Cobra Kai
[4][5][6] The series has attained high viewership on both YouTube and Netflix, and has received critical acclaim for its writing, performances, action sequences, humor, character development, and faithfulness to the films.[11] Next in June 2010, Ralph Macchio appeared in Funny or Die's online short, "Wax On, F*ck Off", in which his loved ones stage an intervention to turn the former child star from a well-adjusted family man into an addict besieged with tabloid scandal in order to help his career (with frequent references to The Karate Kid).Cobra Kai was greenlit in August 2017, with ten half-hour episodes, written and executive produced by Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg.[16][17] The trio was joined by executive producers James Lassiter and Caleeb Pinkett of Overbrook Entertainment in association with Sony Pictures Television.As YouTube was not interested in renewing the series for a fourth season, the producers wanted to find a streaming venue that would leave that option open.Hurwitz has also clarified that he does not consider The Karate Kid animated series (1989) to be part of the Miyagi-verse canon, but an Easter egg from it appears in season three, in response to the question about its status within Cobra Kai.Additional The Karate Kid actors included Randee Heller as Daniel's mother Lucille LaRusso,[37] and Martin Kove as John Kreese.[41] In season two, Macchio, Zabka, Maridueña, Mouser, Buchanan, and Henggeler all returned,[38] with Jacob Bertrand, Gianni DeCenzo, and Kove being promoted to series regulars, and newcomers Paul Walter Hauser and Peyton List joining the cast.[42][43] The Karate Kid actors Heller, Rob Garrison (Tommy), Ron Thomas (Bobby), and Tony O'Dell (Jimmy) made guest appearances during this season.[44] In addition, Thomas Ian Griffith reprised his role as Terry Silver from The Karate Kid Part III,[45] while Okumoto[46] and Heller made guest appearances.[57] Exterior locations included Golf N' Stuff in Norwalk and the South Seas Apartments in Reseda, both of which were originally featured in The Karate Kid.[63] The series was promoted at the annual Television Critics Association's winter press tour held in January 2018, when YouTube's global head of original content Susanne Daniels described the show: "It is a half an hour format but I would call it a dramedy.The website's critical consensus reads: "Cobra Kai continues the Karate Kid franchise with a blend of pleasantly corny nostalgia and teen angst, elevated by a cast of well-written characters.Its critical consensus reads: "While Cobra Kai's subversive kick no longer carries the same gleeful impact of its inaugural season, its second round is still among the best around – no amount of mid-life crisis and teenage ennui's ever gonna keep it down.The website's critical consensus reads: "By pairing its emotional punches with stronger humor, Cobra Kai's third season finds itself in fine fighting form.The website's critical consensus reads: "Cobra Kai still delights in a fourth season that mines great fun from shifting alliances, chiefly the uneasy truce between Johnny Lawrence and Daniel LaRusso.The site's critical consensus reads: "Deftly managing an expanded roster of punchy personalities, Cobra Kai graduates to a black belt proficiency in heartfelt melodrama and sly humor.Jen Yamato of Los Angeles Times stated that by the end of season three, there are three white men at the center of Cobra Kai, a franchise rooted in and deeply indebted to Eastern tradition.[106] The Hollywood Reporter, former NBA champion and student of martial arts Kareem Abdul-Jabbar suggested that his friend and teacher, the late Bruce Lee, was linked to the influence of the original Karate Kid films.[107] Finally, Albert Wu and Michelle Kuo of the Los Angeles Review of Books argued that while the original Karate Kid "film functioned as a post-Vietnam critique of American empire, staking its position explicitly: pacifism over violence, peace over war, an admittedly romanticized version of Eastern wisdom over the macho bravado of jock culture", Cobra Kai "models" the "unending appeal" of the "American Empire".[141] All music is composed by Leo Birenberg and Zach RobinsonCobra Kai: The Karate Kid Saga Continues, a video game based on the series, was released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch on October 27, 2020, and for Microsoft Windows on January 5, 2021.