The best Karate Kid project according to IMDb

Balance isn’t just something martial artist Mr. Miyagi (the late legendary Noriyuki “Bat” Morita) likes to harp on to his students in the “Karate Kid” franchise; It’s also crucial to what makes a property special. The original 1984 film “Karate Kid” by director John G. Avildsen and writer Robert Mark Kamen established a template for the films and shows that followed, blending the gritty realism of Avildsen’s last The sports classic, “Rocky,” with its action-packed martial arts battles and borderline cartoonish opponents. At their best, these tales of troubled underdog teens who study karate under the tutelage of Miyagai and his disciples evoke epic coming-of-age stories capable of delivering heavy themes in a crowd-pleasing package. At their worst, they still offer invaluable life lessons, even when they veer into the realm of self-parody.

On the whole, “Karate Kid” fans tend to agree on the high and low points of the franchise. The original “Karate Kid” is still generally considered the gold standard in terms of film, while the 2010 “Karate Kid” reboot – a film that would officially be remade as part of the larger “Miyagi-verse” in the world… At the time of writing, Next “The Karate Kid: Legends” -It is mostly seen as a smoother and less effective but respectable revamp (despite it being about kung fu and not karate). On the other end of the spectrum, “The Karate Kid Part III” marked the turning point where the property somehow became both extremely serious and completely ridiculous at the same time. Then there’s The Red-Headed Stepson, a 1994 soft reboot starring Hilary Swank “The Next Karate Kid,” and he’s better than his unflattering reputation suggests.

If we use the IMDb ratings as a guide, there is one entry in Miyagi’s Ode that stands above the rest – a TV show that contains many of the same tropes as the regular anime series. But am I referring to the 1989 cartoon “The Karate Kid” or “Cobra Kai”?

“Cobra Kai” creators Josh Heald (writers of the “Hot Tub Time Machine” movies), Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg (writers of the “Harold & Kumar” movies) have a knack for taking bad ideas and working wonders with them. Case in point: an old “Karate Kid” sequel series centering on golden-locked bad boy Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) as a middle-aged wash that doesn’t quite read like a sure-fire hit recipe. However, from its very first episode (when it was, amazingly, a YouTube Red original), “Cobra Kai” moves with such aplomb that it’s practically impossible not to get immersed in it.

IMDb users agreeas evidenced by the fact that “Cobra Kai” received a high average rating of 8.4 on the site based on approximately 218,000 votes, with 1984’s “The Karate Kid” coming in second place with a rating of 7.3 out of 254,000 results. The thing that makes the show truly special is its ability to pay homage to Hotel’s long-standing theme of karate being an indicator of the way one lives their life (and vice versa) while also painting personal struggles in deeper shades of gray than the previous “Karate Kid” films did than any time ago. This is in addition to the high-level martial arts action, which is almost “John Wick”-like in the way it depicts people (usually teenagers!) beating each other up with elaborate choreography and dynamic photography that lets you actually see what’s happening.

Like Avildsen’s “The Karate Kid” trilogy, And “Cobra Kai” gets sillier as it progresses …which is a good thing in this case. In fact, in the years since Netflix acquired it, the series has essentially become a straight-up sports anime, with characters obsessed with maximizing their “power levels” (ie: getting better at karate), teen melodrama up the wazoo, and more… Soap operas that involve people changing their alignment more often than a “Fast & Furious” sequel. Despite all that, “Cobra Kai” somehow finds equal space for both heartfelt drama and self-aware humor, poking fun at itself even as it makes a hawk squawk sound every time a mohawked teen named Hawkeye (Jacob Bertrand) accuses him of… Battle without batting an eye. Maybe Mr. Miyagi is aware of all this talk about balance after all.

“Cobra Kai” is streaming on Netflix.