Cobra Kai (2018)

What earned the score

• Women as Karate Combatants

  Tory competes as a karate fighter, and Kim Da-Eun trains students in the same combat world. Women and girls occupy fighter and martial-arts instructor roles, a female-role pattern in a story otherwise centered on dojo rivalries and tournaments.

Details

This Karate Kid sequel series picks up 30 years after the events of the 1984 All Valley Karate Tournament and finds Johnny Lawrence on the hunt for redemption by reopening the infamous Cobra Kai karate dojo. This reignites his old rivalry with the successful Daniel LaRusso, who has been working to maintain the balance in his life without mentor Mr. Miyagi.

Starring

William ZabkaRalph MacchioCourtney HenggelerXolo MaridueñaTanner Buchanan

Genre

Action & AdventureDramaComedy

Release Date

May 02, 2018

Parents Guide

• Sex Mild

  Daniel and Johnny get in a fight because Johnny spray painted a penis on Daniel's billboard while drunk.

  A scene where two people kiss nothing else.

  There are scenes involving passionate kissing. However, this never turns into anything more. The show isn't as bad as people say, there's no sex or nudity. It's mainly just the amount of jokes in it.

  An older man acts creepy to Tory. Nothing happens as Kreese intervenes and threatens the harasser. However this scene can make girls feel uncomfortable.

  Two adult characters start kissing before both walking into a room and closing the door. The scene ends there. In a later scene we see the same couple in bed, the man is shirtless and the woman is under the sheets with a bra (not explicit) (No nudity is shown) this scene implies they both had sex the night before.

  Some scattered sexual references (e.g. a billboard is spray painted with an outline of a penis).

  Some boys are watching a video of a woman shaking her behind while wearing underwear, no nudity is shown.

  In the season 3, two adults kissing.

  In season 3, a man asks his father if he would like an "incident" with his secretary to be revealed to the public. He says this as a threat and he says this would harm his reputation. Nothing shown.

  A character has a dream about his neighbor where they kiss, then the dream ends and the character wakes up smiling. Nothing explicit is shown.

• Violence Moderate

  Bloodless (almost always) karate combat. Street fights, refereed athletic practices and sports violence is to be expected, but nothing graphic. There are degrading, violent verbal outbursts from adults as well.

  In Season 2, an all-out brawl ensues between Cobra Kai and Miyagi-do students at school. Teenagers are relentlessly punched, kicked, shoved, slammed against walls and lockers, and even thrown down stairwells. One Cobra Kai student arms her fist with a spike bracelet and cuts a main character's arm. A teacher attempting to split up a fight gets assaulted, too. At the end of the sequence, a main character is knocked from the second floor balcony and slams onto a railing on the floor below, breaking his back and hospitalizing him. This is perhaps the most over-the-top, intense sequence in the entire show thus far however it's fast paced and relatively bloodless.

  A mans earlobe is ripped off showing some blood, people have there heads bashed with metal objects along with their faces smashed on tables, glass etc. usually showing bloodied faces.

  In season 3, Robby gets beat up in jail.

  During a flashback in Season 3. A man is shot in the head in front of a young John Kreese. Intense and shocking but happens off screen

  Seasons 1 & 2 are bloodless. Season 3 contains more action including long action sequences, arm-breaking, and more disturbing scenes. In one scene, Hawk almost beats a person to death in the dojo. The beating happens off-screen, but we see Hawk throwing multiple punches, after he's done we see his knuckles filled with blood.

  The season 3 finale has two long battles. One between the kids of Miyagi-Do and Cobra Kai and the other between Daniel and Johnny vs Kreese. Both of these battles are as intense as the school battle in Season 2.

  In season 3 kreese feeds a hamster to a snake is emotional.

  In season 3, a man breaks another man's finger. He then puts a cigar slicer on the man's finger and threatens to cut it off. The scene ends before anything happens and we are never told whether he cut it off or not.

  Kreese puts a man's finger into a cigar cutter and pushes the blades in. However the camera cuts before anything is seen and its left unclear what happened.

• Profanity Moderate

  In season 3, Nathaniel says "and they beat the f**king s**t out of me!"

  Each season has numerous f-words with it getting progressively more frequent. By the end, there are at least 9 f-words used in the entire 6 seasons.

  In Season 1, a character says "f**k" in Spanish. In Season 3, another character says "beat the f**king s**t out of me." In Season 4, a character says "shut the f**k up," and another character (in Season 4 again) says "win this whole f**king thing."

  3 F words are said in Spanish at the beginning of Season 5 Episode 1.

  Season 5: 8 spoken F words, 4 in English and 4 in Spanish, (displayed in subtitles), and 1 written on a note that is clearly seen and zoomed on using the prefix "mother". Various milder language throughout.

  Miguel is called "Menudo", "Illegal", and an immigrant. Can be hurtful for sensitive viewers.

  Language is used frequent, with "s**t" being the most moderate words said a multiple times every episodes. "f**k", "b**ch". "pussy" and "a**hole" are frequently used. "Crap", "balls", and "d**k" are infrequent used. On occasion, the regular language is very mild, such as "ass", "hell", "p**s", and "d**n" (including "godd**n").

  S6 Part 1 includes 2 uses of the F word.

  "f**k" is used only a couple of times throughout each season and "pussy" is said pervasively early on.

  "Badass" is used many times.

• Drugs Moderate

  Teen partying, alcohol consumption and underage drinking. Talks of "smoking a joint" and doing drugs.

  There is consistent use of alcohol by a main character who drinks liquor while driving and is obviously wasted. Multiple scenes of waking up on the floor with alcoholic bottles laying all around him.

  A man is seen smoking a cigar

  Constant reoccurring underage drinking, and it is promoted to be "cool" throughout the series

  Kreese smokes cigars often but nothing that bad

  One of the main characters says that he smokes joints.

  A teenage girl gets drunk at a party in one episode

  In the season one finale, Johnny is peeing on his car because he is implied to be drunk. A teen sees him. No nudity is seen.

  Hawk, Kyler and some other cobras are seen drinking beers late in season three before they enter the zoo, Hawk taunts Robby for not drinking alcohol.

  Two girls using drugs in a car.

• Frightening Scenes Mild

  Sensei Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) lashes out at his students in multiple scenes and the loud verbal abuse can be considered mildly intense.

  As the series goes on, each season gets darker and more frightening. With little to no frightening scenes in season 1. Increased amount of frightening scenes in season 2. And season 3 being much darker, especially Kreese's flashbacks to when he was in the Vietnam War

  A man dies in his sleep. Intense and very emotional.

  When Miguel breaks his back it is quite emotional.

  Kreese's backstory can be quite frightening and upsetting. It involves him being bullied at work, joining the military in Vietnam, being the indirect cause of a fellow soldier's death and being forced to fight his commanding officer above a pit of snakes after learning that his girlfriend died in a car accident back home.

  Kreese's behavior is very disturbing throughout season 3. He forces students to watch a cobra eat a hamster, doesn't stop Hawk from brutally beating a new student close to death, deliberately sends Cobra Kai students to the LaRusso residence to start a brawl, convinces Robby to turn against his father and join him, and attempts to kill Johnny and Daniel in the final confrontation of season 3. He is perhaps the most psychopathic and manipulative he's every been in the Karate Kid franchise.

  In season 3, Hawk breaks Demitri's arm while his Miyagi-Do friends watch helplessly and the other Cobra Kai students cheer and laugh. Being that Hawk (known as "Eli" to Demitri) was once Demitri's best friend makes the scene especially gut-wrenching, on top of Demitri cursing and howling in pain and a horrified Sam being driven to tears. Hawk also appears to regret his actions based on his expressions afterward and eventually apologizes. The scene is shocking and difficult to watch for TV-14.

  In season 3, Hawk beats another Cobra Kai student to unconsciousness as the dojo watches and Kreese congratulates him. Although the other student was a horrible person, constantly bullying Hawk, the tone of the scene is extremely intense and can be hard to watch for younger viewers. However, the boy who was beaten up is somewhat prepared before it happens.

  In one scene, a man falls to his death into a pit of snakes. Quite intense

  When Ponytail dies, it is quite emotional and may be one of the saddest parts in the series

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