Eric Goldman's Cultured Pop

Eric Goldman's Cultured Pop

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Eric Goldman's Cultured Pop
Eric Goldman's Cultured Pop
Saying Goodbye to Cobra Kai and the Greatest Show the Valley Could Wish For

Saying Goodbye to Cobra Kai and the Greatest Show the Valley Could Wish For

The Karate Kid continuation proved to be the best legacy sequel around.

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Eric Goldman
Feb 14, 2025
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Eric Goldman's Cultured Pop
Eric Goldman's Cultured Pop
Saying Goodbye to Cobra Kai and the Greatest Show the Valley Could Wish For
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The final five episodes of Cobra Kai are out now on Netflix, wrapping up a six-season story that kicked off in 2018… well, sort of, since this story really began back in 1984 with the release of The Karate Kid. We live in an era where the legacy sequel or revival or whatever you want to label it (“requel” if you’re Scream’s Mindy Meeks-Martin) looms large. Outright remaking a beloved title and simply recasting iconic roles is often angrily rejected - probably more than it should be - and it feels like you almost have to promise your new story still maintains the continuity that was already established to even get your foot in the door. Yet at the same time, many of these revivals then fail to find a large enough audience, even when they’re well-made (Saved by the Bell Peacock series, I miss you), underlining how tricky it is to actually please original fans and draw in younger viewers simultaneously.

All of which is to say that Cobra Kai’s success is incredibly impressive. Hell, getting six seasons at all for any streaming series these days has become notably rare, but one that was a legacy sequel so heavily connected to movies from 40 years ago? That’s amazing. And yet Cobra Kai managed to thread that needle, building a large, passionate audience who weren’t even born when the Karate Kid movies came out who became just as drawn in as those of us who were watching Daniel LaRusso’s karate adventures as kids in the 80s.

Once you’ve finished Cobra Kai, check out my spoiler chat with the creators:

I’ve loved the show, start to finish. Yes, by its nature — and the nature of many TV shows — the escalation through its run has been increasingly outlandish, as a story about teenagers taking karate lessons and the adults who teach them has had bigger and bigger consequences, along with a lot of adult characters feeling rather insanely invested in the outcome of teen karate tournaments. And yet that’s part of the fun.

The Karate Kid is an all-time classic underdog makes good movie, filled with emotion and pathos, followed by a well-made first sequel that also instantly and amusingly upped the ante by giving Ralph Macchio’s Daniel an opponent literally trying to murder him in a karate fight. By the time we reached the rather ridiculous Karate Kid Part III, Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) was coming in with full Bond villain energy - a rich, cackling, toxic waste dumping evil businessman who puts all of his other work on hold to get revenge on a teenager for the indignity of beating his friend’s student in a karate tournament.

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