Cobra Kai: Season 3
I watched this at the start of the year, but never posted this. Figure this is a good a time as anything!
TL;DR – This show can be frustrating at times, but it’s always entertaining!
Season 3, Episode 2
In this episode, Daniel and Johnny team up to find Robbie and it’s all kinds of hilarious. I wish they’d just begun the season with this episode. Mostly because Johnny seems to passionate about finding Robbie (apparently this is a thing with me, idk). They have the best acting chemistry with each other, and I wish the show was more about them.
Instead we get Miguel, now awake from his coma. His first words are ‘where’s Sensei?’. Not at the hospital? It was just odd how they put that in there. The doctors say he may never be able to walk again. I should feel sad, but I don’t know, it was all very lacklustre. Like the actor knows it’s bullshit and can’t convincingly act like this is his life right now.
Meanwhile, at Cobra Kai, Kreese is there. We get some flashbacks about Kreese. His mother was ill and he was bullied because of it – until he fought back. This mirrors the life of Tory, the biggest mistake to happen to season 2. Her mom has a kidney disease of some sort and is on dialysis, her super is harassing her for rent. Kreese sorts the guy out and she rejoins Cobra Kai. Yay!
Johnny and Daniel get into a fight after they get out of a fight. Daniel feels Johnny went too far (he did, but he was trying to find his son!). Unfortunately (fortunately?), he receives a message about Miguel (when did he get a new phone?) and leaves. WHAT. WHY? FIND ROBBIE FIRST.
Anyway, the episode ends back in one of the first places it visited – rehab. Robbie’s mom is there and he comes to visit her and… Daniel is there, and he brought along the police. Robbie’s hair is interesting. Less helmet like than before, but more… I don’t even have any snark at hand here. It’s interesting.
Rating: 4/5. Enjoyed this episode MUCH better than the first. Less of the teen drama is so much more.
Season 3, Episode 3
In this episode, Daniel is trying to save his car dealership and Johnny is trying to raise money for Miguel’s surgery. Robbie is in juvenile detention refusing to pick up Daniel’s calls, and hopeful about seeing Johnny.
The second he gets his hopes up I knew that they’d do their best to ensure Johnny didn’t make it, but it was so unnecessarily contrived. I’m not a fan of this whole playing off the real son versus the surrogate son.
Johnny know what time he needed to be at the detention center to see Robbie. He chose to go to the hospital first. Why? All he was doing was handing over a check, and then obviously he gets stuck there, but it was so needless and frustrating.
I literally threw a brief tantrum and said, “I hate this show!”
I don’t, but I wish they’d stop with some of the things they do. At this point, I feel like Robbie should just never talk to Johnny again.
Season 3, Episodes 4-10
I don’t have a recap for these, but somehow they did it again. I enjoyed the season and the finale put a huge smile on my face, only to cruelly snatch it away.
The one thing season 3 did was provide us with Kreese’s motivation and some much needed character progression for Johnny and Daniel. Johnny helps Miguel through his injury and begins to heal himself along the way. Daniel goes to Okinawa to rediscover himself, and comes back with perspective.
The teen aspect of the show is its weakness, but the contrast between the adult problems and the similarly childish teen problems provides us with enough material to get the plot moving, setting us up for what seems like an epic fourth (and maybe final?) season.
The highlight was Ali, a character from the first movie, coming back and reuniting Danny and Johnny. Their rivalry began over her more or less and seeing them working it out maturely was something special, and I’m glad the writers took that route after doing what I’m going to complain about next for much of the season.
The only issue I have with the show is the contrived plot points. It can be very annoying. I realise that they’re trying to appeal to both the fans of the movie, and the younger audience, but some of the plot shifts need to be organic. On the other hand, this is a show where a high school karate fight (brawl?) made the news. Perhaps the point is not to take it too seriously.
Either way, I enjoyed myself.
Overall season rating: 7/10
supernatural snark 