I’ve had a mixed relationship with Netflix’s Cobra Kai. When it debuted in 2018, I thought it brilliant. I’m a child of the 80s, and I’ve always been a fan of Karate Kid… and thus ever wondered how films two and three (and more if you want to keep counting) went so tragically off the rails. The only good thing I could ever take from the third film was watching a RiffTrax, which had the wonderful line, “I wish I loved anything as much as that guy loves being evil” (as Terry Silver laughs hysterically in the hot tub). (At least that’s how I remember it… I’m certainly not going to watch again just to get it right.)
So, when Cobra Kai Season One so brilliantly ‘flipped the script,’ well, I was hooked. And Season Two added Stingray, so all was still good. But as the series progressed, it became such a high school soap opera, and I never could understand just what was so evil about wanting to expand a franchise of karate dojos around the world. Like if McDonald’s sold karate instruction rather than hamburgers and fries… would it be a sign of the apocalypse? I don’t get it.
And thus it took me time to build up the stamina to watch final Season Six. And even then I stopped partway through because… it was painful. But, again, I’m a child of the 80s, and so I ultimately persevered. And, in the end, I think they brought it home like the show began. So, a fan at first is a fan at last.
The message of the series, of course (and without containing any plot spoilers, which are evil), is balance. To win at life, one needs both the offense of Cobra Kai (or Eagle Fang) and the defense of Miyagi Do. And just as Daniel and Johnny ridiculously struggle over the seasons with the same problems again and again… most of us professors at least feel somewhat the same frustration at trying to balance our responsibilities of teaching, scholarship, and service. I personally find myself often frustrated that the incentive structures of my school (and indeed to me the greater profession) so poorly align with seeking excellence in all three pillars.
But I suppose that’s what I’ll take from Cobra Kai. When I want to once again mentally rail against ‘the system’ because I think it misaligned, I suppose to a neutral observer that’s as ridiculous as the ninety-third time Daniel is shocked that Nariyoshi Miyagi was not the messiah. ‘Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results,’ as they say, and with balance so difficult to achieve in anything, I suppose my efforts are much better spent looking inward than worrying about what the University of Oklahoma, or any other world institution, is doing.
I knew all that time watching TV would prove worthwhile.
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