Parents' Guide to Cobra Kai

The original Karate Kid leads haven't lost their charm, and this well-written reboot of the franchise is way better than you'd expect. One of the great things about Cobra Kai is how lived-in it feels. When we catch up with them, neither Johnny nor Daniel is doing particularly well. On the surface, Johnny seems to be more on the skids: He's just lost his dead-end job, he's estranged from his teen son, Robby (Tanner Buchanan), and his only friends seem to be the beer bottles littering his bedside table. For his part, Daniel is a successful SoCal businessman, but he also relives his glorious past to make up for his lackluster present and has dad issues of his own (not to mention a hole in his life where Mr. Miyagi used to reside). These feel like realistic turns from characters we knew a long time ago.

Meanwhile, the drama pleasantly stokes Gen X nostalgia with Poison and Foreigner on the soundtrack and plenty of flashbacks to clue in new watchers as to what came before. Add a fresh-faced cast of young'uns who are ready to carry on the rivalry between Cobra Kai and ... well, everyone else—though ironically this time Johnny's dojo is trying to empower the misfits and losers of the cast, even if Johnny goes about it in a fairly abusive way. When Daniel's wayward daughter becomes the pointy part of a love triangle between Johnny's protégé and his rival, the old enemies are bound to clash again—and against all odds, it's a delight. As the show's seasons progress, Johnny and Daniel manage to find common ground, team up against shared enemies, and eventually form both a friendship and a professional partnership. Rivalries gradually move from these two to their kids and their peers, who then go through the same fight-then-forgive cycle, offering emotional lessons on change and redemption.