Following a three seasons who have been able to reinterpret and continue the film saga from Karate Kid, Cobra Kai come back with his fourth season, and we tell you about it in this no spoiler review. One of the traits that struck the general public from the beginning with this TV series was the “Change of moral perspective”. The idea that the real victim of the Karate Kid movies was Johnny Lawrence and not Daniel LaRusso has triggered a real reflective process about “What is good and what is bad”. This same reflection has developed the series and continues to develop it from episode to episode, operating a process that on the one hand remains deeply nostalgic towards the 80s / 90s, hybridizing with this the dying patina with a construction and a writing that soon gets rid of the clichés of chance, playing with it continuously, from episode to episode. This fourth season is no exception, keeping high the attention to the main dynamics and introducing within them new developments and reasonings that, unlike the past – and unlike what happened in the cinema years ago – this time go beyond the simplistic labels of the case.
In Cobra Kai we then find, merged with all this, one lightness background that takes itself extremely seriously in some moments, as we will explain later in the review, even going so far as to pay homage to a certain genre cinema (that of the aforementioned years made up of actors such as Stallone, Van Damme and the like), with an attention that is never too anachronistic, but which on the contrary knows how to entertain. You will therefore find pathos through the struggle, overcoming one’s limits, growing up, understanding the differences of the other, understanding one’s limits, in a journey that tries to deepen each individual protagonist. A choral work not at all committed but made with the heart.
Knowing how to live with one’s neighbor and with oneself
This fourth season, available from December 31st on Netflix, opens at the exact point where we left with the previous season, taking up a choral that we also saw, for example, in the review of The Witcher. The two Dojos of LaRusso and Lawrence are fused together against the Cobra Kai, with the aim of putting an end to his current regime and fame. All roads will lead to the legendary All Walley, the tournament in which in previous seasons and in the film saga we have seen the strongest under 18 karate fighters in the area triumph. Everything then opens up from this new alliance e domestic partnership, in search of a balance between the two gyms. The two masters, first of all, will have to learn to cooperate over the course of the episodes, putting aside all the inequalities that have drawn them over the years. The grudge will be placed in a corner according to the common goal.
One of the first hallmarks of this new season of Cobra Kai lies in the way it treats “The fighting style” of the various gyms. Over the years we have perfectly learned to read the various philosophies around approaches to karate of the various Sensei. If with one the pre-eminence is the attack, with the other we have the defense and the reading of the opponent. The search for a own style therefore becomes the leitmotif of the entire new season, a research which is also reflected in the personal life of each individual character. This Cobra Kai excels as a product, carrying out a centralized reflection on the interpretation of the various protagonists, in relation to their life, their choices and a certain type of redemption. Also in this season the moral is never really clear, and this is a merit, offering characters to the public imperfect, without exception, ready for a maturation that involves any age and moment of their existence and personal vision. Here, fighting becomes a real means, a means through which to stage the events of some human beings with characteristics that are also out of the ordinary, ready to learn both from their own mistakes and from those of everyone else. No longer the simplistic reading of the films that originated everything, but a story that continues to surprise for the depth of its own characters.
Present and past
We would like to emphasize again – in the review – that as written above, this season of Cobra Kai is also extremely light And disengaged. However, this by no means means that it is empty or disenchanted. Attention is projected into the emotional specificity of the protagonists, also thinking about the context of belonging and about contemporary morality. Regarding this last point it would be more correct to say that there plays continuously with contemporary morality. The character of Johnny it is a product of its time in all respects, as are that of Kreese and the new found Terry Silver. This particular characterization offers ideas, even comic ones, through which to reason and confront people who seem to come from a completely different planet from ours. Their way of seeing the world, then, comes continuously justified from individual insights, drawing a narrative approach that works.
The negative side largest, present in every season of Cobra Kai, is the continuous sponsorship of products, sometimes quite excessive. There advertising is the host in every single episode. Whether we are talking about food, beer, coke, or various foods, everything always appears in favor of the room. Plus, kids often become gods advertising media all too obvious in relation to the clothes they wear, with brands known to the public always in sight (the Nike brand is one example, or that of Champion now introduced through a rather sad narrative mischief).
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