Cobra Kai (2018) * * 1/2 (series premiering on YouTube Red)

Directed by:  Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg

Starring:  Ralph Macchio, William Zabka, Ed Asner, Courtney Henggler, Xolo Mariduena, Mary Mouser

(This is a review of the first two episodes)  

Thirty years following the events of the first Karate Kid film comes Cobra Kai, a new series on YouTube Red which chronicles the rekindling of the feud between Daniel LaRusso (Macchio) and Johnny Lawrence (Zabka) from the initial film.    If you recall, Johnny and his black belt karate buddies pounded Daniel almost daily in high school until Daniel learned karate from his kindly apartment building maintenance manager Mr. Miyagi.    Pat Morita's death in 2005 precludes him from being in this series, but there are loving tributes to the wise old man.

Daniel exacted his revenge against Johnny by defeating him in the finals of the All-Valley Karate Tournament.    As Cobra Kai opens, Johnny is a hard-drinking contractor who has never gotten over that defeat.    He is forever reminded of the loss by radio ads and billboards for Daniel's chain of car dealerships.    Daniel is a happy family man, while Johnny is divorced and estranged from his son.   Their paths merge again when Johnny's ancient Pontiac Firebird is totaled in an accident and towed to one of Daniel's dealerships for repair.    Daniel offers to fix the car for free, but no matter, Johnny has reached his breaking point and decides to open Cobra Kai (his karate dojo from his youth) again, which causes obvious consternation from Daniel.

Johnny's lone student so far is Miguel (Mariduena), a nice high school student who is picked on by creeps in much the same way Johnny picked on Daniel back in the day.    Johnny beats up Miguel's bullies one night and realizes karate is still the only thing in which he excels.    He promises to teach Miguel the same time of brutal martial arts taught to him, which prompts a challenge from Daniel, whose daughter's friend was one of the guys Johnny beat up.

A frustrating thing which keeps Cobra Kai creeping along to its inevitable storyline is how Johnny never relays the one bit of information which would save he and Daniel a bunch of conflict.    Instead of telling Daniel how Samantha's friend was bullying Miguel, he chooses not to.    Instead of telling Daniel how Samantha was involved in the accident which wrecked his car, he chooses to stay quiet.   This feud is going to happen no matter what.  

The original Karate Kid (1984) was a spirited Rocky-type underdog story.    Its sequel, Karate Kid Part II (1986) took Daniel and Miyagi back to Miyagi's native Okinawa to settle an old score.    The sequel was also pretty good in its own ways.    Then, the series overstayed its welcome with the ludicrous Part III (1989) and then The Next Karate Kid (1994), in which Miyagi trains future two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank to battle bullies.    A continuation of this story wasn't exactly being cried out for, but don't let that stop anyone from making it.

I enjoyed the fact that Cobra Kai's episodes were only thirty minutes long, which helps to speed things along.   The first two episodes were paced just right, and you could do worse than killing thirty minutes by watching a Cobra Kai episode.    Macchio and Zabka are comfortable in their roles and there are shades of gray to each character.     I don't know if it was such a good idea to have Johnny be such a relic of the 80's, so much so that Poison blasts from his car stereo speakers.    And do we really need the music to underline the emotions of the characters so blatantly?  

But, if you ask if I would spend $10.00 a month to watch the remaining eight episodes of this season, plus next season's (the show was already renewed), the answer would be no.    There is nothing about Cobra Kai which would necessitate that.