Cobra Kai (Season Two) * * * (Streaming on Netflix)

Starring:  Ralph Macchio, William Zabka, Courtney Henggeler, Xolo Mariduena, Tanner Buchanan, Mary Mouser, Jacob Bertrand, Nichole Brown, Martin Kove

Season two of the Cobra Kai series fulfilled what I asked of it in my review of season one:  To stabilize the main characters so we can gain a sense of who they are.   With Daniel (Macchio) and Johnny (Zabka) now in focus, Cobra Kai is more involving, albeit somewhat ludicrous entertainment.   The showdown in the high school between Miyagi-Do Karate and Cobra Kai members runs on so long it loses all credibility, but it ends on a somber note.  With no teachers, security guards, or police in sight, we think we're watching the end of the first Kill Bill.   These kids could give Bruce Lee a run for his money. 

I found myself willing to follow the stories even while having misgivings about some of them, and that is what television is all about.   Daniel and Johnny are enemies in the beginning to be sure, but then are allowed to cool their feud long enough to have dinner together with their significant others.    Maybe they aren't so different after all.   Any truce or hint of friendship, however, doesn't last long because of matters like their kids are dating each other.  

We also take a trip down memory lane, with the manipulative and malignant Kreese (Kove) fully in the Cobra Kai fold, but he has motives of his own, and they don't necessarily include Johnny.   Johnny meets up with one of his old Cobra Kai buddies from high school (Rob Garrison), who is dying from cancer and goes on one last motorcycle ride with his old gang.    These scenes are poignant because Garrison would later succumb to the disease in real life.   Ali (played by Elisabeth Shue in the original Karate Kid movie) figures into the story without having shown her face yet.   

Daniel's obsession with putting Cobra Kai out of business with the opening of Miyagi-Do puts an anticipated strain on his dealership and his relationship with wife Amanda (Henggeler), who wakes up alone more often these days and has to handle the lion's share of the work at the dealerships.    Henggeler is funny and warm, giving Amanda depth and a personality, she's not just there to be Daniel's put-upon spouse.    Johnny becomes less of a wild card, and the writers forged a path for him in which he has to decide if wants to remain the immature jerk he was in high school, or grow up and teach his students a more honorable way to learn martial arts.   Daniel wants to do the right thing, but is he letting his ego obscure forgiving Johnny and finally letting bygones be bygones?

With the inevitable return of Ali to the series and a common enemy forming for both Daniel and Johnny, Cobra Kai season three now becomes eagerly anticipated Netflix watching.