Cobra Kai: Season 3 - all episodes
January 1, 2021 2:39 PM - Season 3 (Full Season) - Subscribe
Miguel's fighting for his life, Robby's missing, and Daniel and Johnny's reputations are in tatters as the community reacts to the West Valley High School brawl.
Decider - ‘Cobra Kai’ Fans: Avoid Every Season 3 Review (Except This One): "I didn’t write this article to provide you with a very accurate and super fun lesson about American history. Nor did I write this post because my editor said I “had to” despite having many other articles about the third season of Cobra Kai (which is premiering early!) already written. I wrote this, dare I say it, trenchant review for two reasons: 1. To recommend that my fellow Cobra Kai fans avoid spoilers for optimal Season 3 viewing. 2. To simply say that if you enjoyed the first two seasons of Cobra Kai, you’ll fall head over heels in love with Season 3."
EW Review - Cobra Kai's meandering third season builds to an awesomely emotional finale: Netflix's silly-smart Karate Kid reboot gets a lot better when everyone agrees to do karate again.
Variety - ‘Cobra Kai’ Season 3 Cast on Martin Kove: ‘He Is Kreese On and Off Set’
Den of Geek - Cobra Kai Season 3: Breaking Down the Karate Kid Part II Easter Eggs
Cobra Kai Season 3 Rotten Tomatoes page
Decider - ‘Cobra Kai’ Fans: Avoid Every Season 3 Review (Except This One): "I didn’t write this article to provide you with a very accurate and super fun lesson about American history. Nor did I write this post because my editor said I “had to” despite having many other articles about the third season of Cobra Kai (which is premiering early!) already written. I wrote this, dare I say it, trenchant review for two reasons: 1. To recommend that my fellow Cobra Kai fans avoid spoilers for optimal Season 3 viewing. 2. To simply say that if you enjoyed the first two seasons of Cobra Kai, you’ll fall head over heels in love with Season 3."
EW Review - Cobra Kai's meandering third season builds to an awesomely emotional finale: Netflix's silly-smart Karate Kid reboot gets a lot better when everyone agrees to do karate again.
Variety - ‘Cobra Kai’ Season 3 Cast on Martin Kove: ‘He Is Kreese On and Off Set’
Den of Geek - Cobra Kai Season 3: Breaking Down the Karate Kid Part II Easter Eggs
Cobra Kai Season 3 Rotten Tomatoes page
It was a bit weird seeing all the kids look almost Steve Buscemi-old.
I really want to like this season, but I'm worried that it'll either escalate past credulity or go all weepy.
Zabka keeps delivering. Ineffectiveness of school administration and stupid parents rings true.
posted by porpoise at 4:00 PM on January 1, 2021
I really want to like this season, but I'm worried that it'll either escalate past credulity or go all weepy.
Zabka keeps delivering. Ineffectiveness of school administration and stupid parents rings true.
posted by porpoise at 4:00 PM on January 1, 2021
I really like this season because it did manage to snap out of the worst of melodrama imo and course corrected though I think in large part many of the plot points are paying off inc the kids not just being extensions of the adults' nonsense (though by the end of the season, while i can see the reasoning once the rival dojo kids stood in pairs, I'm still meh that Aisha got written out). So far I feel they got their nostalgia tripping flow back but maybe I'm just satisfied Daniel gets two (2!) episodes of his Japanese*/Miyagi side and not just the usual 0.75 to 1 ep per season. In large part why I also felt the season worked is because Amanda is still the MVP to me and within the heightened reality of this world of fairly useless adults, Daniel and Johnny gets checked a lot by other characters for their bullshit, and Johnny's still a long way from not being a troglodyte with his casual slurs (and also, mm yeah this is why cobra kai sucks and is appropriative - not only kreese passed off a form of korean tae kwon do as karate, but it's not like johnny ever appreciated japanese culture re: his barbaric way of eating sushi). Zabka is still hitting it out of the ballpark though. And those 80s cheesecake pics! Everyone's a good sport in this show and this is why I'm still here.
*It never really got emphasized in this IP but I super cheered up when Chozen pointed out the anti-japanese colonisation roots of Okinawan karate (what, I'm southeast asian....)
I definitely cackled at the grade school japanese font used in the ancient crane kick scroll though. And i definitely cackled the hardest when it DOES look like Terry Silver's returning (and based on the recent ep of Josh Gad's Reunited, possibly so are the karate henchmen of Silver)
posted by cendawanita at 8:01 PM on January 1, 2021
*It never really got emphasized in this IP but I super cheered up when Chozen pointed out the anti-japanese colonisation roots of Okinawan karate (what, I'm southeast asian....)
I definitely cackled at the grade school japanese font used in the ancient crane kick scroll though. And i definitely cackled the hardest when it DOES look like Terry Silver's returning (and based on the recent ep of Josh Gad's Reunited, possibly so are the karate henchmen of Silver)
posted by cendawanita at 8:01 PM on January 1, 2021
It seems I am willing to look past almost any number of ridiculous narrative contrivances if they result in an amusing and heartwarming reunion scene. How long can they keep this up? I don't even remember enough from the third movie to have my nostalgia mined.
posted by skewed at 8:38 AM on January 4, 2021
posted by skewed at 8:38 AM on January 4, 2021
Dee Snider took me out of the world a little bit. Considering the amount of disbelief that one must suspend to spend time in the Cobra Kai-verse, I'm not sure why it did, but it did.
Johnny Lawrence, a lifelong Southern Californian who has t-shirts from Van Halen's 1980 Invasion tour and Pushead-era Metallica, does not think that the baddest-ass rocker ever is some cornball from Queens with a syndicated radio show.
(Dee Snider's performance during the height of the PMRC era was pretty bad-ass, but Johnny Lawrence doesn't know about that.)
posted by box at 9:59 AM on January 4, 2021 [2 favorites]
Johnny Lawrence, a lifelong Southern Californian who has t-shirts from Van Halen's 1980 Invasion tour and Pushead-era Metallica, does not think that the baddest-ass rocker ever is some cornball from Queens with a syndicated radio show.
(Dee Snider's performance during the height of the PMRC era was pretty bad-ass, but Johnny Lawrence doesn't know about that.)
posted by box at 9:59 AM on January 4, 2021 [2 favorites]
sorta feel that hawk's change of heart during the home invasion wasn't all that well earned. when he's the one breaking his former best friend's arm, the psychological fallout seemed to be pretty much nil, but when it's someone else doing it: feelings.
the first couple seasons were fun, but i'm starting to feel they're leaning way too hard into the 'everyone can be a bad guy *and* a good guy' angle. like, everyone has to get a turn being the hero and the villain. given the background work they did with Kreese this season, wouldn't be too surprised if he turns into a good guy for a while next season.
posted by logicpunk at 12:00 PM on January 5, 2021 [1 favorite]
the first couple seasons were fun, but i'm starting to feel they're leaning way too hard into the 'everyone can be a bad guy *and* a good guy' angle. like, everyone has to get a turn being the hero and the villain. given the background work they did with Kreese this season, wouldn't be too surprised if he turns into a good guy for a while next season.
posted by logicpunk at 12:00 PM on January 5, 2021 [1 favorite]
Definitely agree about Hawk, it was cheap, and obviously they had been trying to set up some internal conflict with him all season (or last season as well I think), but the way it happens was completely unearned. I think it would have been better for him to have had some sort of on-screen crisis about what he's doing with his life, reject everyone and then develop more next season.
Oh, also Robbie's whole plotline is super boring. It's not even particularly bad, given the standards of the show. It's just not compelling, all his screen time is just like dead-air. Same for Sam. And Tory. Honestly, all the kids except Miguel.
posted by skewed at 12:45 PM on January 5, 2021 [4 favorites]
Oh, also Robbie's whole plotline is super boring. It's not even particularly bad, given the standards of the show. It's just not compelling, all his screen time is just like dead-air. Same for Sam. And Tory. Honestly, all the kids except Miguel.
posted by skewed at 12:45 PM on January 5, 2021 [4 favorites]
I loved the first season, enjoyed the second and found this one a little bit disappointing. Robbie's plot was just bland. The Vietnam flashbacks were awful. But the Okinawa stuff was wonderful. And the return of Ali was pretty great - mostly because I love Elisabeth Shue. I kinda wished they'd done something with the "girl as trophy" trope from 80s movies, though. I did like that she pointed out that Daniel and Johnny's view of their high school years aren't necessarily the truth and wanted to know more about how she really felt. Ali almost acted like a catalyst for both the guys without having much character of her own, which was a pity. I am interested in seeing where Season 4 goes perhaps and I do have some fondness for Part III, so will be interesting to see if they can get Thomas Ian Griffith back. I'm super pleased with the show's commitment to getting the original actors back.
posted by crossoverman at 3:28 AM on January 7, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by crossoverman at 3:28 AM on January 7, 2021 [3 favorites]
The transition between the cigar cutter and the sliced hot dog... (APPLAUDS VIGOROUSLY.)
posted by DirtyOldTown at 5:29 PM on January 7, 2021
posted by DirtyOldTown at 5:29 PM on January 7, 2021
sorta feel that hawk's change of heart during the home invasion wasn't all that well earned. when he's the one breaking his former best friend's arm, the psychological fallout seemed to be pretty much nil, but when it's someone else doing it: feelings.
Definitely agree about Hawk, it was cheap, and obviously they had been trying to set up some internal conflict with him all season (or last season as well I think), but the way it happens was completely unearned. I think it would have been better for him to have had some sort of on-screen crisis about what he's doing with his life, reject everyone and then develop more next season.
This season felt a bit rushed, and Hawk/Eli's heel-faced turn is a good example of it. He did it with voices in his head, a trope they repeated multiple times with different characters. And honestly, it feels rushed because the preceding framing actually paints the defection in a poor light- he was getting sidelined with Tori returning, then Kyler, and then Robby joining the team, making him no longer the superstar. He was then further upstaged by Robby stealing the snake. So based on what had happened in just the previous episodes, it feels less like a change of heart for the good, and more like an embittered fading diva athlete leaving a sports superteam where he was but one superstar. Obviously the show's intention is otherwise, but it didn't do a great job of conveying it. And yeah, he had just broken Demitri's arm not long ago.
I think season 2 did a much greater job showing how characters can fall to their dark side or be redeemed by goodness, but this one rushed things. Speaking of Star Wars, I thoroughly enjoyed how this season finale unintentionally outdid all three trilogies' dynastic woes by having three generations confront one another.
posted by Apocryphon at 11:21 PM on January 10, 2021 [1 favorite]
Definitely agree about Hawk, it was cheap, and obviously they had been trying to set up some internal conflict with him all season (or last season as well I think), but the way it happens was completely unearned. I think it would have been better for him to have had some sort of on-screen crisis about what he's doing with his life, reject everyone and then develop more next season.
This season felt a bit rushed, and Hawk/Eli's heel-faced turn is a good example of it. He did it with voices in his head, a trope they repeated multiple times with different characters. And honestly, it feels rushed because the preceding framing actually paints the defection in a poor light- he was getting sidelined with Tori returning, then Kyler, and then Robby joining the team, making him no longer the superstar. He was then further upstaged by Robby stealing the snake. So based on what had happened in just the previous episodes, it feels less like a change of heart for the good, and more like an embittered fading diva athlete leaving a sports superteam where he was but one superstar. Obviously the show's intention is otherwise, but it didn't do a great job of conveying it. And yeah, he had just broken Demitri's arm not long ago.
I think season 2 did a much greater job showing how characters can fall to their dark side or be redeemed by goodness, but this one rushed things. Speaking of Star Wars, I thoroughly enjoyed how this season finale unintentionally outdid all three trilogies' dynastic woes by having three generations confront one another.
posted by Apocryphon at 11:21 PM on January 10, 2021 [1 favorite]
I'm late to this show and just binged most of it and I have to say, I love so much how the entire community this show is set in is utterly MIRED in karate. It's not unlikely that at some point during your day karate will bust out, doesn't matter who you are.
posted by jason_steakums at 7:34 PM on January 15, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by jason_steakums at 7:34 PM on January 15, 2021 [2 favorites]
This show has such an Anime energy to it. They even have power-up flashbacks!
posted by Pendragon at 10:40 AM on February 4, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by Pendragon at 10:40 AM on February 4, 2021 [2 favorites]
My main problem with this season is that I really, really don't like Kreese, have any sympathy for him, at all, or care about his 'backstory'. I don't care what he went through during the war he volunteered for because reasons or how shitty his life was afterwards. I keep hoping for him to die or go to jail or just be gone.
The series lost the charm of having an imperfect but loveable protagonist/antagonist (Johnny) to a 1-dimensional evil-for-evil's-sake fucktard antagonist.
My favorite part is the merging of Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang(!) and Hawk's reverse-heel-turn.
posted by signal at 2:15 PM on February 6, 2021
The series lost the charm of having an imperfect but loveable protagonist/antagonist (Johnny) to a 1-dimensional evil-for-evil's-sake fucktard antagonist.
My favorite part is the merging of Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang(!) and Hawk's reverse-heel-turn.
posted by signal at 2:15 PM on February 6, 2021
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I could do with less of Johnny & the kids using pansy & pussy as slurs, but, at season 3 it's not like I didn't know what level of crudeness to expect from the show. (And I am at least grateful there wasn't any jokey use of MAGA hats or something.)
Once again I have to suspend disbelief over the lack of legal repercussions for the various brawls. I mean, breaking Dimitri's arm, throwing that kid through the LaRusso window and the subsequent fight - these are actual criminal acts, why is no one filing any police reports except Kreese? But, whatever. I loved the return of the Okinawa characters and the Ali cameo, I love that we're building towards a real Daniel+Johnny team-up, and I look forward to more seasons (of which there will be 3 more if the series creators have their way, per Macchio)
posted by oh yeah! at 3:44 PM on January 1, 2021 [1 favorite]