Cobra Kai Season Three
Show creators Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, and Josh Heald
Ralph Macchio Daniel LaRusso 33 episodes, 2018-2021
William Zabka Johnny Lawrence 32 episodes, 2018-2021
Courtney Henggeler Amanda LaRusso 32 episodes, 2018-2021
Xolo Maridueña/Miguel Diaz 32 episodes, 2018-2021
Tanner Buchanan Robby Keene 32 episodes, 2018-2021
Mary Mouser Samantha LaRusso 31 episodes, 2018-2021
Jacob Bertrand / Hawk 31 episodes, 2018-2021
Gianni DeCenzo Demetri 28 episodes, 2018-2021
Martin Kove John Kreese 22 episodes, 2018-2021
Nichole Brown Aisha 19 episodes, 2018-2019
Warning: of necessity, contains spoilers. Stop here if you prefer to be surprised.
I watched the third ten-episode season of Cobra Kai, newly transferred from You Tube Red to Netflix, and woefully concluded that the series hadn’t just jumped networks, but had jumped the shark.
Here’s the thing: John Kreese, the evil sensei from Karate Kid and founder of Cobra Kai dojo, returned near the end of the second season and seized control of the dojo from Johnny Lawrence, erstwhile student and founder of the new Cobra Kai. Kreese is certifiable, as crazy and mean as Donald Trump and considerably more cunning and badass. (He gets a back story in season three, a somewhat formulaic series of flashbacks to his days of Special Ops in ‘Nam. The flashbacks are notable because they show how the military command mind produces not soldiers but psychotics.) His attitude of “take no prisoners and everyone is the enemy” infects his class, resulting in such over-the-top moments such as releasing a live cobra in the LaRusso car dealership, ambushes of other dojo students that result in moderate to severe injury, a mass home invasion assault, and an increasing predilection toward attempted murder of anyone considered “other.” Yeah and verily that shark hath been jumped, right? I wasn’t even going to write a review because nobody wants to read about stuff I found dismal.
Then January 6th happened, and I thought about what I had watched that day, and thought about Kreese and his gang of Kool-Aide swillers. I gave the episodes a second watch.
Obviously, the writers may have been aware of the cultish nature of Trump supporters when they wrote the scripts some 12 months earlier, but back then nobody could see it resulting in a bloody assault on the Capitol in an effort to overturn an election and murder prominent politicians in both parties. Why, that would be as over-the-top ridiculous as releasing a live cobra in a public business area, or staging a House invasion for purposes of terrorizing the inhabitants.
OK, you see what I’m getting at here. The writers may or may not have had American politics in mind when they made the Cobra Kai dojo into the Manson family. Certainly they wanted to explore the mechanisms and development of dangerous cults. That alone makes season three worth watching. Combined with current events, it becomes must-see television, a concise and succinct explanation of the vicious, militaristic and dangerous cult formerly known as the GOP. Kreese and Cobra Kai aren’t just fanciful entertainment: they are the face of a danger we must face in real life, and while Trump is no Kreese, some of Trump’s supporters are just as deranged and just as dangerous.
As in the first two seasons, the characterizations are extraordinarily good. Rivals and sometimes frenemies since 1984, Johnny Lawrence and Danny LaRusso (played by the same actors as their 1983 roles) continue a complicated relationship that sometimes betters them, and sometimes worsens them. Amongst the kids, there’s plenty of shifting allegiances, misunderstandings, pratfalls and viciousness, and the role of cultic influence is beautifully portrayed, ranging from utter murderous commitment to increasing doubt and confusion about the cult to steadfast and nearly as cultish opposition to Cobra Kai. Characters not in the dojos continue to react and grow. Well, except for the characters portrayed by Ed Asner and Ken Davitian. They’re just assholes. There’s at least a dozen outstanding performances outside of the already superb central cast.
There will be a fourth season on Netflix. It probably should be the final season, due to the aging of the characters and the fact that endless escalation with no end in sight will become boring. It’s been a remarkable series, and the miracle is that it worked at all.