Cobra Kai Season 3

Cobra Kai is one of those shows that sounded like a terrible idea when it was first announced, only to quickly become an overnight sensation. Originally airing on Youtube Red before moving to Netflix for it's third season, the show's basically The Karate Kid: The Next Generation, focusing on the main villain from the original film Johnny Lawrence as he tries to rebuild his life by resurrecting his old dojo and facing opposition from Daniel LaRusso, who believes that Johnny is trying to start up the dojo's bullying creed and creates his own dojo in honor of the deceased Mr. Miyagi. The show quickly won over fans thanks to it's fantastic lead performances in William Zabka and Ralph Macchio, as well as it's solid writing and deconstruction of the original film's black and white morality.

Season 2 ended on a pretty bleak cliffhanger, with an all-out brawl erupting between the Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do students that left Johnny's star pupil and surrogate son Miguel Diaz paralyzed by Johnny's biological son Robby, while John Kreese has taken over the Cobra Kai dojo. The opening episodes of the season do a good job at emphasizing the severity of the fallout, from the entire community being in an uproar over the brawl to Sam's PTSD following her fight with Tory. As Daniel and Johnny try to deal with the damage their feud to has done to their loved ones, Kreese starts to mold his remaining students into the violent mindset he instilled into Johnny back in his youth.

Cobra Kai is pretty ridiculous when you step back and think about it. Two middle-aged high school enemies reliving their old rivalry feels like fodder for a crappy sitcom, but Season 1's writing and performances were good enough for it to feel grounded in reality. While Season 2 suffered flak for it's overemphasis on the show's teenage cast as well as a heavy dose of melodrama, Season 3 smartly turns it's attention back to the adults (for the most part) and their attempts to salvage their ruined lives as well as those that they care about. Scenes like Johnny's attempts to use social media with the aid of Miguel and Daniel's trip to Okinawa work primarily because of the foundation laid in the previous seasons.

That's not to say that this season doesn't have it's flaws. While the elements that make the show work are given ample screen time, certain characters and their storylines are given the short shrift, particularly Robby and Hawk, both of whom undergo character transitions by the season's end that should've been given more breathing room. The gang war between Miyagi-Do and Cobra Kai reaches new levels of ludicrousness, to the point that there's no good reason why none of the kids or adults ever involve the police. The Sam/Tory feud is a double-edged sword, giving Sam a compelling arc in overcoming her PTSD while robbing the rivalry of any nuance or shades of gray by portraying Tory as a one-dimensional psychopath. The flashbacks depicting Kreese in his Vietnam days feel like they're from another show altogether, a poor attempt to humanize a character who is otherwise a complete sociopath.

But when the show works, it can be insanely fun. The way the characters bounce off of each other is as compelling as ever to watch and there's a large amount of humor in this season, despite the heavy subject matter. The finale is an insane, balls-to-the-walls smorgasbord that perfectly sets up the fourth season. Season 3 of Cobra Kai might not be perfect, but once you give into it's charms, it's like nothing else on television.