Cobra Kai Season 3: Why is it so successful?

Cobra Kai season 3 is now on Netflix. With the beginning of the new 2021, the streaming company decided to release the chapters of this new stage of the series inspired by the mythical Karate Kid movie, exploring what happened to many of the most iconic characters in the saga, such as the case of Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence.

Precisely, the third season of Cobra Kai exposes that, in reality, karate did not die in the 80s. The original film, from 1984, had demonstrated a passion for martial arts. However, this tragicomedy exposes the momentary failure of the two mentors who always had an eternal rivalry, in a fantastic way.

In Clarín, for example, they characterize it as a “magnetic third season”, where several interesting elements are explored: action, romance, and comedy which is a mixture that works perfectly. Let's see what the show is all about.

The success of the third season of Cobra Kai

We know that when Netflix decides to buy the rights to broadcast a series, it can begin to have enormous signs of popularity. In other words, there are productions that are niche until they reach the streaming giant. 

This is what happened with Cobra Kai: a 2018 American drama web series, which is based on the franchise of The Karate Kid, which had been released on the YouTube Red platform. However, in 2020 the series passed into the hands of Netflix , becoming an "unexpected success", according to La Nación. Why does this happen?

In the first place, this new season offers reasons why, in itself, interest in the series is maintained and does not decline at any time. It is a risky bet, but one that they knew how to do in a very good way here, which is why they managed to woo the grassroots audience they had.

A new generation of martial artists also joins this story, which is inspired by an important premise: there are no moral facts, there are moral interpretations of facts. For example, the villain of the original film today could be seen as the hero of this story, giving a new point of view to the old story.

Narrated from the perspective of the "antagonist" of the original story, Johnny Lawrence, the blond and abusive motorcyclist, we have a continuation of the story in serial format, which makes us forget the eighties perspective of black and white morality. Currently, everything that happens in the series seems to be gray.

Also read: 14 Streaming releases for this January

Cobra Kai is not limited only to nostalgia, but also revisionism of its own lore. All this, of course, added to the little winks to the fans through the flashbacks. For example, HobbyConsolas considers that it delves into the characters' past a lot, although without the need to "lose the essence", being an intelligent decision by the producers.

Another really interesting point is that this story does not depend exclusively on the Karate Kid, but quite the opposite: many young people, who did not know the original film, decided to see it as a "prequel" to understand the context of this continuation much better. In other words, the series is worth it “by itself”, without the need to resort to the original production.

Knowing that Netflix confirmed that there will be a fourth season of the series, for now, it seems that Cobra Kai managed to become a real success within social networks since it was able to catch old fans, but also reach new generations.