I just finished last episode of Season 3 and my god this was one of the worst shows I have seen in a while. Acting and script are terrible, writing is dull as dishwater, even the fight choreography of what is supposed to be the big finale is laughably bad with kids visibly jumping when thrown and Larusso looking like he has borderline arthritis.
I was a MASSIVE Karate Kid fan; I watched them all more times than I can count. They got me into Karate when I was young and were a massive driver for me wanting to learn martial arts and stand up to any school bullies. They were inspirational movies for many kids. Cobra Kai is absolutely
nothing like the movies. It may share some tired looking actors, but it most certainly does not have the heart or character-building and heart-warming examples of behaviour that those movies did. It is in comparison a soulless husk, largely because there is no Mayogi to act as the stalwart moral compass that glues it all together. Larusso can't even hope to fill that void in this show.
The continually escalating violence of the kids if just utterly ludicrous to the point where I am sitting here with my eyes rolling back into my head. Home invasions?
Glassing each other? Smashing each other with weapons with what looks like genuine intent to kill? It's a group of braindead thugs vs a group of unlikeable braindead semi-thugs. The leads are pretty much all unlikeable and are almost all terrible actors in an awfully written and risible turd of a show. Sure, Johnny has a few funny and quotable lines but they wrote him to be so moronic that it's a wonder how he can function in everyday life. Larussos wife is god damn hot though.
Not even the nostalgia of Karate Kid could save this show for me and I really, really tried to like it. In the end, a terrible show is just a terrible show even if it does ride on the back of some of my fondest childhood memories. I bet the majority of people who love this show can't even remember the Karate Kid movies or just plain never even saw them. That's probably for the best.
The ONLY saving grace of this show is Dimitri. The guy is a legend who has provided some much needed actual comedy value and will surely go on to bigger and better things.
