I've recently finished watching both available seasons of the Netflix original "COBRA KAI".
IT.WAS.AWESOME.
It's the ongoing saga from the highly popular 1980s movie franchise "THE KARATE KID". It picks up in current year, with the main characters from the story, Daniel LaRusso (the Karate Kid) & Johnny Lawrence (his nemesis). And... turns out about 30 years later, they still hate each other...and live in the same town. I know! Crazy.
There will be NO spoilers for this show.
Truth be told, the first couple of episodes hurt my brain. 😂 They have done an amazing job at recreating the feeling of an 80s movie. But this is super weird at first because the actual quality of the recording is current year...with cinematography and acting 😏 very 80s. It's also possible that the two leading dudes have done little to no acting since then, and they were children first time around. Still very fun to watch.
The Basics: The show focuses on Johnny Lawrence and his new dojo, Cobra Kai, toting the same name as the vicious dojo he was trained in as a child. The main plots circle around kids, with the underlying conflict between Johnny and Daniel.
The Fighting: It's awesome! And pretty hardcore... so if edge-of-your-seat action isn't your thing, this probably isn't for you. But if it is! WATCH IT! It's pretty great seeing smaller folk able to control their body movements in such an impressive way. And sometimes hilarious to watch the adults. Win win. 😎
The Language: The main character, Johnny, is still 'living in the 80s', so his speech reflects this. You have been warned. 
😎
The Lessons: This is what I wanted to talk about today. At face value, this show is ... well, violent, but only in the fight scenes. I do remember thinking 'how have the sjws not got this banned yet?' 🤣. That said, when watched in its entirety (rather than just the fight scenes) it presents a lot of great life lessons for young and old alike. Again, this is why I enjoy TV... or this kind of 'old school' TV. I suppose these type of shows (with lessons, rather than just laughs) are few and far between in current year.
Conflicts: We all got 'em! I find TV and movies to be an interesting way to evaluate humans, how we interact, react, and deal with each other in different situations. I generally prefer sitcoms or 'situational comedy', as I like to take life with a side of laughs. Within a short 20-minute episode, there are TONS of conflicts, all of varying degrees, all which are resolved (generally), by the end. I love this. I pay attention to this. I constantly am trying to better understand others and thus, do better when interacting with them.
BEING A PART OF A TEAM: I talk about this all the time. It's important to me. I love being a part of a team. I love knowing that my work, when done well (or not), will be reflected on my team, and vise versa. This makes growing exponential. When truly WORKING with a team so much more can be accomplished! This theme is constant throughout Cobra Kai. With the support and encouragement of others, literally ANYTHING can happen.
You may have noticed me saying 'when done well (or not)': don't discount this. There are two sides to every coin and you can't have one without the other. Cobra Kai is able to teach this lesson at the very end of Season 2. When you are a part of a team and you do something 'bad' your WHOLE TEAM SUFFERS, not just you. This should make you always want to be good, for not only yourself, but the sake of your whole team. Again, this can make growth of any project/group/idea/relationship grow exponentially.
Responsibility to your Team: Once you agree to be a part of a team you must take seriously the responsibility you have to them and always remember your actions are no longer speaking for only you, but potentially others. Always giving your 100% can be hard, but knowing you're doing it for someone else should be the perfection motivation to being the best you you can be.
Communication: This is key! I find this element mildly lacking in the first season of the show and often wished the teacher-student dynamic would open up a bit more. However, as with real life, it was simply the lessons of the adults that weren't learned yet and communication becomes more open and up front as the show progresses.
Being able to openly communicate with all members of your team is detrimental to success. This isn't rocket science, but I do find it to be quite complicated. 😂 I don't necessarily think this is anyone's fault. We all have our own baggage. But! Just being aware of our own baggage will make it easier to communicate and take on other bags of ... other people... wait. What was I saying?
Conclusion: I really enjoyed this show. I am thankful for the lessons it teaches, ones I may have learned, others which may be new. I also miss the 'good ol days' of TV when there was Prime Time and everyone watched the same shows. Sure, we get choice now, and that's great! But it lends towards separation. Now, water cooler talk is never as cohesive because everyone has a different thing they do for fun. Again, great we have options, but I think the old way let us know each other more. We had more in common, everyone was on the same page, so to speak. Nowadays, you have your 'popular' shows that trend, but often people get to them much later than their air date... again leading to a disconnect between us.
I'm looking forward to the days when this new disconnection evens out and we are... well, connected again. It's so very weird to me... our connected disconnect. I'm always trying to bridge that gap just a touch, in hopes we can feel those close connections we once felt...simply by chatting it up with a co-worker at the water cooler.
In the mean time...
I'm a PART of things. I join people. We team up. We create. We share. We grow. TOGETHER.🥰
or click the link below to join today!
I just finished a couple of days ago. Binged it. Such a poignant love letter to the original movie. The cameos, the locations, the 8 yo boy in me loved every minute of it. So many well executed references back to the original.
Same. Same.
Chris is also salty that the original movies were available on Netflix for a little while when the show started... then... just when you got that sweet sweet nostalgia going and wish to watch the old ones... BOOM. GONE.
Jerks. 😂
And yes. It's super awesome. We also began with a binge, but as you do with the last piece cake... you wanna savor it. So we slowed down and allowed the adventure to be drawn out... though not enough.
Warning: Prepare yourself for the Season 2 finale. PREPARE YOURSELF.
Yeah, I'm with you. Now the wait for Season 3.
Yeah, the best team ever hahaha, curators are the best.
YES! You ARE the best!
The curator team is amazing! I love us. 🥰
Thanks for being awesome. 💪
Love that show!