Cobra Kai Season 4

 I still am somewhat amazed that the creators of Cobra Kai Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg have taken the Karate Kid property, which overstayed its welcome by two films, and  reinvented the franchise title by turning it into a half hour TV action comedy series.  The films had some humor but would never have been placed on the comedy shelf at a video store.  Even more impressive is that this comic tone is done without using Pat Morita's Mr. Myagi who passed away in 2005.  Myagi was both the soul of the films and the funniest character.  The choice to make the bully Johnny Lawrence both more poignant and more comic transposed against Daniel's attempt to live up Myagi's legacy becomes the gift that keeps on giving.

Spoilers below:

The tone is a little reminiscent of the show Desperate Housewives which would often take a serious moment and stick a comic punch at the end of it.  An example would be an early episode of Season 4 in which Daniel is giving an inspirational speech to his students while in the background Johnny is talking about kicking ass.  

The show has a lot of characters and while there is a sense of musical dojos, the characters that have switched dojos have the most developed arcs.  Robbie has gone to Cobra Kai after feeling betrayed by Daniel and Johnny in Season 3 but instead of being fully corrupted he comes to find that take his no prisoners attitude goes against his moral code.  Hawk has come to Myagi-Do and needs to find his confidence after a Cobra Kai attack takes away his flashy hairdo, which had made him feel cool.  I am glad that even though Samantha does train at Eagle Fang for awhile she stays loyal to her parents. 

The creators come up with stories for Tori and Amanda, which gives the fantastic Courtney Henggeler material to play other than just Daniel's wife who makes wry meta remarks on the whole saga.  Amanda's initial confrontation of, and then looking to help, Tori, shows her growing recognition of the dilemma her whole family is in and gives Peyton Roi some much needed empathy.  This particularly works when Samantha is nasty to Tori at the children's party, where as an audience member I was rooting for Tori to be able to keep this job even if it is was an ill fitting one for her.    

Griffin Santopietro gets some interesting material as Amanda and Daniel's son Anthony.  When he first appears I, and I suspect most of the audience, did not know who this character was until someone called him LaRusso because he has been so underused on the series.  The irony of Anthony being a bully after is a clever way for the creators to integrate him more into the show.  Obviously Anthony is far removed from what happened to his father but even more notable is Anthony is participating because he is trying to avoid being picked on himself, which is probably true of a lot of bullies.  It builds on an idea touched on in the first film when Bobby, who despite willingly helping to bully Daniel, is clearly less into the whole thing but cannot convince the group to stop.  Anthony had also not been interested in training with Daniel in the first season so his reaction, to pay someone to clean the cars, is consistent with his cynical attitude.  The final episode, which shows the boy Anthony has helped bully, Kenny, now Cobra Kai trained, easily overpowering and humiliating Anthony, after having been beaten himself in the tournament, may set up turns for both in the next season.  Will Anthony become a student himself, and if so with which dojo, or will he go in another direction?  

Kenny, who is played by Dallas Dupree Young, generates a lot of sympathy earlier.  He is just a new kid, short for his age, trying to fit in and finds himself in a position very similar to Daniel in the first film, a new kid attracting the attention of a pretty girl that Anthony also likes.  The girl's name is Lia, which is an anagram of Ali.  Lia is kind and well centered as Ali was.  The bullying also extends to cyberbullying and public humiliation.  The creators get us to emotionally invest in Kenny but its painful when we realize that his help is coming from Robby, which leads him into the strike first mentality of  Cobra Kai.  

The Johnny Daniel co-sensei plan to defeat Cobra Kai in the next All Valley tournament has some good but implausible moments.  My favorites are when both sensei's train using the others' methods.  The scene at the hockey rink is amusing but would Daniel, a known businessman, really start a fight with professional athletes?  There is no way that would not end in a lawsuit or an assault charge.  Also, how did Johnny keep himself out of it.  He loves a good brawl.

The rematch between Johnny and Daniel is well staged but is an overused ploy at this point.  This is the third time in the series they have actually come to blows, albeit within a tournament format.  As in the others there is no victor.  Daniel should also recognize that Silver is trying to manipulate them against each other, just as he had done with Daniel and Myagi, and be more amenable.  The scenes of Johnny training for the fight to Survivor's "Burning Heart" (from "Rocky IV) while unable to not bully people on the street like a crazy teenager are hilarious.

The return of Silver gives the series a new villain.  Thomas Ian Griffith looks good with the same long if now gray hair, and the wicked smile.  I credit the producers for recognizing the potential of this character based off his dynamic with Kreese even though he came from an unmemorable movie.  I doubt Kove and Griffith ever thought they'd be playing these two old war buddies over 30 years after first playing scenes for Karate Kid Part III.  However the scenes in which we are supposed to believe that Silver wants no part of this are not convincing.  We know he is coming back, mostly because Kreese needs his money.  Silver, who is just greedy, now is worse than Kreese, who for all his awfulness, has some level of a conscience.  The end sets up some likely team up between Kreese and Johnny to go after Silver.

The relationship of Johnny and Miguel is tested with Miguel getting a different type of mentoring from the very different Daniel.  Johnny also has a hilarious moment in asking Google how to reveal his relationship to his mother Carmen.  Conversely Sam is also trained by Johnny which helps her in the tournament.  

The tournament is so significant it is played over the final two episodes.  The creators have a lot of fun with the tournament treating itself as a Super Bowl like event.  The second to last episode does a clever 80s like montage through the early stages of the tournament with Carrie Underwood singing Survivor's "The Moment of Truth" which was the closing credits song of the first Karate Kid film.  Adding the skills competition lets the characters show off their skills beyond just fighting each other.  If there's anything the tournament showcases it is how much more advanced the karate is from the original films.  

I guessed the outcome of both final fights but was still entertained by them.  I expected Robby would lose so that it would come down to another battle between Samantha and Tori and I also figured Tori would win this one (foreshadowed from the prom fight) for two reasons.  First, there's no threat if Sam wins all their big fights as she has in the past.  Second, the show is called "Cobra Kai" and there's no show if Cobra Kai is gone, which it would have been if Sam had won the fight.  Notably Tori has more compassion this time and does not see Sam as her enemy.  

The scene at the prom, with Samantha angered by seeing Robby with Tori, felt contrived.  Samantha should not bothered by that, especially as she is with Miguel who she clearly preferred over Robby.  

Cobra Kai Season 4 is still a fun time and is as entertaining as ever.  The ending sets up a number of potential directions especially with Chozen brought in to help Daniel fight Cobra Kai while it appears Johnny and Robby will be helping Miguel with a dangerous situation in Mexico.  ***