There are many shows that follow successful films, but only a couple do so successfully. Cobra Kai is one of the few television shows that has successfully followed the storyline established in the 1980s classic Karate Kid.

Cobra Kai takes place 34 years after the All Valley Karate Tournament in 1984. As an audience, we see Johnny struggling to make ends meet while Daniel Larusso is the owner of his own car dealership. While Johnny is trying to improve his life, he meets Miguel Diaz, a low self-esteem teenager who gets attacked by older students outside of a strip mall. Johnny reluctantly agrees to teach him karate to defend himself after Miguel’s constant requests.

Cobra Kai relies heavily on the different perspectives of each individual character. Each character has a very different personality and obstacles that affect their lives. The show does a great job of portraying every character’s angle to the audience to understand just how the characters feel. For example, Larusso sees John Kreese, Johnny’s sensei, as a horrible person whotaught Johnny all about being aggressive and fightingdirty. Meanwhile, Johnny sees him as a father figure and as a brutal person that was filled with anger.

Additionally, Cobra Kai also is filled with a good chunk of action in the form of karate throughout the show. Whether the karate is from training montages, fighting other people, or even from a tournament, the show always knows how to build up to the fight.

On the other hand, the show can be slow at times throughout the episodes. Even though there are a few more slower episodes than most people would like, I would argue that the slower parts are as important or even more important than the action episodes. I make this statement because the slower parts include people talking, which later reveals why the characters make decisions that affect the show as a whole. 

All in all, each season furthers the story of each character and your investment in the following episodes. The way Cobra Kai balances the emotional side of each character and the action is truly amazing. Even though it can be slow at times, those times are very important to the story of each character, and I loved those episodes as much as others because of the importance of them. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoyed the original Karate Kid films.