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I just started watching this and I have a very important question: does this show ever stop being about Danny's terribly-written daughter and general high school drama because I desperately want to skip every scene with that poo poo to get back to the middle aged men and their karate.
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Nov 26, 2020 16:58
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One half is significantly more obnoxious than the other.
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Nov 26, 2020 17:12
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BiggerBoat posted:Not really, no. I understand what they're going for thematically, but the character writing and the plot beats involving the teens are so "I've seen this before". The thing with the daughter's former friend getting a viral video made of her at the school dance feels like it could've been in degrassi in 2008. Plus her friends are such obvious shitheads that I'm siding with the dad as he tries to control her life, which I'm pretty sure is not what the show wants me to feel. I'm probably supposed to side with the bizarrely permissive mom instead who seems to think anything short of immolating a hobo is just normal teen behavior.
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Nov 26, 2020 17:18
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I guess I wasn't expecting all this soap opera energy in a continuation to a series with very clearly defined good guys and bad guys.
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Nov 26, 2020 17:50
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TheCenturion posted:Yes, Daniel always was the bad guy; hitting on Johnny's girl, suckerpunching Johnny, trying to get him in trouble, spraying him with water for no good reason, then winning a tournament with an illegal kick to the face. Ugh it's like I'm reading a cracked article from 2005.
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Nov 26, 2020 18:53
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MiddleOne posted:Well it's canon. Cobra Kai is literally this turned into a show: My dude, I just watched season 1 and even Johnny's flashback shows that he was the bad guy.
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Nov 26, 2020 20:34
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Lemony posted:Johnny was definitely the "bad guy" in the first movie, with the show exploring the cycle of abuse and poor parental relationships. It works really well to show an antagonistic teenage relationship from the perspective of people who are now adults. Well if you remember the movie, Daniel is stuck between either just spending his whole life running away and not getting any respect (Ali gets on his case pretty hard when he just bails from the Cobra Kai gang after like the third beatdown) or standing up for himself and getting his rear end beat nonstop. Miyagi shows him a third way, (technically fourth after going to their teacher is a bust) and he grows as a person from it. Like his goal for most of the movie is not getting beat on and humiliated every day at school, which is pretty relatable. Like with the 100 times Miyagi says karate should only be for defense, I don't think you can accuse the movie of reinforcing toxic masculinity that much.
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Nov 26, 2020 21:01
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I think that's an oversimplification of Daniel's behavior, at least for season 1. He only starts being a dick when Cobra Kai returns because it brings back a lot of bad memories for him, but then there is a definite shift in his attitude when he visits Miyagi's grave and dusts off his karate outfit. While he's obviously still against Cobra Kai ideologically (and he's 100% correct to be) and thus opposes Johnny in that respect, he gets a hold of his worst instincts and stops letting things get to him as much and losing his temper. He becomes blatantly more miyagi-like, especially in his relationship with Robbie, and finds his balance again. Meanwhile Johnny grows as a person but not quite enough, and Cobra Kai's values twist his students in bad directions. Ultimately season 1 ends with Cobra Kai winning the tournament but its philosophy being shown to be the wrong one, and Miyagi-do Karate winning the ideological battle instead. Sure there's still nuance in there, and I'm sure season 2 will unbalance things again to, y'know, have a continuing story, but it's clear the story isn't saying both of these guys are equally bad. They just have some of the same flaws and baggage.
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Nov 26, 2020 21:14
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Also I watched all 3 karate kid movies to prepare for this show and it is hilarious how unceremoniously each of Daniel's love interests are disposed of off-screen at the start of 2 and 3 so he can have increasingly boring new romantic subplots. Ali was the only interesting one so it's good that she's still a presence in the show. Also at the end of 2 the main rival guy just turns into a crazed suicidal murderer and has a bloody brawl with our lead, which is schlock and totally out of step for this series. There's a reason this show mostly focuses on the first one lol.
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Nov 26, 2020 21:19
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All they really do is mention Terry Silver's name alongside Kreese's when reading off the ban decision. Which is a bit weird, since all of Terry's gross evil actions weren't things the committee should know about, but maybe he and Kreese threw a double tantrum in the parking lot after the credits started rolling and karate kicked someone's head off.
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Nov 27, 2020 03:42
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SimonChris posted:I always found it weird how the bad guys in 3 basically accomplish all of their goals, but Danny winning the final tournament on a technicality is treated as winning the movie, even though it shouldn't make much difference. I mean, how does winning that tournament prevent Silver from fulfilling his promise of building Cobra Kai dojos all over the country? They never actually expose him as a bad guy. Maybe Mike got pissed he didn't get paid and went public with all the dirty work Silver and Kreese had him do.
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Nov 27, 2020 10:12
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It is really funny that no one in this franchise has ever gone beyond the regionals.
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Nov 28, 2020 01:56
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ilmucche posted:The thing I didn't like in season one was that after a year (if that) of training these kids are ready to win the tournament. Daniel-san defeated a black belt with only two months of training. Karate is magic in this universe.
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Nov 28, 2020 14:27
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https://twitter.com/tweeterisawful/status/1333747794159554563
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Dec 1, 2020 13:23
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UltraShame posted:You know what happens to snitches... You know I don't know much about the writing process of this show, but I feel like a lot of the jokes get added to the script after it gets turned in by someone else, they feel so out of place with the tone of everything else. Like this drama karate show occasionally pauses to have Community type jokes and then continues as if nothing happened. It's not a bad thing, though. At least the jokes usually don't undercut the character moments like in bad Joss Whedon stuff.
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Dec 21, 2020 04:50
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Dawgstar posted:It's true. He comes swinging into the bon dance like he's Scorpion or something. The end of that movie is such a hard left turn into complete violent schlock.
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Dec 22, 2020 01:37
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Rhyno posted:Getting typecast as a high school bully and not being able to shake it for 30+ years must be awful. He's got major chops and should have been a bigger star. Uh... have we been watching the same show?
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Dec 29, 2020 01:24
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Rhyno posted:Considering everyone else in the thread seems to agree with me I think you must not be. I don't think he's a horrible actor but he's obviously pretty limited, which you can see in season one before the character finds his groove. Keep in mind he's playing a character that's literally written with him in mind, and then go check out anything else he's been in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5KSLda6boc Like, he's good. He's fine. I'm glad they didn't recast him for this role. But he is not "underrated", and in my view he's had a career exactly commensurate with his range. We're not talking about Tony Todd or Jeffrey Combs here.
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Dec 29, 2020 14:56
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Daniel telling his stupid daughter to stop fueling the relationship drama that's at the root of 90% of the fights in the show by constantly being in love triangles was the funniest poo poo I've ever seen.
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Jan 13, 2021 13:06
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I thought it was kind of a cowardly move to make every character we care about defect from Cobra Kai(except Aisha who is just absent) and fill the ranks with season 1 bullies and nobodies so they can just be uncomplicated faceless villains. It's a little too narratively convenient compared to all the conflicting emotions and relationships that were at play in, say, the season 1 finale. I guess Robbie joining Cobra Kai is supposed to balance that out but his entire storyline felt so undercooked compared to how big a focus he was in the last two seasons. He just keeps getting angrier and angrier at everyone who cares about him even though they're all trying to help him. Like at no point does he get to express remorse for nearly killing Miguel, the only pathos he gets is getting beat up in jail. Felt a bit thin. I also think Tory suffers from being written as too much of an rear end in a top hat. Like she spends the entire season apparently obsessed with getting revenge on Sam, but like, she already nearly killed her in a horribly brutal karate fight where she violently scarred her. How much more revenge can she possibly want? Does she just want to straight up murder her? She keeps talking about how they have to "finish this" and it's like... you did! You had a big brutal final fight that put your opponent in the hospital and then lost. You lost so bad it ruined your life. It is by definition finished. Otherwise this was a really good season, though.
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Jan 13, 2021 14:17
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The silliest thing about this season is that Kreese is still a physical threat to anyone. In season 1 you got the idea that even though Larusso and Jimmy could still kick rear end, their age had caught up with them somewhat, hence why the big fights were more about the kids. But now we're at the point where karate is so magical that a 75 year old ex-hobo is still a final boss level dangerous fighter. IMO he should be more of an ideological threat, which is what he was in S2.
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Jan 19, 2021 11:13
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PeterCat posted:I did some quick math on all this: Wait. He was 23 when they filmed the first Karate Kid? And his character was supposed to be 18? He looks like a skinny 14 year old!
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Jan 26, 2021 21:18
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Solaris 2.0 posted:Even better he was 28 when Karate Kid III came out (his character is supposed to be 18)but the actress who plays his love interest was only 16. Which the writers finally realized was a little creepy. See that doesn't surprise me because he absolutely looks like a bloated 30 year old in that movie.
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Jan 26, 2021 22:46
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