Cobra Kai Season 2 – Review!

Hi!

Cobra Kai is a Youtube Premium (Red) streaming series. It premiered last year for its’ 1^st season with its’ 2^nd season having premiering yesterday 24^th April.

It follows on from the Karate Kid trilogy of the 1980’s starring Ralph Macchio and William Zabka. The series is a homerun for Youtube Premium but unfortunately, may not be able to grow the service to even a ¼ of the service Netflix have to offer. This is mainly due to the cost of the subscription and what you receive for it!

The series is made up of 10 roughly 30 minute episodes making a run time of 5 hours allowing easy binge watching, which I did yesterday right after work! J

I watched season 1 about a month ago and figured there was no need to make a post about it, as it was close to a year old at that point, so I won’t cover old ground!

The season opens right where the 1^st left off, with Robby after losing to Miguel in the All Valley Karate Tournament finals after a dishonourable move (?). Following celebration of the win, in a restaurant for the teenage victors and in the Dojo for Johnny, we are reintroduced to John Kreese who, if you have seen the original films, still sent a shiver down my spine! Daniel begins work on his own Miyagi-Do dojo with Robby and Sam decides to join them later on in the episode where you can already guess after the 1^st season that there will be blossoming relationship between Sam and Robby after her split from Miguel in the 1^st season.

But, after all, you aren’t here to read a play by play of each episode! You want to know what the season was like as a whole, so now that we are acquainted, lets’ get that underway!

As this is a show with deep roots from the 80’s when music was amazing, this show continued that tradition with absolute fire backing tracks. I usually listen to scores after films / tv shows all the time, but I can’t find the score for this show ANYWHERE, so if you know a place, please let me know in the comments below or find me on social media. I need to listen to it more!

The season places a focus on Johnny and Daniels relationships, both with each other and with the other people whom they interact with. This was an interesting perspective to me as we can see in Season 1 how their lives differ to such an extent but as this season grows there is a point where you can identify that each character has switched. Daniel hit a low which could resemble his version of Johnny during the outset and vice versa. Sam and Robby also had larger roles to play this year as the show spent last year with Johnny and Miguel, it needed to show how Daniel could grow as a Sensei and try to emulate Mr. Miyagi. It was heart-warming to see how these relationships grew throughout the episodes and how the show dealt with the youth heartbreak that was involved. I remember my own youth and how it felt when relationships ended which the show portrayed both successfully and brilliantly. I felt the highs and lows of all the characters as and when they also experienced them. This was amazing writing and foresight from the showrunners!

John Kreese begins the season trying to ‘force’ his way into the life of Johnny and Cobra Kai again, which, we all expected! Johnny is initially resentful and not interested but it appears that some lessons from Daniel which worked across films and tv show, led to him willing to forgive John and show that hopefully, people can change. Miguel sees through some of what John has to say and tries to help Johnny see! This caused me to feel rather conflicted over Miguel! Last season, we rooted for him, up until the final scenes then some turned against him, others sided with him, was a matter of perspective. But this year, we begin to see Miguel continue to have a great moral compass but on occasion making the wrong decision. He stood against his Cobra Kai brethren when they stole, and defaced buildings, he wanted to make things right with Sam and explain, but, he didn’t reprimand his fellow Cobra Kais’ long-term. He said they were wrong, disgraceful, but all was forgiven the next day?! Like dude, I was willing to accept you again, come on!

This was where Kreese was able to get into the heads of Johnnys’ students, there is no defeat in this dojo, its’ not over until you say it is, the this is real life not a tournament mentality shift. You fight to kill / incapacitate. This worked on the kids after Miguel and Hawk found out that Robby is Johnnys son and that explains why they were ‘told’ to give him ‘mercy’ during the finals. They felt let down by their sensei and that he was hiding things from them. As Miguel begins to learn from Johnny that being merciless is similar to being honourless. The relationship between Johnny and Miguel became proper father and son, as Johnny opened up to Miguel on some of his failings and how they have made him feel, but that he will always have Miguels’ best interests at heart.

But, even with this blossom and both sides feeling in debt to each other, Miguel was divided from Johnny after he travels to go and see 1 of his OG Cobra Kai buddies who is dying with cancer. It was great to see some of the old gang back together and hear their stories, but perhaps most importantly, how terrified they looked when Johnny said he re-opened Cobra Kai and works with Kreese. They are concerned for Johnny and state how they had to unlearn everything he taught them once they entered the real world and the toll it took on their lives. This was paralleled with how Kreese was telling Miguel that Johnny has lost his way but together they can help him find his way back.

There was less fighting this season than in the last season, this was likely due to the season taking place over the Summer between school years, thus no tournament. But, the fight scenes felt more memorable this time around. The mall fight halfway through the season was a culmination of the training Robby and Sam were doing together for Daniel which was amazing to see and I could feel the spirit of Miyagi as they were defending another kid and worked in tandem (Making me wish we could have seen Daniel fight with another person in the 80’s!). Then the fight scene to finish out the season that took place in the school over about 10 minutes, it felt like I was watching a scene from Daredevil and their infamous 1 takes! I loved the choreography as I know it takes so much time for fight scenes and the practice involved in getting them right is so tough for the actors, stunt-doubles and everyone involved on set, but they pulled it off spectacularly.

Spoilers

But, the end of season cliff-hanger, was so good and heart-breaking, I really can’t wait a year for another season.  They spent the 10 episodes giving Johnny and Miguel their redemption that it took 9 episodes before I truly cared for them the way I did last season again. Then boom, they drop the finale on us! Johnny has reconnected with Robby, Miguel and Sam kissed but probably nothing else? Robby is back in school and everyone’s’ training has gone well thanks to the teachings of each dojo separately, Johnny has been on a date with Miguels mother and Johnny and Daniel even had drinks together again! (Showing an alternate timeline!)

Then Miguels girlfriend Tory goes crazy and calls out Sam for a fight with this causing the dojos to battle after Robby tries to break up the fight but Miguel seems to think he is involved so attacks Robby. The fight is between the dojos but there are 4 match-ups quite quickly which the directors choose to focus on. This was not surprising, but, what was interesting was how they portrayed the main 2 fights. Miguel & Robby, then Tory & Sam.

The Tory and Sam fight was interesting as Tory seemed to be fighting a little dirty and to cause Sam serious injury after she kissed Miguel. There was a throwback to the 1^st episode Tory was in explaining a bracelet she wears and how she uses it as a weapon per se. With the fight ebbing and flowing but as far as skill goes and a fair fight, Sam would have won hands down! But, for Miguel and Robby, it was not that simple. I thought they may have stopped fighting when the girls did, but they took it through the school and went hard, with the fight being very equal, until the ending moments. Robby hit Miguel and said that was for taking advantage of Sam, before Miguel said she loves him not Robby, causing him to lose focus and Miguel getting him in a position where Robbys’ shoulder could be broken. However, Miguel hears Johnnys voice in his head to give mercy, so he lets him go and says I’m sorry. Robby rises, hits Miguel three times and falls over a railing a couple of floors up, as he fell I felt it was over the top, until he cracked the stairs below and I effectively teared up. Robby is shouted at by Sam and Miguel is taken to hospital. Johnny is there with Miguels mother who blames Johnny for the pain she is going through and they say the next 24 hours are critical, originally I thought that was with regard to his life, but as time sets in, I realise it must be regarding the opportunity for Miguel to walk again. This will make it near impossible for me to imagine a place where Robby receives the redemption he would require next season as it is a severe injury and even if healed, I wouldn’t blame Miguel not forgiving Robby.

Johnny is struggling to control his emotions over Miguel and is off drinking and goes to his Dojo which he finds is unlocked, upon entering he finds that Kreese has commandeered his dojo and his studies who after seeing Miguel give mercy is now potentially injured for life / dead due to the Johnnys teachings and that he is to blame for what happens next. Kreese reveals he is now the owner of the Dojo after Johnny left for a day to see his friends; Kreese made his move and took over ownership, leaving Johnny with nothing.

The season closes with Johnny tossing away his phone, his car and walking out of frame as his phone buzzes, old High School Flame Ali has sent him a friend request. As revealed in Season 1, she is a doctor, could she perhaps be returning next year and is she the one who is going to help Miguel?

Some thought this season would see Johnny and Daniel team-up against Kreese, that did not happen. It would be my prediction for next season, but, Cobra Kai will be after Robby and I can’t see Daniel being too interested in helping him and Johnny may be to cut up about Miguel, so the opening next year would have to be fast and strong to make us care for Robby again and for Miguel to be willing to fight alongside Robby.

We could see Miguel, Robby, Sam, Aisha, Daniel and Johnny on the same side next year against Kreese, Hawk and the other Cobra Kai members.

Have you seen Cobra Kai Season 2? If so, what did you think of it! Let me know your favourite moments in the comments below 🙂

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Until next time 🙂