Cobra Kai

Unlike the film, the series is mainly centered around Johnny Lawrence: once a representative of the "golden youth" and a successful athlete, and now stooping and intermittent with casual earnings, he decides to open a karate school called "Cobra Kai" with the same rigid and uncompromising philosophy, which she was known earlier. This causes dissatisfaction with Daniel LaRusso, a successful owner of a network of car dealerships who, after the death of his mentor, Mr. Miyagi, cannot find peace of mind and is not going to yield to Lawrence, remembering past grievances. In parallel, the characters of other characters are revealed: Lawrence's son - Robbie, Johnny's talented student - Miguel and LaRusso's daughter - Samantha.

Starring

Supporting Roles

1. Ace Degenerate

30 years after losing to Daniel LaRusso in the finals of the regional karate tournament, Johnny Lawrence barely makes ends meet, breaking the odd jobs of a handyman, while LaRusso is a successful businessman who owns a car dealership network. One night, Johnny rescues his teenage neighbor Miguel Diaz from hooligans, but falls into custody. The rich, tyrannical stepfather of Johnny, Sid, makes a deposit for the stepson and writes a check in his name, refusing to continue any relationship. Miguel asks Johnny to train him in karate, but he refuses. Drunk, Johnny goes to the place where he once held a karate tournament and indulges in memories of how sensei John Creese beat him and drove him out of the Cobra Kai school after losing to LaRusso. At that moment, a car of teenage girls crashes into Lawrence’s car, who immediately hide from the scene of the accident. Lawrence's immobilized car is evacuated to the LaRusso car dealership, to which Lawrence still has a strong dislike. There, Johnny runs into Daniel and accidentally discovers that one of the girls in the accident the day before is LaRusso's daughter. Upon returning home, Lawrence announces to Diaz that he will be his sensei and, using the money given by his stepfather, he opens a new kobra Kai karate school.

2. Strike First

Miguel starts training, learning that Johnny is a rude and ruthless sensei, mocking his asthma and weakness. The sanitary inspector requires Johnny to follow numerous rules before he can open the school. Daniel has a conflict with his wife and daughter Samantha due to the fact that the latter invited many guests to their house for a party. In an attempt to make peace with his daughter, Daniel asks to invite her boyfriend to them for dinner. At school, Miguel makes friends with "social outcasts" - frail wit Dimitri and Eli, suffering from the consequences of cleft lip surgery. Miguel tries to meet the attractive Samantha LaRusso, but finds out that her boyfriend - Kyler - the leader of the hooligans who beat him a few days earlier. The school where Johnny Lawrence's son, Robbie Keane, is studying, tells Johnny that his son was found drugs, but Robbie ignores his father's exhortations. During dinner, LaRusso notices bruises on Kyler, but he lies to Daniel, saying that they were never beaten by any adult karate. LaRusso goes to the Lawrence dojo , but he parries the claim, telling about the real reasons for the fight.

3. Esqueleto

Johnny is trying to attract more students to his school, but to no avail. Miguel, on Johnny’s advice, goes to a Halloween masquerade in a skeleton costume once worn by Cobra Kai students and Johnny himself. Daniel accompanies Samantha to the same masquerade, but puts her in a very uncomfortable position. Miguel hears how Kyler speaks of Samantha as a subject for sex, and enters into a fight, but Kyler and his friends beat Diaz badly. Johnny finds Miguel and takes him home, where Diaz's mother, Carmen, demands that he stay away from her son.

4. Cobra Kai Never Dies

Robbie learns about school, but is ashamed of her father's methods of attracting new students. Once again drunk, Johnny disfigures a billboard with a photograph of Daniel, and the evidence makes Daniel think that it was Lawrence who did it. Samantha witnesses how Kyler scoffs at Dimitri and Eli and refuses him when he later tries to get in touch with her. Johnny, having learned that Robbie has not attended school for a long time, tries to convince his son, but he does not listen to his advice, claiming that Johnny himself wasted his years. Johnny goes home to Miguel and persuades his mother to give his son the opportunity to continue training. When Miguel returns, Johnny teaches him how to defend and counterattack.

5. Counterbalance

Miguel’s skill and health are greatly improved as a result of training. Daniel intrigues trying to force Lawrence to close the school, but only harms the owners of other businesses located in the same small shopping center. Samantha’s full classmate, Aisha Robinson, who also belongs to the “lower social caste” of schoolchildren, is recorded in Cobra Kai. Samantha learns that Kyler, from the time of their quarrel, spread humiliating rumors about her. When in the dining room, during lunch, Kyler humiliates Samantha, Miguel stands up for her. Using the acquired skills, he successfully copes with four hooligans. Robbie is trying to establish a relationship with his father, but when he sees that he pays a lot of attention to Miguel, he believes that Lawrence found a replacement for him. Daniel’s wife, Amanda, seeing that her husband has noticeably lost heart since the discovery of Cobra Kai, advises him to go to Mr. Miyagi’s grave and be alone with him. Daniel recalls how Miyagi taught him to balance everything, not just karate. Meanwhile, a video of Miguel’s fight in the dining room leads to a sharp increase in the number of people who want to enroll in Cobra Kai.

6. Quiver

Daniel unsuccessfully tries to persuade Samantha to do karate again. Miguel’s video of the fight popularizes the Cobra Kai school, but Johnny continues to scoff at the weaknesses of the newcomers (especially Eli, whom he calls the “Lip”) and train them hard. The conversation with Miguel reminds Johnny of how his stepfather mocked his weaknesses before Johnny discovered the Cobra Kai. The next day, Johnny admits to the class that he was very firm towards the students, but refuses to apologize because life is unfair, and they must overcome difficulties no matter what. Eli returns with a blue mohawk and gets the nickname “Hawk” from a pleasantly surprised Johnny. Robbie gets a job at the LaRusso car dealership, wanting to annoy her father, but when he sees Daniel doing karate, he is interested in training. Miguel and Samantha get together at school.

7. All Valley

Johnny continues to train students hard. Miguel asks Johnny for advice to increase his self-esteem and, thanks to sensei, dares to invite Samantha on a date. Johnny is trying to bring Cobra Kai to the list of participants in the regional karate tournament, but finds out that the school is forbidden for life to participate in the tournament due to the actions of John Krize and Terry Silver (the events described were shown in the film “Karate Boy 3” . Johnny persuades an athletic commission to give the school a chance, disavowing Krize’s philosophy and saying that he’s dead.Johnny claims to have corrected the mistakes of his youth and taught children how to protect themselves and others from the attacks of bullies. given permission to participate in the school’s tournament Robbie, who had previously promised his fellow criminals to let them into LaRusso's car dealership to steal auto parts, refuses them and has to use karate for self-defense.

8. Molting

Having received permission from the commission to participate in the tournament, Johnny proceeds to even more stringent and even dangerous training methods. Daniel’s family learns about Cobra Kai’s participation in the tournament, and only Samantha, to whom Miguel told good things about the school, takes it calmly. Johnny warns Miguel from communicating with the LaRusso family, telling how Daniel once recaptured the girl from him. Robbie meets Samantha. Carmen invites Johnny to dinner with them, where Lawrence learns more about the Miguel family. Robbie's training brings him closer to Daniel, but Robbie does not reveal that his father is Johnny. Miguel, having the courage, comes to LaRusso's house with the goal of reducing the tension between Daniel and Johnny, but, seeing Samantha with Robbie, leaves with a broken heart. Daniel's cousin, Louis, decides to take matters into his own hands and smashes Lawrence's car with his friends, who, however, manages to beat them right there.

9. Different but same

Johnny arrives at Daniel's house to deal with him on the basis of his wrecked car, but Amanda manages to quickly defuse the situation. Daniel decides to fire Louis and give Johnny a new car. During a joint trip, they come to Daniel's old house and share life stories with each other. Amanda learns about the accident involving Samantha and puts her daughter under house arrest, as a result of which Samantha does not answer Miguel's calls for a long time. Aisha Robinson and several other students go to the park, not knowing that there is a party planned for the birthday of Samantha’s girlfriend - Yazmin. Robbie rescues Samantha from home, and together they go to a party where a drunk Miguel comes into conflict with Robbie. As a result of the brawl, Miguel is hit by Samantha, who changes her opinion about Cobra Kai to a sharply negative one. Johnny takes Daniel home, where he finds out that Robbie practiced karate under Daniel, which infuriates him. Daniel, finding out who is Robbie's father, fires him from the car dealership and drives him out of his house.

10. Mercy

Cobra Kai is participating in the 50th anniversary regional karate tournament. Robbie is recorded as an individual member who is not affiliated with any karate school. Aisha drops out in the quarter-finals, but resolves past disagreements with Samantha. The hawk in battle Robbie loses disqualification for an illegal blow that injured Robbie. After a quarrel with Miguel Samantha goes to a family dojo . Daniel helping Robbie enter the final fight, becoming his coach. Miguel defeats Robbie in the final battle, constantly attacking the injured shoulder of the enemy. Daniel takes Robbie to Mr. Miyagi’s old house and talks about his intention to open the Miyagi-do karate school to defeat Cobra Kai. Johnny, upset by the realization that his training methods spoiled Miguel, gets drunk on Cobra Kai. An unknown person comes into the school and praises Johnny for the victorious return of Cobra Kai. When a stranger emerges from the shadows, Johnny sees that this is his sensei - John Crease.

On August 4, 2017, YouTube announced its decision to release the first season of the series, consisting of ten half-hour episodes. Josh Hild, John Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg were nominated as scriptwriters and responsible producers. Hurwitz and Schlossberg also directed some of the episodes. The production was carried out in collaboration with Overbrook Entertainment and Sony Pictures Television ^[2] . Filming of the first season began in October 2017 in Atlanta and its environs, Georgia . In particular, filming was conducted in Union City , Marietta and Bryarcliffe ^[3] . The series takes place in California, so some exterior shots were made in the vicinity of Los Angeles - Tarzan and Encino ^[4] .

On May 10, 2018, it was announced that YouTube would extend the series for at least one season, which would also consist of 10 episodes. Production should begin at the end of 2018, while the premiere is scheduled for 2019 ^[5] . Two weeks later, it was announced that Martin Cove would return in the second season in a recurring role, as opposed to a short cameo at the end of the first season. It was also confirmed that their roles from the first season will be performed by Ralph Machio, William Zabka, Cholo Maridouinha, Tanner Buchanan, Mary Mauser and Courtney Hengeller ^[6] .

The series was announced in January 2018 during the annual press tour of the Association of Television Critics, where it was presented as "The Next Generation Karate Boy" ^[7] .

On February 15, 2018, YouTube published the first teaser of the series ^[8] , and on March 1, the second teaser ^[9] was released. A week later, a third teaser was released ^[10] . On March 21, an official trailer was released with the announcement that the series would be available to a mass audience on May 2, 2018 ^[11] .

The series premiered on April 24, 2018 in New York at the Tribeca Film Festival . After the show, a press conference was held with leading actors and screenwriters ^[12] . The next day, YouTube launched a test run of the first two episodes in 700 US movie theaters ^{[13] [14]} .

On May 2, 2018, the first episode of the series was posted for free on YouTube and received more than 5.4 million views in the first 24 hours ^{[15] [16]} .

As of the summer of 2018, the first two episodes are available to all visitors to the site, while in full - only to customers of the paid YouTube Premium service. Also, viewers in some countries (for example, in Canada ) can buy individual episodes ^[17] .

The series was positively received by critics. On the Rotten Tomatoes website , the first season rating is 100 percent fresh with an average rating of 7.51 out of 10 points based on 34 reviews. The audience rating is 95% ^[1] . Metacritic rated 72 of 100 for the first season, according to reviews from 11 critics ^[18] .