the present.

The show is a major soap opera: with twists and turns that feel straight out of a telenovela, it delights in bringing back cast members from the three Macchio movies to help the plot along. Even Elizabeth Shue makes a guest appearance – and again, the plot is mostly about how both LaRusso and Lawrence need to move on from their old rivalry of who she would (and should) like. You don’t need to be too familiar with the movies, however: it does a great job of using clips to help contextualize the guest stars and to give you enough background to move on.

The show is surprisingly diverse, considering that it’s based on a movie series from the 1980s that wasn’t exactly stereotype free. And what I continually find surprising is that it’s Johnny Lawrence who’s the real power behind the show because of this diversity.

Lawrence learns that the best way to get students is to be open-minded and let in the ‘geeks and dorks’, as well as the ‘chicks’. His key student is the son of a Latina neighbor, and he’s constantly realizing his world view is not necessarily hers. Zabka is able to act in such a way to where when he makes an off-color comment, it’s less offensive than it is shown to be just dumb. And he is quick to change his thoughts if it helps his goals of ‘kicking ass’. My only major issue is with said diversity: everyone is surprisingly heterosexual and cis.

Of course, the power of nostalgia isn’t the only theme: the major theme of the entire series is what makes a bully and how easily it can be for someone to fall into becoming one. To go along with the soap opera comparison, characters are constantly switching sides and the show does a great job of showing that everyone has layers that prove that your background and current experience can change the way a situation looks. And you have to easily buy into the idea that the kids from the dojo would fight with karate in public as many times as they do. There have been many times during the five seasons I’ve turned to my wife and said, “What is even this show? Why do we like this?” in comedic disbelief. And yet I keep watching. To paraphrase Knives Out, it makes no damn sense – but it’s compelling.

Having grown up in the 1980s myself, I have seen how corporations have used the power of nostalgia to try and get us to do almost anything. And I’ve seen everything from ‘reminiscing’ about Blockbuster to trying to have a fondness for the Reagan era. What keeps me watching? The show continually tells us that while it’s okay to be nostalgic for times past, we need to focus on the here and now – because that’s where we actually are.

Cobra Kai is currently available on Netflix, and I highly recommend you check it out.