Cobra Kai – J.W’s Baking Brief

Now entering it’s third season, who would have predicted the success that Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg and Josh Heald would be revelling in with Cobra Kai. The chances of failure stood unnervingly high and yet this incredible adaptation set 30 years on from Karate Kid just continues to amaze. Excellently recapturing the 80’s culture but in the modern day, Cobra Kai is blessed a bounty of cliches that we have come to love with the action/comedy franchise, with iconic training montages and high school bully’s, but with a massive budget this series in particular bursts off the screen, taking full advantage of the modern effects and resources the original movies did not have.

The story itself really well written, mirroring the sort of inverse of the originals 80’s films, with the then kids now grown up adults (including the actual actors) and there own fictional children getting in on the action. Clever flashbacks to popular moments in the franchises history and cuts to actual scenes from the original film create an enticing juxtaposition to the modern versions of events, but ultimately it excites fans and draws new, eager viewers in with a jam-packed, all round riveting series of episodes.

It is in these clips that we are given the reasoning behind seemingly ‘evil’ acts in the original Karate Kid, and the series explains things from Johnny’s (William Zabka) point of view, presenting an entirely different perspective on the entire Karate Kid narrative. It brilliantly teeters each character on this grey line, neither wholly good nor bad, and yet easily capable of mistakes, presenting something new for previous lovers of the franchise to chew on.

There is an incredible soundtrack as you can imagine and of course it’s bloody hilarious! Who doesn’t find the classic old school humour entertaining, with playground bully’s simply ripping into the nerdy kids to teach them how to toughen up? A hark back to the days of old and certainly the simplicity of 80s cinema that at the time was entirely acceptable and now provides a million and one laughs. Keep your eyes peeled and brace yourself. as there are indeed scenes that will bring you to tears with laughter. “Cobra Kai is about being bad-ass” and yes, this series is certainly just that!