Strike first, strike hard, no mercy.

The karate school “Cobra Kai” is back in All Valley. Sensei Johnny Lawrence, once the top student of the dojo, vowed to redeem himself and Cobra Kai by competing again in the All Valley tournament. But the problem is, Daniel LaRusso, the reason for his teenage downfall, is hell-bent on stopping him at all cost.

From YouTube, “Cobra Kai” captured the attention of the audience when it premiered in Netflix, catapulting the once-obscure show into one of the most-watched series this year. The sequel to the 1984 hit movie “Karate Kid” brings together the old characters with some new ones, expanding its fan base from those who lived in the ’80s to this generation.

The series follows the story of the rebirth of the “Cobra Kai” dojo, a karate school that was once notorious for its motto, “no mercy.” With its rising fame and influence on the youth of All Valley, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Maccio), who once defeated Cobra Kai’s top karate student in a tournament, vowed to put a stop to the karate school once and for all. He revived his dojo, Miyagi-Do for this purpose. What follows in the entire series are scenes full of karate fights not just from the students of the rival dojos, but also the revival of the old rivalry between LaRusso and Cobra Kai’s former top student and now sensei, Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka).

What makes “Cobra Kai” enjoyable to watch are the karate scenes built on the backdrop of the interesting stories of its characters. But these stories are not fully explored, and the writers appear not to be interested in the broad aspects of their characters’ stories. The actors lack the ability to engage the audience. The focus on Kreese was well exhausted in the first season. Also worrying is the fact that at the end of the second season, you would get sympathy with LaRusso and his Miyagi-Do students than the students from Cobra Kai and their sensei Lawrence.

Before we give our geek rate, here’s the ranking of some students from Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do.

Geek Rate

Sun god Worthy (4 out of 5 stars). Cobra Kai’s tone gets serious as the series progresses. At first, it relies heavily on the popularity of “Karate Kid” to boost the series, but we’re seeing that it is slowly trying to make a story of its own, without breaking away from the Cobra Kai-Miyagi-Do rivalry. The characters’ backgrounds are mostly unexplored but honestly, who cares? As long as there are plenty of karate action, the audience will definitely get hooked.