Cobra Kai Season 5

Based on that preview, the show has clearly jumped the shark.

I hear that the first couple seasons while it was on youtube were actually really good.

I can feel the sexual tension in that scene by the pool!

I think that Kreese will join Johnny and Daniel to defeat Terry Silver.

Xolo & Peyton both look in better shape than last time, and have better cuter hairstyles. Not sure if I like Robby's slicked hair, but I get why they did it like it.

How many times is Daniel going to say "We have to end this!"?

R1 yeah, as much as I am loathe to give Youtube Red any credit, the first two seasons really were superior. Ever since the move away from Youtube, the show has just got crackier, more inane and unfocused, and has veered into territory too far outside the core of what draws people in to Karate Kid/Cobra Kai in the first place. When it started I was all about this show, like so into it, rewatching and telling everyone how good it was--now 3 years on, I haven't even watched most of the last season, I'm just over it. It's a good idea stretched way too thin and then injected with too much peripheral content nobody asked for.

OP/R2 the Miguel/Robby scenes usually do have a lot of crackling intensity--like a hair away from hatefucking. Imo though Robby if in any gay pairing would be happier and better off paired with Shawn, his bully-turned-friend from the Juvie stint in season 3. They ended up having a really sweet and intense chemistry in a short amount of screentime. The actor who played Shawn was really talented, too, more subtle than most of the other young cast. Seems like by now the best younger actors have all left or been written out, with the exception of Jacob Bertrand who I think is really gifted. Tanner seems sweet and he tries hard, bless. This season I fully expect Robby's plot to get sidelined for SaMiguel and all the other boring kids yet again.

R3 Kreese will probably turn babyface, I agree--or at least that's how it feels like the plot is being seeded. Not sure how I'm gonna feel about it, either. It sort of seems like an unearned volte-face to me; like Kreese hasn't done enough to change or prove himself, and maybe can't ever.

[quote][R1] yeah, as much as I am loathe to give Youtube Red any credit, the first two seasons really were superior.

The original premise seemed so tantalizing - that their roles reversed as adults and Daniel turns out to be the smug bully and Johnny turns into the underdog for whom you root.

Quentin Tarantino has really aged.

Reading between the lines of what Zabka & Macchio are saying in press this time around, they're possibly getting a little restless and bored with the show, and maybe even fed up of repetitive plots. They praised the writers' creativity, but both admit that they think their characters would realistically have moved beyond much of the drama by now, and also concur that the show has completely embraced grey-morality for every character like many contemporary shows today (which is fine and can work in certain shows, but significantly lowers the stakes and complicates plotting). Four years/five seasons is really enough for a sketchy idea.

Never getting the Hawk/Demetri content we were teased, are we? Fucking gaybaiting..

Like, I was a misfit nerd with a 'best friend' that way in middle-highschool--turns out (to my/their shock and no-one else's) I was in love in with that friend. That's the natural ending to the Eli/Dem story, too. And it would be blissfully easy to pull it off, given how flimsy and halfassed the Yasmine/Demetri love plot is and that she's now been Put On A Bus to Australia out of the show, plus the fact that Hawk acts awkward and unpleasant with girls of all stripes. If you search-and-replace the dialogue for every time either boy says 'Binary Brother' or 'best friend' and substitute the phrase for 'boyfriend', it makes even more sense.

But of course, the bro-ey writers won't ever go there, because they've decided they're writing a show only for idiot teencels and breeder Dads. So whatever.

ALSO (last point I promise) Tory/MILF Amanda runaway plotline when??? The tension...

Per the new trailer, Amanda has clearly had enough of Daniel's shit and of her daughter's shit, and I don't blame her. She's too sexy and successful and stable for the karate crap, and anyway her husband is obviously obsessed with a deadbeat drunk guy he used to know in high-school so why bother her ass?

They're releasing this season a bit sooner than the last, no?

Yeah, the last two came out on New Year's.

[quote] The original premise seemed so tantalizing - that their roles reversed as adults and Daniel turns out to be the smug bully and Johnny turns into the underdog for whom you root.

R7 unfortunately, Macchio himself more or less scuppered that premise midway through season two, because he objected so strongly and vocally to Daniel LaRusso being any sort of heel (forgetting perhaps that the character was in some ways a selfish, hair-trigger, annoying, whiny little shit in the original movies) or going 'too dark', and the CK writers had to fall in line with that stipulation or otherwise lose him from the cast. By seasons three and four Daniel becomes a moralising goody-goody henpecking character, lacking any of the dimension and pragmatic weight of Morita's Miyagi.

New season out now. Senior citizens beefing about a karate feud shouldn't be this entertaining.

The first couple of seasons were excellent, as others have said. I will still check this season out. Thanks, OP, for posting it.

Hot

Oh my, who is playing the guy Miguel thinks might be his father in the first episode?

R17 that’s one of the most creative and cool theme-looks I’ve ever seen at a premiere or on a red carpet. Suit into a Gi🙏

If by the end of this show Johnny doesn’t eat Daniel-san out by the koi pond, then I don’t even know what we did all this for.

Daniel looks absolutely desperate for it this season. The way he was provoking Johnny..

Miguel is a Mexican Sean Mendes.

*watches Silver curbstomp babygirl Daniel*

*...*

*sighs and opens Google Docs*

Mary Mouser needs a better stage name.

R23 It makes me think of Debbie Downer

100% fresh, congrats!

I haven't seen the whole season but I liked what I have seen thus far.

Thomas Ian Griffin is just not giving a fuck and I am here for it. He understands the camp of his character. I looked him up; he retired from acting and got into writing with his wife and started back with acting on last season of Cobra Kai just because he dug the concept of the show. That's a centered fellow. A friend of mine finds him gorgeous and I even think he is a tall drink of water with a nice build. Now, he has truly studied that martial arts for years and it shows.

I know y'all men like that Tanner. He is just a downright beautiful young man. Bone structure for days and strong. He needs to mind his posture and he'll be good to go. I feel like his mother or something. He's a standout.

Chozen?! That actor was loving it. He's strong for his age if you will. Those biceps are tight on him. He just played things up to the rafters and ran with it, but I have yet to see the whole season.

R20. You can cut the sexual tension with one of Chozen's fighting knifes or something, man! When are they just going to do it already?

Robyn Lively looks great.

R27 Robyn Lively is a solid, likeable and watchable supporting actress, she should have had a better career.

Perhaps if she’d had better leading men...

She had one off camera. She got Jason Priestly dick in his prime.

Silver was definitely naked here right?

Overall, I liked this season. The Miguel's dad story was lame even though he was caliente.

R31 I feel like Silver is naked or half-naked or in a robe only as often as possible. It's an Alpha move. Like keeping his hair long.

Did nobody watch? I thought this thread would be busier.

Tanner Buchanan‘s DL thread:

Jacob is dating a girl (Peyton) and says he likes them, and I believe him...but his body language around other boys is just so babygirl? He must be flexible or bi right?

Also, beyond sardonic jokes, Gianni is not much like Demetri and that surprises me. His body language exudes confidence, kind of at odds with his babyface and young voice. Jacob leans on him through most of this video, and honestly I would too.

In this ‘Cookie Jar’ Q&A video, Xolo makes an adorable joke about Jacob’s preferences in ‘toppings’ (on food).

Jacob pings to me.

Xolo also pings to me

Jacob may ping, Xolo may ping, but Tanner is the only one who has dressed flamboyantly, in your face gay,

Ralph Macchio pings to me, quite frankly, but that may just be my radar misattributing Italian + Low Testosterone.

The de-aged/deepfaked young Johnny they used in Kreese's therapy scene was chillingly accurate, but for a few syncing issues.

The effect was used beautifully, too. Of course, in Kreese's mind and heart, Johnny is forever that promising innocent 18-year old Ace Degenerate he loved so much.

The 'Party Limo Posse' scene, which reunites Daniel's three main bullies to take on his abuser, must be the pinnacle of the whole series.

For me, it's the way Johnny & Mike have an instant himbo bond in 60 seconds of knowing each other (Mike would have been a perfect fit for Johnny's highschool biker gang), and both blow off Daniel to go and beat up on a geriatric sociopath tycoon without a second thought. And the fact that Chozen thinks this is hilarious. And they're all wasted and doing slapstick karate and cracking wise in-between the emotional dramatic outbursts from Mike Barnes. And Johnny slapping Daniel's ass(?) as jumps in the ride and speeds away. The whole three minutes is a delight.

r42 I love how they just leave him there! ;-)

“you all wanna fuck me so bad it makes you look stupid”—Daniel Larusso to every hot martial arts daddy in California

Is there a deleted scene where young Kreese and young Terry get it on?

Those shirtless scenes of Robbie and Hawk has me wet asf. Xolo didn’t have any shirtless scenes. Hmmmm

R46.

Echoing what others have said, this show got off to a great start when it was about a former villain turned failure who started to redeem himself by showing some compassion for a kid in desperate need for help. Treating Ralph Macchio as the antagonist was inspired. But then the show moved Macchio into the lead role and focused on the ridiculously cartoonish teenage drama. The huge karate fight involving a dozen kids ranging through the high school was when the show lost its footing, IMO.

Now they're fighting over territory in a water park, and Johnny is treated as a comic relief side character. Chozen was the best part of this season, but most of the rest rings pretty hollow.

This show is so bad, and yet I can't stop watching it.

R48 Season 5 really felt like a fanservice/payoff/finale season to me, and I'm not mad at it. The show's return to the Season 1 dramedy, "oh shit" moments, and more clear-cut morality (Silver being more or less irredeemable Evil) has helped re-right the ship somewhat imo. Still, I agree that the original premise has been exhausted, the middle seasons lost the magic and the point, and now we're on an even keel again it would be apt to wrap up ASAP while everyone still feels warm and fuzzy.

There will be another season, at least, because Netflix are nothing if not lake-draining assholes, but I could go for a one-and-done finale movie as the last part of this story. Just give us two intense hours of full-on hyper-saturated KK nostalgia and ridiculousness and histrionics, culminating in everyone hugging and kissing and bowing at the end, 'You're The Best Around' and then fade out. It's been a successful experiment.

Courtney is so mindblowingly hot tf this lesbian about to start barking

whatever her secret is (daily pilates & yoga? keto? good genes? actual karate?) its working overtime

people who don't see Johnny & Daniel as having romantic or sexual chemistry....i just wanna talk

Even setting aside the gay wishful-thinking agenda for a second, can I just say that I hate the aggressive heteronormativity they've pushed onto the Johnny character?

The idea that no-one can be truly happy without a stable committed romantic partner and young biological kids they're raising at home is such bullshit and so outdated, but here we are. Not everyone needs that in their life, or has access to that. Johnny could have found peace embracing his role as a mentor/defact0 father figure to Miguel, while continuing to focus on repairing his bond with Robby adult man-to-adult man, and also unabashedly continuing to enjoy his bachelor lifestyle he espoused in Season 1 and not giving a fuck about Daniel & Amanda's country club norms. But noooo, we have to have a girl-next-door romance and a baby (do Johnny's old alcoholic sperm even work anymore?), like this show is some tedious Hallmark soap opera, so that Johnny can be a 'real hero' (r: acceptably and demonstrably virile and straight and monogamous).

Johnny isn't cut out for the life into which the writers are trying to crowbar him. And Carmen deserves better, honestly. Also, how are Miguel & Robby going to explore their desires if they're stepbrothers? It's a mess.

I'd be into Johnny eating Miguel out. But tanner is catching on hawtness r17 and i agree "one of the most creative and cool theme-looks" in that gi-suit.

It's completely unrealistic that a show about teenagers taking karate class wouldn't have some gay boys on it.

They'd be all bi Trans and incl today.

I want to see Johnny's reaction to a Trans kid.

It's kind of strange to see a show thats essentially about growing up and forgiving people.

Johnny's reaction to a nonbinary kid in earlier seasons basically showed he didn't understand it very well in typical himbo fashion but also didn't care and didn't differentiate either since he treats everyone the same anyway.

I didn't like that it took so long for Daniel and Johnny's plots to converge, but Chozen and Mike were great additions. The overheard furniture store conversation was a hilarious character introduction and further showed how much of a hotheaded idiot Daniel can be. Amanda describing herself as "karate adjacent" was fucking hilarious.

Thomas Ian Griffith looks great for 60.

R56/R57 the show uses a few peripheral characters, such as Piper, to blather on about all that 'non-binary genderqueer' shit. Luckily, they only pay it lip-service, and it's framed in a wry way.

[quote] I want to see Johnny's reaction to a Trans kid.

Johnny doesn't even give a second of critical interested thought to basic sane long-established feminism or gay rights ideas, let alone the fake manipulative wokester 3rd Wave varieties of either with all the regressive 'look over here' bells & whistles. He may be a nice accepting guy now and an *Ex*-degenerate, but he's still Johnny Lawrence and still an ageing jerk-jock at the end of the day. Sadly, he's exactly the kind of earnest shallow idiot who'd probably go along with T and not question the ludicrous backwards phobic insanity of it, so he could seem cool and in-touch with the kids he teaches, or so he could pick up hot faux-lib Millennial/Zillennial girls.

If Sylvester Stallone and Josh Hutcherson had a baby, it’d be Ralph Macchio at r51.

Game: Who would you rather Top, Bottom, blow from Tanner, Jacob, Xolo?

R62 Jacob's body language screams bottom, a cute giggly skinny little Pisces boy. Tanner's eyes would look so pretty to look down into while getting licked. I don't find Xolo attractive, so I'll take Gianni to top.

[quote]Johnny isn't cut out for the life into which the writers are trying to crowbar him. And Carmen deserves better, honestly.

I see it as him doing a reboot and attempting to do things "correctly" this time. He failed at his relationship with Robbie's mom and he failed at raising Robbie for years. Miguel helped him realize that he could be a good parent to Robbie and now he'll possibly end up as a step-parent to him for real. So this time he'll be a good partner for Carmen and a good parent to their baby. I just have to keep reminding myself the character is younger than the actor.

And I think he and Carmen represent people that aren't going to be as rich as Daniel and Amanda. So there's a nice parallel there.

I like the fact that he's still a dumb jock asshole and he hasn't suddenly become more intelligent. I also like the fact that Daniel is still an impulsive hot head at times.

The show knows that it can be campy and cheesy as hell and it doesn't ever try to be more than that. I respect it for that.

Also it still looks cheap as hell and does well so I wouldn't be surprised if the normally cancel happy Netflix gave them one more season.

R63 You can’t switch out names with the game!

Top- Tanner Bottom- Jacob Suck- Xolo

R65 bitch I can do what I want🙃this is a no-stakes schoolyard game on a gossip forum and no one cares that much

R66 come on! Stick to the rules that’s the fun part. Pretty please?

R62 they’re all bottoms!

[quote] Johnny's reaction to a nonbinary kid in earlier seasons basically showed he didn't understand it very well in typical himbo fashion

Because there’s nothing to understand. It’s homophobic, reactionary, made-up Trojan Horse bullshit.

Johnny is dumb, that much is true, but I think his bullshit detector works ok.

I would top Tanner.

Bottom for Jacob

Suck Xolo.

Dude who plays Silver is fucking scary/hot. Has he been in anything gay?

R71 Ewww

Tanner's hole maybe?

I didn’t feel this season had enough quality character interactions. It was all Silver, fights, Silver, fights, on and on. I wanted more Jacob Bertrand!

Silver was the most alluring and fascinating part of the current show for me. So of course now he's in jail.

Do wish that we'd had less of Silver being generally High Camp EeeeeeeeVIL, and maybe several more subtle scenes of him manipulating, gaslighting and seducing Daniel some more like he did in KK3. The chemistry and dynamic there is intriguing, to the point it transcends the cartoony feel of the rest of the show.

Robbie has reached peak twink status.

Peyton List (Tori) is apparently the biggest star on the show at this point. She has over 20 million followers on IG and has her own beauty line.

What I think is strange, what is she doing dating Jacob Bertrand (Hawk)? He seems like too much of a geek for her.

I would be okay if this was the final season.

Surprised Hilary Swank never made a cameo.

I'm only five episodes in, but this feels like a major improvement over the last two seasons, IMO.

Season 6 we are gonna need Mike & Johnny to give each other entirely platonic and chill Hayjays at the Eagle Fang dojo.

Someone on another thread said Tanner looked like Nancy McKeon and now I can never not see it.

That was me! You're welcome!

Xolo shouldn't slick or oil his hair anymore. Makes him look like El Debarge.

Real-life karate senseis have rated this show highly. Here's one:

R77 Because Jacob Bertrand is freaking hot.

No R77 is right actually, it’s a weird pairing.

Peyton (and indeed her character Tori) seem like girls who should be dating older, tougher more masc men. Like a biker in his 40s. She just has that vibe of an assertive, go-getting and forward-thinking woman who wants a MAN.

In recent interviews, she doesn’t seem to have much chemistry with Jacob, either. If you didn’t already know they were a young new couple, it would be hard to guess. Maybe they’re just super professional and private, but....idk I’m not convinced🤔

I get dyke vibes from her and gay vibes from him.

She seems very much like Miley Cyrus, down to the oddly deep voice.

in the R86 video Gianni flirts with Jacob every few minutes while Peyton sits there simmering and staring into the camera angrily like she's on The Office lol

and it's not even that subtle? a lot of fleeting touches and eye contact and little injokes they keep making like the camera isn't on them even though it's picking up everything. they mostly only look at or respond to each other. plus a saucy airkiss from Gianni. it's like ffs just sit in his lap Jacob you clearly want to

You just know Jacob can fuck.

R90, maybe because I only know him as his character, but this hawk looks like in the bedroom he's still learning how to fly..

R88 Peyton has in the past worked some D!sney events with the cast of 'Hannah Montana' (but not Miley herself)

R91 yeah i can't imagine gentle sweet breakable little Jacob throwing a mean fuck at all, he looks like a trembling flower.

Watch Jacob in those fight scenes. He has intensity in those eyes. He’d leave yo rectum broke.

R94 mate that's called acting lmao

Bet you anything Peyton gives Jacob the strap and he loves it

I'm really enjoying the addition of Chozen to this season. It gives the series a more legitimately Japanese vibe that I felt had started to become lacking.

R96 recently I found out that the Japanese titles of The Karate Kid movies translate back to English as ‘The Best Kid’ or ‘The Best (Around) Kid’. That made me laugh to discover. It’s more accurate, for a start, as the amount of actual decent Kara-te featured in the original movies is negligible.

What shocked me is learning that fresh-faced Peyton & Mary are quite a few years older than their young male castmates—24 and 26 years old respectively, playing opposite College-freshmen and high school graduate age boys.

Except Joe Seo, the man who plays high school teen bully Kyler. He’s literally 32 years old. Good for him! He doesn’t look a day over 19.

WTF...Kyler is 32 in real life? Damn.

Kyler? Jesus Christ.

^^yep, Seo was born mid-1990–just a year after ‘The Karate Kid Pt. III’ was released...

So when Seo was born, Ralph Macchio was only a couple years younger than Seo is now. Crazy👟

Loved that scene of Amanda walking out on Daniel. Courtney looked stunning in it.

Wish Amanda hadn't gone back to Daniel, though. After all that Daniel's war put her family and business through, she should have filed papers.

More Teen Vogue content with the young main cast.

Why do Gen Z all seem to dress like...this? Nothing matches, nothing flatters, nothing fits, nothing makes any kind of statement that I want to hear. And I thought Millennial fashion when I was their age in the early 2010s was awful...

Mary Mouser looks adorable in red.

Like others have said upthread, I just don't see Peyton & Jacob as a couple. She's clearly a grown professional woman and he's like a kid still.

"Don't Out me!"--Gianni, about his Diet Coke addiction

Jacob apparently keeps his fridge at home stocked with Cokes just for Gianni alone to drink. That's so fucking cute. Wish I had love like that in my life.

Did anyone else not realise Jacob & Xolo have their own fun little podcast?

It's called Lone Lobos, and they've been doing it for two years already (over 50 episodes), which in terms of celebrity consistency is pretty good. I like it, they talk about a lot of fun random topics in a laid back way, and interact with their fans and with guests (usually other tv actors) quite a bit.

R107 in the latest episode Xolo says his celeb crushes are Zoe Kravitz and Oscar Isaac - is that a low key coming out?

Netflix Is A Joke channel has run the script for CK S01E01 through a bot, and the results are hilarious.

R108

no interest in Xolo's potential bisexuality?

I’m interested R110!!

Xolo's one of those weird cases for me where it's like--he *should* do something for me, objectively cute and smart and sweet and talented and quirky as he is--but still it isn't coming together? And despite the aforementioned the whole package is still leaving me cold? I feel like a shitheel for not being more hype about him or about Miguel, but the heart wants what it wants and I just don't care. Respect to his fans though, they're valid.

But I'm in a weird place with the show overall. Honestly I'm only still watching CK for Terry Silver camp, MILF Amanda, and waiting to see how the writers are going to queerbait with Binary Bros or LawRusso next. Everything else is boring me. CK kind of lost me with the younger kids and with mishandling Sam.

A few random thoughts:

in an interview from the 80s, Macchio had serious doubts about the quality of the original movie. He thought the whole thing was cornball. Then he started to hear some rumblings about how good he and Morita were in dailies. He was officially onboard when he attended a public screening and saw how well it played.

During the press tour for karate Kid Part III, I think Macchio was playing it up like it was a return to the spirit of the original and an improvement over the second one. In a Q&A from a few years ago, he had some good things to say about Part II and really shaded Part III.

Sean Kanan has aged well. Weird politics and not much of an actor, though.

R113 Macchio has a lot of negative shit to say for someone who was given a lot of breaks and didn’t do much with them.

I don't get the love for Terry Silver, he's creepy and unattractive, to me. He reminds me in creepiness of John Huston, who I always found creepy. He's creepy.

Creepy.

In one of the cast interview things Peyton (I think, or maybe Mary) says Xolo is hard to figure out. I feel that too. It's like you can't categorize him or say he's one thing or another. Not talking about sexuality. I just don't feel you can get a handle on him, he is either shallow or very deep, idk. I would like him for a boyfriend, though. He's so cute, he has the warmest eyes and beautiful lips.

Tanner is gorgeous but with a weird profile, he has a kind of round chin with no discrnible jawline.

Maybe it's just me and my salt talking, but I hate the idea that professional deadbeat and traumatised dude Johnny Lawrence is having an accidental redemption baby at 50 years old, with a local MILF who is clearly settling for him for the sake of the kid she already has (and maybe for the fact that Johnny's buff for his age). I have always hated the trope that babies will always get an adult to mature, settle and plant roots, but the way CK has written this is offensive and childish and weak writing on many deeper levels than that.

Carmen exists SOLELY to be Johnny’s moral Geiger counter and Designated Stupid Woman, and every time she does challenge Johnny she’s conveniently and conspicuously wrong. She doesn’t want her well-adjusted, sweet, smart kid to learn karate? Well, silly Carmen doesn’t realize violent kids are bullying her son! She’ll never understand the problems young men face! Carmen wants to start dating again? Well, naive Carmen has trash taste in men and she’d obviously end up grievously hurt or worse if Johnny wasn’t her stumbling White Knight fixing her problems (by accident). Carmen wants a certified PT to help her beloved only son to walk again (post-injury due to the sport Johnny teaches him)? Well, out-of-touch limited fusspot Frau Carmen, insane people with cinder blocks and skin mags are actually the real Mans' remedy for that.

And then the salt in the wound is the formulaic forgiveness speech from Carmen to assure Johnny he was right all along....after all the fuck-ups he helped obliviously create in the first place (in previous seasons) I reached their natural bloody conclusion. Johnny has never had to have as much accountability as he should, and even when he takes the barest portion of responsibility or remedial action in the show it's treated like an absolution.

Which is the other big reason why this baby doesn't work. It is yet another accidental thing Happening To Johnny. Consider: the Crane Kick HAPPENED to Johnny, and he didn’t get over it. Kreese strangling him in public HAPPENED to Johnny, and he’s so traumatized by it that he's let it shape his entire adult life. Mr. Miyagi saving his life HAPPENED to him. All this is background unresolved trauma that CK writers have mined but in all the wrong ways, because Johnny isn't gaining perspective or changing course enough, just starting a new cycle of the same old with Carmen & Miguel rather than Shannon & Robby. (Also, Carmen would want an abortion after the Roe v. Wade repeal and the writers are cowards for skirting the issue. Realistically, poor single parent Carmen won’t be able to work with X-rays while preggers, so guess whose entire personality is getting reduced to just 'dependent Mom'?)

So it's a sad waste of characters. What we all love seeing in CK are the things our protagonist Johnny does on purpose (and note, half the time it’s to spite or to assuage Daniel). Daniel LaRusso ribbed me when we crossed paths and he saw I needed help, then against expectation proceeded to fix my car for free? Well, if he's going to rub his success in my face then I’m going to ressurrect Cobra Kai, that’ll show him! Daniel is lobbying against my dojo joining the All Valley because he thinks I’m violent, impulsive and stupid? Well, I’m going to make the effort to show him I’ve changed (even if it’s just for 15 seconds every episode) because I've realised my students mean more to me than punching him. Daniel gifted me a new car? On purpose, I am going to give it the ugliest trashiest matte paint job known to man, because I want him to know that I'm no charity case and his fancy shit and his Country Club values mean nothing to me! When Johnny acts with a purpose, things change and sometimes improve, or at least resolve--that's good effective character writing. Which is the reason the Johnny/Daniel dynamic works to spur plot, as they can't help but one-up each other and push back on what the other wants or needs to do. But clearly, the focus of the show is now off the core dynamic and onto some boring inert domestic/school drama bullshit...

R116 Wow, no offense but who watches a show like this, this closely? It's just shallow entertainment. People are flawed, if they find someone it's usually because their flaws fit together somehow. Maybe there are people who are really like Carmen and Johnny and they find each other? So what? Why do they have to represent some textbook ideal of feminism? Yikes.

[QUOTE] In one of the cast interview things Peyton (I think, or maybe Mary) says Xolo is hard to figure out. I feel that too. It's like you can't categorize him or say he's one thing or another. Not talking about sexuality. I just don't feel you can get a handle on him, he is either shallow or very deep, idk. I would like him for a boyfriend, though. He's so cute, he has the warmest eyes and beautiful lips.

He also knows how to present hole

R118 from this interview, ~12 mins in

It's kind of refreshing not to have a token main gay character on a show for a change. People are so picky about it, anyway (Will Byers, Stranger Things) I don't blame the writers for avoiding it. Anyway these are 16 year olds and we're not even sure the straights are having sexual relationships (it's not depicted on the show).

The reddit discussion threads are so much more interesting.

[Quote] It's kind of refreshing not to have a token main gay character on a show for a change. People are so picky about it, anyway (Will Byers, Stranger Things) I don't blame the writers for avoiding it. Anyway these are 16 year olds and we're not even sure the straights are having sexual relationships (it's not depicted on the show).

You sound like such a lapdog.

R121 link? or at least share the interesting stuff

R122 Who do you thjink I'm being a lapdog for, exactly?

Meh! Amanda was the voice of reason and once she went over to the Cobra Kai adj. side, the show jumped the shark. I enjoyed the the season for what it was, but the show lacks the impact that it had in seasons 1 and 2. I'll happily watch another season, but it's time to wrap this up. The cast's karate was better in the first couple of seasons as well. Zabka, Jacob, Tanner, and Peyton are probably the best fighters in the series.

Fuck off r120

The fact that a show about a Karate class isn't filled with teenage gay people, boys in particular is unbelievable in the extreme. That's the main reason I don't watch this show because that aspect is so ridiculous . Gay youth have been going to martial arts classes forever and for obvious reasons. The learn to defend themselves from bullies, It's a great method of exercise that doesn't involve team sports which gay boys love like gymnastics and Cross Country.

If their are 20 people in this shows Dojo I would conservatively estimate that AT LEAST 5 or 6 of the boys should be lgbtq

This show doesn't have the balls to be realistic.

R126 First, what is wrong if a show is about straight people? My point was, every show doesn't need to be about gay people or have a major gay character. So what if 6 of the boys may be lgbtq (I'll go with your statistic, even though you made it up) - it doesn't mean they're the main characters of the show. I don't think there has to be a quota where every show has to present a major gay character. How many high school kids are out as gay? There is a bi girl character on the show (Hawk's girlfriend, I forget her name). There isn't a major black character on the show, either. Ultimately the show can do whatever they want and you don't have to watch it if you don't like it.

Interesting... you mentioned about NOT having a token gay character in your defense of the show. And now you're bringing up HAVING a token bi character in your defense of the show...

R128 I really wasn't making a defense of the show either time. I was mentioning in the second instance, that there's a bi character on the show since you never mentioned that in your criticism of the show, that's all.

r127

Of course I made it up and I never said it was a statistic. It's an observation based on anecdotal evidence.

You sound like a gay uncle Tom.

R127, there was a major black character on the show this season. A young kid who was bullied relentlessly by Daniel's son, joined Cobra Kai, got cocky and went a little overboard with his vengeance.

It would be kind of cool to see a gay male kid on this show. The producers have gone out of their way to be diverse in every other way. It has been fun to watch stuck-in-the-80s sexist Johnny work with young women. He's also a homophobe; why not give him an arc where he mentors and grows to respect a gay kid.

In the first couple of seasons, the show had a really interesting character, Aisha. She was one of the funniest characters on the show. She was half white and half black and overweight; she had joined CK because she was bullied a lot. She was heartless on the mat, and often beat up the boys she was paired against. She was snarky, and it was fun watching her interact with Johnny. But the show dumped her. She posted on social media that it wasn't her decision. I get the feeling that she wasn't glam enough for the usage the show wanted to portray. (She was heavy with short hair.). sure, it's ok to have teen boy characters who are nerdy, overweight, and awkward looking, but all the girls have to look like instamodels. That's when I stopped watching. It was getting boring and repetitive anyway.

In the first couple of seasons, the show had a really interesting character, Aisha. She was one of the funniest characters on the show.

She wasn't that interesting, or funny, to me, but she was likeable. I thought they were bringing her back in the future?

[quote]there was a major black character on the show this season. A young kid who was bullied relentlessly by Daniel's son, joined Cobra Kai, got cocky and went a little overboard with his vengeance.

Oh yeah, I completely forgot this character, because this storyline was like watching the Disney Channel. I guess they introduced main characters this young because Daniel's son needed to to be on the show more. It seems to be to appeal to the younger viewers but I felt the show shouldn't have started to feathure a storyline with children, it was really boring to me.

Soory, this part should have been in quotes:

[quote]In the first couple of seasons, the show had a really interesting character, Aisha. She was one of the funniest characters on the show.

I spent the past week watching all five seasons and honestly the most homoerotic relationship on the show is the one between Johnny and Miguel. I'm sure it's unintentional but they combine the age-old mentor-student sexual tension (samurai shudo, erastes and eromenos) with a truckload of more contemporary romance tropes:

-In the pilot, Miguel is the damsel in distress who triggers the start of Johnny's journey. -At pretty much every juncture of the story, they act as catalysts for the other to change/better himself. -Johnny is repeatedly pressed to choose between Miguel and someone/something else he desires. He always chooses Miguel (and vice versa). This tendency is the foremost reason for his alienated relationship with his own son for most of the show. -Only Johnny is able to bring Miguel back from the brink of death. Only Johnny is able to get Miguel to walk again. -Johnny can't get hard for Carmen. Why? Because he can't stop thinking about Miguel. -When the two couples (Robby/Tory and Miguel/Sam) fight at the junior prom, Robby knows that the thing that will hurt Miguel the most isn't Sam, but Johnny. Miguel goes home devastated and finds Johnny (i.e. Johnny is the person he's left with at the end of prom night). He takes care of him, confesses his love, and is "rejected." This pushes him into a downward spiral and leads him to flee the country. -Miguel's hot dad turns out to be a jerk, but Johnny's waiting with open arms. They embrace, with Robby looking on awkwardly, completely excluded from the intimacy between them.

Of course, a show where one of the characters is consistently referred to as Penis Breath isn't going to have any prominent gay characters, much less a textual older/younger, mentor/student relationship, but the foundation is there. And actually, the all-consuming Johnny/Miguel bond is the heart of the show.

Edit, formatting:

I spent the past week watching all five seasons and honestly the most homoerotic relationship on the show is the one between Johnny and Miguel. I'm sure it's unintentional but they combine the age-old mentor-student sexual tension (samurai shudo, erastes and eromenos) with a truckload of more contemporary romance tropes: In the pilot, Miguel is the damsel in distress who triggers the start of Johnny's journey.

[quote]At pretty much every juncture of the story, they act as catalysts for the other to change/better himself.

[quote]Johnny is repeatedly pressed to choose between Miguel and someone/something else he desires. He always chooses Miguel (and vice versa). This tendency is the foremost reason for his alienated relationship with his own son for most of the show.

[quote]Only Johnny is able to bring Miguel back from the brink of death. Only Johnny is able to get Miguel to walk again.

[quote]Johnny can't get hard for Carmen. Why? Because he can't stop thinking about Miguel.

[quote]When the two couples (Robby/Tory and Miguel/Sam) fight at the junior prom, Robby knows that the thing that will hurt Miguel the most isn't Sam, but Johnny. Miguel goes home devastated and finds Johnny (i.e. Johnny is the person he's left with at the end of prom night). He takes care of him, confesses his love, and is "rejected." This pushes him into a downward spiral and leads him to flee the country.

[quote]Miguel's hot dad turns out to be a jerk, but Johnny's waiting with open arms. They embrace, with Robby looking on awkwardly, completely excluded from the intimacy between them.

Of course, a show where one of the characters is consistently referred to as Penis Breath isn't going to have any prominent gay characters, much less a textual older/younger, mentor/student relationship, but the foundation is there. And actually, the all-consuming Johnny/Miguel bond is the heart of the show.

[quote] It has been fun to watch stuck-in-the-80s sexist Johnny work with young women. He's also a homophobe; why not give him an arc where he mentors and grows to respect a gay kid.

Is Johnny an outright homophobe, per se? He seems more lazily kneejerk ignorant and uninterested, than bigoted.

I would call him more an avowed sexist than a homophobe (as far as I'm aware he's called people "pussies", but never "f*****s"), and he's overcome much of the sexism via Aisha/Sam etc., so.

The reason I never started watching this show is that they don't have any gay male characters among the students. Self-defense/martial arts classes have gay boys in them for obvious reasons. I didn't think the show was realistic.

^the show is written by middle-aged straight bros, who in order to create a personal utopia in their cute little sandpit only want to cast attainably-hot pretty shapely females over whom they can secretly perv, and roguish boyish guys & men onto whom they can project their highschool revenge fantasies (guess Ralph Macchio came with the franchise so they couldn't jettison him).

Meaning there is no call for gays (except hot LUG girls in floaty skimpy clothes we can watch kissing, obviously), cripples (except temporary and surmountable manful injuries to dashing lead protags), or fat and GNC and uggo women (who's Aisha? Never heard of her).

When you view the show through the POV of the writers, it all makes disappointing sense.

I loved Aisha. She brought a great energy and authenticity to the show. I cringed when she got unceremoniously jettisoned at the start of S3 with that awkward conversation between the two girls.

The youth storylines would be greatly improved if at least one of the younger leads were gay. The Miguel and Sam relationship was cute at first but by the end of five seasons it's unbearably repetitive and tedious. Robby for his part has no chemistry with any female character he's paired with. Moon and Yasmine might as well be cardboard cutouts for all they bring to their relationships with Eli and Demetri. And Tory's only interesting dynamic is with Sam.

They missed a trick with not making Robby gay. It would mesh well with his alienation and loner tendencies and would add a lot of meat to his relationships with Johnny and Miguel. Kreese would've been a master at using his knowledge of Robby's orientation to gain his confidence and manipulate him.

[quote] Robby for his part has no chemistry with any female character he's paired with.

Robby/Shawn from juvie endgame don't @ me

[quote] Moon and Yasmine might as well be cardboard cutouts for all they bring to their relationships with Eli and Demetri.

The girls are there as sexy-shaped buffers to make the Demetri/Eli friendship seem less gay-coded. That's literally their only function. Which makes their portrayal even more offensive than if they just weren't in the show at all.

I think Cobra Kai discriminates against the elderly. Not talking about 60 year old Ralph Macchio, I mean the 65+ elderly like Sid Weinberg, Armand Zakarian, and John Kreese. All those characters are assholes. Why don't they shave any nice older-guy characters? The old women are okay - Daniel's mom and Miguel's pothead grandmother. But the guys, uh-uh.

Why don't they *have* any nice older-guy characters?

R142 the story focuses on the lives of Gen X parents and their snot nosed teen Gen Z/Alpha kids, and these days both younger parents & teens are age groups that are known to have a limited field of social vision (I.e. all they care about and perceive us their kids/themselves). Again, it’s a particular narrow POV choice by the writers that excludes anything outside of its own interest.

There’s also like maybe two or three Millennial aged characters who speak in the whole show, and they’re bit parts. Because the show is not interested in 27-30 something aged people, like it isn’t interested in the over 60s.

[quote] They missed a trick with not making Robby gay. It would mesh well with his alienation and loner tendencies and would add a lot of meat to his relationships with Johnny and Miguel. Kreese would've been a master at using his knowledge of Robby's orientation to gain his confidence and manipulate him.

This would have been so smart and subversive, and the straight audience would not have seen it coming.

Robby already acts like Sam's bestie not her ex-boyfriend or brother, and the way he looks at Miguel is clearly not brotherly either (though this goes over the straights heads). And you're so right that his story would be a perfect allegory for the experience of growing up gay as well as growing up poor & neglected (society disenfranchises, ignores and tries to erase us).

And it would draw him to the CK dojo, too--the idea of a masculinity so toxic it has a chance of taking away the quality that he perceives is isolating him from everyone and making him seem lesser in the eyes of others. It could even take the form of vendetta-mindset; shades of the homophobe-bashing Justin was involved with in 'Queer As Folk'. Silver tried to seduce Daniel, once, so there's no question that he'd intuit Robby's deal and exploit him for it even worse.

Well, R145, Tanner apparently loves skater boys. So who knows?

Huh? r146

R144 You're right. Good observations. But not caring about these characters is different from going out of their way to make them unattractive/evil. Like, God forbid the LaRusso kids have a nice grandad on their mom's side. It still seems a little weird.

^fair. I agree that it’s strange that the only grandparent that Sam & Anthony seem to have in their life is Lucille. Like where are Amanda’s parents? She seems well-heeled and well-raised from a stable background, you’d think one or both would be constantly around the house.

[quote] not caring about these characters is different from going out of their way to make them unattractive/evil.

The main Millennial characters are just pointless doormat Anoush, Stingray the creepy manchild (aligned with evil Silver), and any nameless plastic Cali barfly or Frau that Johnny happens to find noticeably hot enough in passing. Ymmv but I wouldn’t call that ‘attractive’ or meaningful representation, either.

And I get that it’s not a show really designed for Gen Y consumption or appreciation. Maybe we needn’t appear much or be involved. But it’s so weird to sideline Gen Y this much, because Millennials are nostalgically connected to the Karate Kid movies, especially Part 3 of The originally trilogy and The Next Karate Kid. Millennials are even called the ‘nostalgia generation’ by some. So why not just include or introduce one interesting, heroic B/C character in their late 20s-30s?

Could easily write in, say, an illegitimate child of Silver or Kreese or Dutch (he seemed the type to knock up a girl young and ditch her) who disavows their father, or one of Robby’s former fellow hustlers/gang leaders gone straight, or even a niece/nephew/little sibling to Julie if we really aren’t ever getting Hilary Swank. They could act as a dojo employee Johnny & Daniel take on to reduce workload, or a concerned new trainee teacher at the school taken aback by the Karate wars, or some kind of youth mentor/counsellor trying to prevent local violence in the community from further rising. I would have said a hunky PT to help with Miguel’s recovery, but he inexplicably seems 100% fine after just two seasons😔

[quote] So why not just include or introduce one interesting, heroic B/C character in their late 20s-30s?

I don't know, but maybe it's because some of the actors playing teens are almost that age, Mary Mouser is 26, playing 17. So if you put her next to a 28 year old playing 28, it could be awkward!

No everyone has to be included in everything.

^well I for one demand to see a mallgoth and a val/vsco girl and a juggalo in this production

If the show is about a woman's prison then I don't expect to see any gay guys on that show but if the show is about a bunch of teens learning how to fight at a fucking Dojo then yeah I expect to see a bunch of gay boys on that show.

But that's fine. They don't have to do it. I just won't watch. They have been on for 5 seasons. They don't need me.

This was a fantastic show for the first couple of seasons. The best scenes remain between Miguel and Johnnie, which are frequently less and less. Season 5 was weak for me. I am glad they are wrapping it up in season 6. This is a great model on how to do a fresh take on nostalgia. I wish Daniel and stayed more of a peripheral character to Johnnie's anti-hero.

R154 as much as I hate to admit it, imo the YouTube (Red) team really knew how to produce, promote and pilot the show, but Netflix just didn't have a clue and kind of ruined the property or allowed it to be ruined by the writers' room.

Agreed, the first two seasons were the best, with the right character focus and the right balance between action, drama, humor, and camp. I think they spread themselves thin in the later seasons with trying to tell too many characters' stories without increasing the number of episodes. It ends up being pretty shallow with occasional flashes of the old magic (usually found in Johnny/Miguel or Johnny/Daniel scenes). Season 5 starts off pretty strong with the Miguel-Johnny-Robby dynamic front and center, but then that just gets shunted to the back burner to make room for endless scenes of Terry Silver and his minions chewing the scenery.

R156 for me, LawRusso is really the core dynamic of the series, or should be. Now it's been sidelined for school drama, the show is more or less unwatchable for me.

I can't stand the actor who plays Anthony LaRusso.

R158 I’m happy for the young actor that he got in shape and that he hung onto his role, but the Anthony character is so pointless and unlikeable. Put him on a bus.

If this were real life, Carmen would have got an abortion, ditched Johnny and started dating a doctor at the hospital where she works; Amanda would have divorced Daniel and moved away with the kids to a nicer locale, maybe even out of state; Tory & Robby would both have dropped out again and jumped on OF to pay their bills, doing increasingly gross things for tips; Eli would be a heartbroken NEET shut-in after Demetri got into an accelerated program that sent him to MIT a year early and stopped staying in touch; Silver would murder-suic!de himself & Kreese, leaving all his money to Libertarian causes.

True, R157. I think Johnny and Daniel's relationship is the draw for most long-time fans of the franchise (even if Johnny and Miguel are the mirrored Miyagi-Daniel dynamic). They have a few good moments in the latter seasons, like the hockey game, the tied duel, and their collaboration in the All Valley finals at the end of S4...but there's just not enough. The worst was that stretch of middle school episodes that felt like a completely different show.

Thanks for recommending the podcast, R107. I'm a few months into the backlog and am not at all surprised by how much of a freak Xolo is. He's already talked about signing up as bisexual to a Jewish dating site, wanting to be pegged by AOC, and object stimulation of his prostate (with his mother off-camera, no less).

What I am surprised by is how much I enjoy Jacob. I came for Xolo and I ended up really liking both of them.

R162 what episode does he talk about his prostate? that sounds relevant to my interests...

[quote]what episode does he talk about his prostate? that sounds relevant to my interests...

It's actually in the live episode on their YouTube channel (also in podcast version, titled "A Lone Lobos Live Stream"). He answers a question from a hat that asks him which Hot Wheels car he'd stick up his butt if he had to smuggle it somewhere. He says a Ducati, then adds "with a sidecar," because he needs to stimulate his G spot.

In the most recent episode I listened to he was thirsting over Timothee Chalamet's shirtless outfit at the 2022 Academy Awards.

[quote] He answers a question from a hat that asks him which Hot Wheels car he'd stick up his butt if he had to smuggle it somewhere.

Broadcasting really shouldn't be available to everyone as a side hustle. It's just making everyone dumber and more embarrassing.

I'm not a fan of the Karate Kid franchise. I saw the first movie when I was in my 20s and it seemed too simplistic and another one of those 80s movies where the good guy wins in the end and you go home feeling good. It was cute, and I liked it okay. I liked Macchio in The Outsiders but as Daniel in the Karate Kid movies he wasn't the most subtle actor. I wasn't surprised he failed to find a movie career outside of the franchise (I never saw the sequels). But I liked him.

I have no idea why I ended up watching Cobra Kai, but I like it much more than The Karate Kid. Some things about it bug me, I'm really surprised at the level of violence on a show a lot of teens and pre-teens watch, which people would have been up in arms about a few decades ago but no one seems to care about any more. But it's just a more adult and entertaining show than the movies were. Zabka is better than Macchio, I still don't think he's particularly an outstanding actor. But he does have that likeable quality.

Wonder what meathead Brahs and Netflix drones and straight kids will watch when this show ends? It captures a particular demo, and there isn't really another current show like it on the air right now.

R167 And yet a lot of people here seem to watch it...

I just got to the Lone Lobos episode where Xolo laughs at the people on their subreddit posting his nudes. It's good to know he took it in stride.

Season six update tonight

If Demetri & Eli aren’t kissing and coming out in the final season then I don’t even want to see it😕

None of the male characters are gay which is unrealistic.

None of the male characters are gay which is unrealistic.