TV Review: Cobra Kai Season 3 Is Perfection

I have to applaud Cobra Kai’s writers. It is not easy to balance the essence of a show with the inherent command of “each season NEEDS to be bigger!” It is a very unique, even rare feat because it is practicalIy impossible; how can you ask someone to be small and huge, all at once? What attracts people to a first season, or at least attracted me to Cobra Kai, was its warmth and simplicity; two old, high-school enemies, inadvertently, teaching their high school kids to be enemies, as well. Returning January 1, to Netflix, Cobra Kai Season 3 is EPIC in continuing and healing this feud.

The season picks up about 2 weeks after the phenomenal, fantastical KARATE fight scene that left Miguel (Xolo Maridueña) in a coma, Sam (Mary Mouser) traumatized, and Robby (Tanner Buchanan) on the run. Meanwhile, their senseis, Johnny (William Zabka) and Daniel (Ralph Macchio) were left reanalyzing their life choices and if their methods of teaching proved fatal. Well, we already know from the trailer that Miguel wakes up from the coma and ends up in a wheelchair. His storyline is powerful for two reasons. First, PEOPLE LOVE MIGUEL. Xolo Maridueña has made this character so sweet and genuinely good, which is why his health journey only furthers people’s love for the character. Moreover, my second reason, is that is furthers Johnny as a good, surrogate dad.

Part of why people were NOT the biggest fans of Robby is because he was this weird dynamic of self-righteous and wounded, which makes sense if you really look at ALL that 16 year old kid has been through. He has two neglectful parents whom are so aloof to his existence he winds up living with his after school karate teacher….. yeah. While, this season, Johnny continues to do right by Robby, he just cannot let go that his dad is more connected to his student, as a son, than him. This building anger allows Tanner Buchanan to fulfill what I feel he always wanted to make the character: a frustrated, hurt villain. I loved Robby’s arch this season as it solidifies him as the new, “old” Johnny Lawrence: a mean kid who only got that way because life was meaner to him. Naturally, his bond with Kreese grows while his “dads” try to save him from becoming a doomed bully. Don’t you just LOVE the bigger drama.

While I love to hate Kreese, some people might appreciate HOW MUCH screen time he gets this season. The series dives more into the bones of this character, and, I have to say, they are wicked. Kreese is not a good guy, and any good he does comes from his secret plot to make himself win more, which is why you feel bad that characters like, Hawk (Jacob Bertrand) and Tory (Peyton List) fawn over him. This is LITERALLY a guy who will die alone, but the latter two really give their souls to him, especially Tory. Her role is magnified as a troubled villain, who, like Robby, is a kid dealing with adult issues. These children need Iyanla Vanzant: not John Kreese. Yet, Cobra Kai’s recruitment only goes up and gets PACKED with familiar bullies that pester Sam.

I really liked that Mouser’s Sam was allowed to grow, this season, beyond the men her life: from her two boyfriends to her dad. You truly get to meet her character and remember she, too, is a kid. In some ways, Daniel and Johnny are big kids, as well. This season they further prove that “being an adult” is a clueless game, but if you work with people you figure it out more. I could not help but yell at my screen, “UNITE ALREADY!” every time they had a scene with a semblance of warm banter. Macchio is perfect in displaying Daniel’s need to grow, and Zabka is a total charm in proving that you can. Their journeys amp the season’s family vibe; two men trying to remember what it means to have someone stand with you. LOVE IT!