Good TV
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@Wizz After the third episode, I'm kind of seeing what it wants to be: basically, each episode is a novel in a pulp serial, that you can blaze through. Opened with a two parter, we got a second episodic story now, but there's an underlying thread tying it all together.
A lot like Supernatural, actually.
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Yeah, I can see it. It's gonna be more "Lovecraft Monster Of The Week, Only The Real Monster Is Racism" and that is totally fine. I was thrown a little because I thought the whole season was going to be a much slower burn adaptation of the plot of the book and we're getting this instead, but I'll stick with it.
(Even if the giant ghost head coming out of the floor was the cheesiest thing I've seen on TV in quite a while.)
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@Lotherio dead.
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Loved the first episode. Love Love Love.
Liked the second episode.
Meh on the third episode (although I recognized the boy and the Ouiji board right away and was like Ohhhhhh he is going to have a bad trip! I know why! I know why!) and that was the one thing I really liked about it.
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Yeah, that was a really subtle and clever reference (to something horrific) and that is the writers at their best. I hope they do more of that!
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I'll admit it, I'm nearly done on my binge of Cobra Kai. Its better than I thought, there's a lot of homage to the original while still giving that teen drama feel that goes along with the stuff my kids like so we can watch it together (it even has a girl from one of their Nick shows). Despite teen drama and the over the top karate, there is some good character development in there between all the fan service. I like it.
I'm just a surge protector doing my job, sir.
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I'll admit it, I'm nearly done on my binge of Cobra Kai. Its better than I thought, there's a lot of homage to the original while still giving that teen drama feel that goes along with the stuff my kids like so we can watch it together (it even has a girl from one of their Nick shows). Despite teen drama and the over the top karate, there is some good character development in there between all the fan service. I like it.
I honestly love Cobra Kai. The character development is great. I watched it on YouTube Red because I was so into it (they did the first three episodes free originally and I went I NEED THIS lol)
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I just finished Cobra Kai a couple of days ago, and I have... feelings about it.
I love the Karate Kid. It's garbage in a lot of ways, but I love this bizarre movie where a scrawny teenager catches the attention of and then continues to provoke a gang of would-be murderers (seriously, that scene on the bikes is attempted murder) until a wise old man from the far east teaches him how to kickpunch better than the murderers can and he beats them up one by one, thereby teaching them to respect him. That's the attitude I came to the show with.
The first and second seasons of the show feel almost like different beasts. The first season seems more concerned with the source material than the second, and also more self-aware about its silliness, like the scene where Johnny is trying to get Cobra Kai Dojo reinstated in the tournament and he all but looks at the camera to say, "I never heard of the villain from the third movie!"* The persistent mockery made me feel a little uncomfortable, though. The first season is about two fifty-year-olds who are arrested in nostalgia for their high school days, so the show making fun of them while marketing itself to people whose main draw to watch it would be nostalgia for that same period feels a little mean to me.
That's not to say the season is bad. I like and believe Johnny, Miguel, Robby, Daniel, Amanda, Aisha, and Hawk. There are a lot of very honest moments about failure and humiliation and self-realization that make the show extremely worth watching. It's just that the writing is also pretty ham-fisted at times, going into really tiresome Boomer pandering, complaining about safe spaces and participation awards with a complete lack of self-awareness while painting people who think it's bad for children to punch one another as flighty airheads who can't handle the real world.
I kind of like the second season more, but it's still a mixed bag. The stakes feel more personal and real, being mostly about the relationships between the students of the competing dojos and the adults running or peripherally connected to them. The fight choreography becomes amazing, especially in the final episode, where my jaw literally dropped when I realized how long the camera had gone without a cut during the final brawl. The villains generally become more relatable in their villainy as their motivation becomes clearer and the acting is more capable of portraying the kinds of damage driving them, which the good guys feel less saintly and more human.
My big complaint is the sexual politics.
The second season is all about the shipping. Daniel and Amanda's marriage suffering because he's focusing too much on the past and leaving her alone? That's good stuff! Johnny trying to date and not being able to because he thinks dating apps are for nerds and you're supposed to just alpha dominate a woman? That's... less good, it's pretty over the top but it's also mostly in character, I guess. Miguel, Sam, Robby, and Bad Girl Whose Name I Already Forget having a weird love quadrangle? I don't totally hate it because Miguel's actor sells the hell out of it, but it's not very good, and the camera really likes to perv up Samantha; Samantha, whose age is unclear but who due to the rules of the tournament cannot possibly be older than seventeen. There's this scene where she's kissing her boyfriend and the camera pans slowly down her back to focus on her ass, her child's ass, in a way that still makes me uncomfortable to think about. (It also inspired me to check my suspicions, and yes, the actor playing Daniel's wife Amanda is twenty years younger than Ralph Macchio is, so that's pretty gross too.)
Despite my negative tone, I do like this series. I watched it all the way through, didn't I? I just wish the writing was a little sharper and there were fewer creeps directing the camera.
*As an aside, when the character of Robby first appeared, he had that villain's hairstyle and I was sure the show was going to tie him to Terry Silver's character somehow. It never happened, though, so I'm guessing it was just a visual in-joke.
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@GreenFlashlight said in Good TV:
Whose Name I Already Forget
Tory ... with a Y
The Teen Drama and sexual oriented stuff I can do without. It just feels like every other teen drama being sold to adults who, like Johnny and Danny, are maybe trying to relive high school or something? I'm guessing its part generational, it pulls my kids into it more (that and Peyton List, Tory, has been on Nickalodeon for years). I want more of the interaction between dojo's and students, like Hawk and Dmitry's stuff and who ends up where based on who is teaching what at the time.
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Tory ... with a Y
Right, thank you.
I want more of the interaction between dojo's and students, like Hawk and Dmitry's stuff
Their scene at the party was so good! I want more of that in the show.
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@GreenFlashlight said in Good TV:
Tory ... with a Y
Right, thank you.
Sorry just had to say it that way, she introduced herself that way.
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@Lotherio Nothing to apologize for! I should have remembered it because I remember now getting distracted by that introduction and wondering, "So does that mean her name is or isn't short for Victoria? If it is, that's one of the more subtle naming choices the show has made (looking at you, Robby)."
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Okay but.. Raised by Wolves tho...
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@GreenFlashlight How dare you sir; this show is 100% Gen X pandering.
"If you stand for nothing Burr, what will you fall for?"
-- Hamilton: An American Musical -
@GreenFlashlight How dare you sir; this show is 100% Gen X pandering.
Agreed. It's 100% Gen-X pandering.
Cobra Kai isn't GREAT, it's clearly not Citizen Kane, but it's fun and I'm enjoying it, which is what I think they were shooting for. I'm on-board for season 3, especially after that foreshadowing in the last 30 minutes of season 2.
I'm particularly fond of Johnny, but mostly because IRL I have a good friend who is a cop who is the same age and build as Johnny, only he has brown hair. CopGuy is kind of a local hero to us. He loves 80's metal and has belts in 3 different martial arts and has a Captain America soul. So watching Johnny fight reminds me of the time I got to see my friend test for his 2nd or 3rd black belt. If Johnny Lawrence keeps on track to being a better man, it might just end up scary how much he reminds me of my friend.
No bullshit: I watched as my CopBud was blindfolded and attacked by his sensei in a bunch of different holds. While he was blindfolded, the sensei motioned silently to another student to attack from a different angle. My friend ended up getting out of it by twisting and counter-locking both attackers. RightGuy was dragged left, LeftGuy was dragged right. They crashed into each other and stumbled out of the hold. Was sooooo cool.
I love that whether or not a character is a protagonist and antagonist isn't as important as their own character threads. There's really only 1 pure antagonist on the show, and that's going to be prevalent in season 3.
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Hawk is the best. #changemymind
Saying the quiet parts out loud since 1996.
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Hawk is the best. #changemymind
I mean, if you like the character that's basically been modeled after every nerd who was bullied and then became a huge, horrible incel, except this one actually was taught martial arts and is a legitimate physical threat to his peers...
... sure. >.>
I hope he gets a redemption arc.
It's either that, or jail.
At least it's not a POC character in that position.
"Excuse the hell out of you. He's a bag of dicks. I'm a carefully curated box of cocks." -- to @GirlCalledBlu upon being misrepresented.
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At least it's not a POC character in that position.
Tut-tut mon frere, Eli Moskowitz appears to descend from the Israelites.
Sounds like wading into dangerous territory if you ask me.
Hawk is the best. #changemymind
Hawk IS a great character for all kinds of reasons, up to and including being a perfect example as to how a sweet, bullied kid can become the worst of the worst, which I've seen happen so much.
They'll need to introduce more antagonists before they consider a "redemption arc" for Hawk, but I'd be down to see more Eli/Demetri bromance.
Delete the Hog Pit. It'll be fun.
I really don't understand He-Man -
@Auspice said in Good TV:
Hawk is the best. #changemymind
Hawk IS a great character for all kinds of reasons, up to and including being a perfect example as to how a sweet, bullied kid can become the worst of the worst, which I've seen happen so much.
They'll need to introduce more antagonists before they consider a "redemption arc" for Hawk, but I'd be down to see more Eli/Demetri bromance.So this is part of why Hawk is the best.
I don't need or even necessarily want my characters to be perfect bastions of human behavior.
But so often our story for a 'omg so shy and passive' nerd is that he becomes confident and attractive and-
Hawk's story so far has been realistic. He's a guy who was bullied for how he looked, so instead of some hackneyed LET'S GIVE YOU A MAKEOVER STORY TEEHEE (female chars get subjected to this far, far too often), they had him own the shit out of it.
He's a TEENAGER. He's not going to transform into being the best human being overnight.
The reason Hawk is the best is because his story has depth to it. Because it's engaging. Because it's fun. I love Hawk.
Saying the quiet parts out loud since 1996.
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@Auspice I'll also add that the cheesy "hawk screech" sounds always get a chuckle out of me, and is a good way to remind the viewer that it's just a show.
