Emmy Catch-Up: Cobra Kai

Every year, I watch the six submitted episodes of every series I don’t regularly watch that’s up for one of the Emmy series prizes. Last year, I started watching the entire season of each show to get a better idea of the quality I missed, and I’ve decided to continue that this year.

Cobra Kai: Season 3, Episode 1 “Aftermath” (B)

I had for some reason never seen this show before, missing its pilot back in May 2018 for whatever reason. Right before the Emmy nominations, I decided to watch that first episode just for a sense of what the show was like, and though it didn’t earn a lot of nominations, it did score one in the top category, which means I’m officially on board for season three. The previously on segment was quite intense, with a whole lot of karate and some vicious feuds among teenagers that felt even more intense than the rivalry between Johnny and Daniel. Not much has changed since that first episode with Johnny being covered in blood and always trying to pick a fight that he can’t win, but things have gotten much more serious with his son apparently missing after landing another student in the hospital, and Samantha was apparently involved in an equally violent scuffle. I’m eager to see what it’s like for Johnny and Daniel to spend time together as they go looking for Robby in the hopes of finding him before the police do, and I’m sure it won’t be an entirely pleasant experience. I’ll have to pay attention to context clues to truly understand what else is happening with the other characters, but Daniel saying that they shouldn’t do the “Footloose” equivalent of banning karate was an important point, both because it will never work and also because it’s an outdated concept that doesn’t embrace the positives of the art. This show will take some getting into, but I’m not all that unhappy about starting to watch it.