Cobra Kai

[Drunk Monk]

Excellent.

Yeah, I'm good with it.

When does that occur? 

Early December on a day that I must clear my schedule for...details to come. Season 3 is slated for early Jan. 

Do you need a photographer for all those cool Zoom Meeting shots?

I gotz peeps. DENizens. They take care of all that stuff. There might be a vid interview involved like what I did with Daniel, although I'm still not satisfied with that. I had Danny for like 50 mins and they only used less than 10 and the bonus was negligible. I imagine this might be the same.

[Drunk Monk]

Guess who just got access to Season 3 screeners? 

This DM.

My Thanksgiving weekend is set. Don't worry. No spoilers. I'm not scapino.

[Greg]

Excellent.

[Drunk Monk]

Sadly, for some psycho reason, Netflix provides a bullet-pointed list of spoilers that we're under NDA about revealing. Never mind it spoils it for us reviewers. 

And there's some good spoilers. Dammit.

[Greg]

Giveth and taketh.

[Drunk Monk]

I re-watched S1e1 because it played first and I got engaged.

S3e1 is titled aftermath and it's exactly that. Everyone is even more messed up than ever. A bit predictable as eps go. Felt like a catch up ep. We're ready to start already. 

There was a fitting memorial to Rob Garrison at the end. 

S3 is 10 eps all around 30 mins plus or minus.

[Greg]

Did they give you the whole season?

[Drunk Monk]

Indeed they did.

[Drunk Monk]

s3e2: Kreese backstory. Like way back. There's some redemption or at least, some underlying motivation. My Tori theory continues to deliver clues - I'm pretty sure I know where this will go. a big fight scene. more mediocre choreo but dramatically interesting. 

e3: jail fight. again, not impressive. sid is back and more of an asshole than ever. bobby from the original cobra kai. daniel drinks 18 year macallan - was that ad placement? so prominent. And - not a spoiler because it's in the trailer - tokyo.

[Drunk Monk]

e4 - soccer fight. kinda weak. but japan, or okinawa, goes exactly where you'd predict in terms of shout outs to the KK2 

So far, I'm not finding CKS3 as engaging as S2. It's been more predictable and measured. Needs a sword fight. Maybe next ep.

---

e5: best ep so far for s3. several fights. some not bad either. a feel good ep. i got the feels. this is the kind of ep that makes ck work. poignant, nostalgic, funny, decent action, a well written ep. great throwbacks to KK3. and the end is the tease we've all been waiting for. plus dee! DEE! wait...dee? didn't know dee was still alive. but that totally worked. now ck is back on track.

[Drunk Monk]

e6 - More of Kreese's back story. It's not unexpected. His villainy gets more pronounced. Nice call back to the beginning of the series.

e7 - Nice call back to KK2. A lot more set up for the finale.

e8 - Everything is in place. The teen drama is ramped up again. Let's go already. 

Some of the charm of the first two seasons have faded. It's still interesting but doesn't have as much punch. Hoping it ramps up for the finale two eps. It's poised to do so.

[Drunk Monk]

e9 - cobra kai plays it's ace card and plays it beautifully. got the major feels. and then it sets up that finale.

e10 - that finale. it delivers. another major long take fight. several fights. great throwbacks to kk, kk2 & kk3. the kreese back story is complete. it's a tad predictable, including the turning point technique, but everything comes together and it leads to ... season 4.

the last two eps redeem the season. these two and ep 4 are really all you need to see. 

on the whole, i found s2 to be stronger overall. but s3 has its moments for sure. there's some filler - the same tale could've been told in half the eps. 

strangely i find myself identifying with johnny a lot. not sure what that says about me. but i can relate to him the most.

[Drunk Monk]

My Tori theory continues to deliver clues - I'm pretty sure I know where this will go. 

BTW, I was wrong here. Now I have no idea where this might go. My only guess is Julie, which would be super impressive, but such a reach. 

In summation, you could just watch ep 4, 5, 9, & 10 and get what you need from Season 3. There now, I've reduced 5 hours down to 2. You can thank me later. 

I'm blanking on interview questions at the moment, but I'm not sure who they'll grant me so I'm not putting any effort into it.

[Greg]

Any reference to the alternate reality Reese from the Quickbooks ads where he is kinder and gentler and runs a dojo called Koala Kai?

[Drunk Monk]

Not even.

But I did mention that in my Den piece back in September - https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/cobra-kai-a...arate-kid/

Kreese's character is built out through his back story. It's a tad predictable, not quite as justifying as Johnny's backstory, and I should re-watch it to confirm that one of the other prisoners is Terry. The problem is I'd have to re-watch a lot of it to nail that down because the name was probably dropped quickly - such is how the Easter Eggs play out in CK.