Cobra Kai Season 3 Review: Everything you should know!
The third season of Cobra Kai was released on Netflix on January 1, 2021, and consisted of 10 episodes. The series is a direct sequel to the original four films in The Karate Kid franchise, which focuses on the characters Daniel La Russo and Johnny Lawrence,
30 years after the original film. This is the first season to be released on Netflix after YouTube decided to sell the series after the first two seasons. YouTube ordered the season in 2019 and initially set a 2020 release date, which got delayed following its acquisition of Netflix.
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There were nine starring roles throughout the season, including guest stars returning to the franchise, portraying characters from the first and second films.
A soundtrack featuring music from the season was also released in January 2020. The season received mostly positive reviews from critics and received several award nominations, including an Emmy nomination for the Outstanding Comedy Series.
It is considered an international success ranking on Netflix’s top ten list in 85 countries and reaching 45 million viewers within the first four months of its release.
Cobra Kai Season 3 Review: Should you watch the show?
As we begin the third season, it’s interesting to report that Cobra Kai has almost completely given up on the idea of self-mocking comedy, and I don’t think the show particularly suffers from a tonal shift.
There are still scenes built around Johnny’s ineptness with his old Dell laptop and his struggle to understand the Internet, and those scenes are a delight.
But when you look at other scenes that roughly aspire to laugh a strange sequence with a homeless homeless woman seducing Johnny in a soup kitchen comes to mind it’s possible that for less chuckles. The target could be Cobra Kai’s advantage.
Cobra Kai Year Three actually sends Daniel-san to Okinawa for a few episodes, bringing back both his Part II love interest Kumiko, and his rival from that film, Chzen (Yuji Okumoto), in the process.
Those scenes are some of the best of the new season, especially as Danielle and Kumiko reminisce about the late, great Mr. Miyagi, when Danielle realizes he is now the same age as Miyagi met in 1984.
But the Okinawa material is more of a hiatus an emotional relief for Daniel, who is otherwise having a tough time than a narrative touchstone for a season that still feels too much like Part III as a whole.
We pick up a few weeks after the dispute. Miguel is in the hospital, Robbie is in the air. Sam suffers PTSD flashbacks from his fight with Tori. Johnny is blaming himself for Miguel’s injury, and the school has banned martial arts altogether.
Daniel, at a school board meeting where he is taking most of the blame for the fight, argues, “You don’t need to turn it into some sort of karate footloose.” This third season yields even more absurd scraps for Johnny than the first,
While Macchio’s provides way more for Daniels to do, especially as he tours Japan, which exceeds the original Karate Kid cast. The shoehorn becomes an excuse in a cameo.
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There’s something so moving about watching these actors get this unexpected chance to relive the golden moments of their careers, clearly reprising their roles in the three decades since we last saw them.
And that’s where the show’s penchant for incorporating footage from the movies does a great job—these vignettes are warmly nostalgic, yet brimming with sarcastic wit. Like the whole life-affirming show.
Season 3 is not the best of the show. But the new episodes ultimately make for a satisfying expansion. The previous season ended with a blood-and-bone brawl at West Valley High.
Johnny’s ace student Miguel is wound up in a coma with a spinal cord injury after being thrown down a ladder by Danny’s troubled pupil Robbie who is also Johnny’s son!
That shocking cliffhanger risks sabotaging the show, bringing the real medical-legal stakes into a saga about righteous kick-punching. No wonder, I think, that the new season has had a bad start.
Cobra Kai Season 3 Cast Details:
- Daniel LaRusso as Ralph Macchio
- Johnny Lawrence as William Zabka
- Courtney Henggeler as Amanda La Russo
- Xolo Mariduna as Miguel Diazu
- Robbie Keene as Tanner Buchanan
- Mary Mauser as Samantha LaRusso
- Jacob Bertrand as Allie “Hawk” Moskowitz
- Gianni DeCenzo as Demetri
- Tory Nichols as Peyton List
- John Cresse as Martin Cove.
