It continues to be a wonderfully dosed-out follow up to the old franchise. After a pair of seasons streaming on YouTube's premium tier, "Cobra Kai" was picked up by Netflix, where those episodes found an appreciative audience. Miguel in the hospital? The school brawl that ended the second run redeemed 10 episodes of lackluster fighting, and this season's climactic action set piece is driven by one very impressive continuous take (with at least one masked cut, but who's counting) that I watched a couple times on my screener just to marvel at the choreography and the fairly seamless stunt doubling. We begin episode 8 of Cobra Kai Season 3 with Daniel gathering his troops as they decide to work together and defeat John Kreese and Cobra Kai. Last week a huge announcement was made, Cobra Kai season 3 is releasing earlier than believed, on January 1st, giving fans a New Years gift and the perfect way to ring in 2021. 91% TOMATOMETER There are still scenes built around Johnny's ineptitude with his old Dell laptop and his struggles understanding the Internet, and those scenes remain a pleasure. There are several well-utilized guest stars from the franchise's past, actors who bring out the most confident of the show's homages and utilize Zabka and Macchio's strengths in ways that are surprisingly emotional. Here's your spoiler-free review of Cobra Kai Season 3! It's here that you might already be thinking that the third Cobra Kai season sounds a little busy. The second half of the season makes wise use of Henggeler — a much more natural screen comic than her co-stars — as more than just Daniel's disapproving wife, giving her some satisfying confrontations if not actual action. Cobra Kai made its way to the Netflix streaming service earlier this year and gained a whole new audience to the ever popular franchise, which first debuted on YouTube Red a couple of years back. The fourth season of Cobra Kai that's teased in the finale already feels like it ought to be a wrap-up for the entire series, what this goof-turned-solid-show has been building to all along. 4 out of 5. The new season has flaws in its efforts to give its story new dramatic underpinnings, and those flaws at times really bugged me. Series creators Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg obviously have taken great care to make the series something new while remaining an homage to the … Thirty years after the events of the 1984 All Valley Karate Tournament, a down-and-out Johnny Lawrence seeks redemption by reopening the infamous Cobra Kai karate dojo, reigniting his rivalry with a now successful Daniel LaRusso. Cast: Ralph Macchio, William Zabka, Courtney Henggeler, Xolo Maridueña, Mary Mouser, Tanner Buchanan, Martin Kove, Jacob Bertrand, Gianni Decenzo, Peyton List, Creators: Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg and Josh Heald. by After season two got bogged down in straight-laced melodrama and lost much of the series’ initial acidic insight, it looked as though Cobra Kai might have fallen victim to the very macho posturing it used to lampoon. These 10 episodes begin in the aftermath of the high-school brawl that left Miguel (Xolo Maridueña) hospitalized and in a coma; Robby (Tanner Buchanan) on the run from the law; Robby's dad and Miguel's sensei Johnny (William Zabka) disillusioned with the entire martial arts game; Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and wife Amanda (Courtney Henggeler) dealing with a wave of bad publicity jeopardizing their auto dealership empire; and the entire Valley's obsession with karate in disarray. The ambition in the second season was keeping most of the comedy while raising the level of earnestness. As we start the third season, then, it's interesting to report that Cobra Kai has almost completely left behind the idea of self-mocking comedy, and I don't think the show especially suffers from the tonal shift. The homestretch of the season generally contains some of the series' best work to date (albeit mixed with the Vietnam flashbacks that, as I said, don't really work). Privacy Policy | While Miguel's rehabilitation offers the sort of optimistic montages that Cobra Kai thrives on, Robby's difficulties in the legal system bring a darkness into the storytelling that the show lacks the nuance to really explore. | California Privacy Rights Read Mashable's review. Probably "ambitious" still isn't the first word you would ever use to describe Cobra Kai, a half-hour dramedy that represents the precarious nature of Peak TV in that a bona fide breakout from a fledgling streaming service — YouTube Red turned YouTube Premium — still couldn't avoid getting cut adrift before moving to the higher-profile climes of Netflix. Cobra Kai Season 3 up until now had a positive response from critics. The Good, The Bad and The Badass. Cobra Kai season 3 review: "Powers through and delivers its best season yet". ... Cobra Kai: Season 3 Reviews. 6:45 AM PST 12/29/2020 Cobra Kai walks the tightrope between 80s movie and modern TV show, and most of the time gets the balance exactly right. Cobra Kai's meandering third season builds to an awesomely emotional finale: Review Netflix's silly-smart Karate Kid reboot gets a lot better when everyone agrees to do karate again. Having not known much about this franchise until recently, I am surprised how much it means to me already. You don't need to worry, of course, about remembering much of anything about Karate Kid II, its events or its primary Japanese characters, because there's nothing Cobra Kai likes doing so much as peppering episodes with vintage clips. That leads to some  moments that are somewhere between clumsy and racially problematic. Miguel faces an uncertain future. Cobra Kai Season 3 takes many of those to a whole new level. | EU Privacy Preferences. Season three of Cobra Kai is the show’s most confident, nostalgic, and entertaining season yet. And what a great exploration this continues to be into the themes of anger, forgiveness, and redemption. This chaos is exactly what the nefarious John Kreese (Martin Kove) wants and this may be the moment for Cobra Kai (the dojo, not the show) to truly rise. Cobra Kai season 3 is overall a fast-paced show, which means some of its slower portions seem to drag or linger by comparison. Daniel and Johnny team up to find Robby. Cobra KaiNetflix Season 3, Episodes 1-10 Cobra Kai season 3 made its debut on Netflix on January 1st and it landed like a crane kick to win the all valley championship! That's without getting to the ongoing tensions between Daniel's daughter Sam (Mary Mouser) and bad girl Tory (Peyton List), a clash in which my sympathies — Team Tory all the way — clearly aren't where the show wants them to be. ‘Cobra Kai’ Season 3: Third Time Is No Charm for ‘Karate Kid’ Reunion Franchise Nostalgic series shows no mercy when it comes to ridiculous plot-twists and over-the-top villainy By We encourage you to read our updated PRIVACY POLICY and COOKIE POLICY. I binged Cobra Kai Season 3 in less than two days – and the only reason it took me that long is … By pairing its emotional punches with stronger humor, Cobra Kai's third season finds itself in fine fighting form. You might have said the same thing about the film franchise and questioned whether or not the movies had the gravity necessary to pull off a Japan-set (Hawaii-filmed) second installment, and you wouldn't have been wrong. Cobra Kai Season 3 has launched with a perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes. THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER is a registered trademark of The Hollywood Reporter, LLC. Robby in juvie? With hard hits, cool kicks, and an absolute mastery of tone (which is that of an evolved, self-aware '80s blow out), Cobra Kai balances valiant drama with (sometimes) utter ridiculousness. "Cobra Kai" was a huge hit when its first two seasons dropped onto Netflix last year, but Season 3 sees the show suffer from diminishing returns despite some nostalgic pleasures. No one necessarily needed to see these old characters again, but what a joy they are to behold. Luckily, there’s a lot of humor and good-natured theatrics accompanying the story this time around. Daniel in Japan? With everything gearing up to the climactic fourth season, I’d imagine we’ll get a final showdown between Sam and Tory as the final fight. Cobra Kai Season 3 Review December 28, 2020 Nicola Austin 210 Views 0 Comments Cobra Kai , Karate Kid , Netflix Who would have thought that back in 2018, a YouTube red original series based on a now middle aged antagonist from the 80’s Karate Kid franchise would become such a pop culture phenomenon. Overall, Cobra Kai season 3 succeeded in continuing to move the characters and storylines in the right direction. Miguel's fighting for his life, Robby's missing, and Daniel and Johnny's reputations are in tatters as the community reacts to the West Valley brawl. Amazon's The Lord of the Rings Prequel: The Second Age Explained, Where to Buy RTX 3060 Ti, RTX 3070, and RTX 3080 Gaming PCs (Updated), Netflix's 2021 Movie Release Lineup: New Films From Chris Hemsworth, Dwayne Johnson, and Zack Snyder Revealed, Here's what George Clooney Learned After Batman & Robin Bombed, The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of Cyberpunk 2077's Subreddit, Complete Your Entertainment Center With the Best TV Stand, Vicarious Visions Reportedly Brought Into Blizzard to Work on Diablo 2 Remake, Things Ghost of Tsushima Doesn't Tell You. Anyone who has watched the three seasons of Cobra Kai – the follow up to the very successful Karate Kid films of the 80s – knows that much of what takes place in the present day is a product of what happened in the past. 4. Season 3 picks up in the aftermath of the violent high school brawl between Miyagi-Do and Cobra Kai, which left Miguel (Xolo Maridueña) in critical condition in the hospital. But when you look to other scenes that aspire broadly to laughs — an unfunny sequence with a randy homeless woman flirting with Johnny at a soup kitchen comes groaningly to mind — it's possible that aiming for even fewer chuckles might benefit Cobra Kai. The key takeaways of the series are transformation and … The creators recognize that where things left off from last season called for some measure of solemnity or at least respect if Cobra Kai was to feel like it had any stakes at all. Cobra Kai Season 3 continues its awesome win streak with a third season filled with fun and gritty consequences. And if you're wondering if Cobra Kai has the production values — we'll see if the fourth season, made with Netflix money, offers more resources —  or maturity to weave in full-fledged Vietnam War flashbacks as part of an attempt to give Kreese a backstory, the answer is unequivocal: "No, it does not." Pretty funny, right? Cobra Kai Season 3 Critical Reception. So Miguel isn't immediately going to hop out of his hospital bed and into roundhouse kicks, nor can Robby just stroll back to school with a sheepish, "What did I miss?" "What if Johnny, the vicious Aryan heartthrob villain from The Karate Kid, were actually the hero? The new season is also the closest creators Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg have come to evoking the actual tone of the original franchise. Premieres on Friday, January 1, on Netflix. Cobra Kai season 3 review: William Zabka series strikes first, strikes hard – and still packs a punch. With a new sensei at the helm of the Cobra Kai dojo, a three-way feud takes center stage. With its fun blend of action, comedy and drama, the Karate Kid spin-off continues to have all the right moves. The third season of Cobra Kai, which has moved to Netflix, continues the adventures of Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence as their decades-old rivalry impacts a new generation of martial artists.The new season picks up right where Season 2 left off and dramatically ramps up its expansion of The Karate Kid universe while going deeper and darker with its growing cast of characters. In particular, the character arc for Robbie Keene … © 2021 The Hollywood Reporter, LLC. | Do Not Sell My Personal Information Consequences are central to the season, as is the notion of forgiveness, which gives the new episodes an almost spiritual introspection that it didn't have previously. AdChoices It has the right amount of nostalgia that both the new and old generations of fans of the franchise will highly enjoy. FACEBOOK Cobra Kai's third season delivers more delight as the Valley's dojo war comes with serious consequences for grown-ups and teens alike. Cobra Kai – Season 3 Episode 8 Recap & Review. At all. The same can't be said of at least one earlier fight the duration of which I admired while giggling at how poorly one of the show's main stars was being swapped in and out for every single kick or punch. The Episode Review. Terms of Use | TWITTER Cobra Kai fans will want to go into Season 3 spoiler free. All rights reserved. Season 3 picks up right where season 2 ended. Cobra Kai season 3 is yet again another brilliant season that continues to elevate its story and characters. Sitemap | After a busy and congested 10 episodes featuring no less than 9 separate story threads, Cobra Kai bows out with a pretty compelling and well written conclusion. It mainly avoids the pitfalls that can come with a show of this sort: an over-reliance on nostalgia, a repetitive or stagnating story. Cobra Kai season 3 review: Netflix series karate kicks back in spectacular style. Daniel Fienberg And speaking of action, the series once again peaks in the closing episodes of a season. It worked because Zabka was far funnier than most people realized, even if most people would have realized it had memories of the later seasons of How I Met Your Mother not required repressing. And yet the gap between baseline expectations (very, very low) and aspirations (not nearly as low, if not exactly Twin Peaks: The Return) for Cobra Kai is impressively wide. As one character puts it, "Regret is sometimes difficult to overcome.". Cobra Kai is grittier and grimier while still also being a heightened, occasionally meta, experience. A review of Cobra Kai season three that considers how the Karate Kid spinoff starring Ralph Macchio and William Zabka handles nostalgia. Enter season 3, … I seriously can’t wait for season 4, and this is easily one of the best television shows to watch on Netflix right now. It's absolutely a busy season and every once in a while I lost track of which dojo was supposed to be "evil," which teenage warriors were faithful to which sensei and which love triangles had been explored and which merely implied. According to the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Cobra Kai Season 3 holds a 97% approval rating, with an average score of 7.98 out of 10 based on 29 reviews. Johnny online? But I've underestimated Cobra Kai before, and it keeps aiming for, if not always perfectly achieving, more. But that’s the Cobra Kai way: a long walk to confirm what you already knew. So it's interesting that the new Cobra Kai season spends multiple episodes paying homage to the flawed sequel and, in most ways, exceeds its level of cultural sensitivity. Season three continues the great work the show has done so far. The series started off as a goof, with Zabka's Johnny Lawrence introduced as an Encino Man/Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer type chipped out of a block of ice formed in the late '80s and forced to combat the Internet, shifting cultural notions of masculinity and, again, the Internet. Error: please try again. Movie Reviews By Reviewer Type. 6:45 AM PST 12/29/2020 by Daniel Fienberg FACEBOOK TWITTER EMAIL ME 'Cobra Kai' After moving from YouTube to Netflix, the 'Karate Kid' sequel returns for a third season … But that's OK. By the time the season reaches its tenth episode, there's a clear objective for the fourth season, and it's a tremendous relief that Netflix ordered that season soon after the YouTube rescue. 01/01/2021 by Greg Wheeler. The third season of Cobra Kai premieres January 1, 2021 on Netflix. EMAIL ME. Netflix's 'Cobra Kai' Season 3 isn't as good as the earlier ones, but it's still loaded with '80s nostalgia and fun. The end.". 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