You’ve heard this story before. In 1984, a kid from New Jersey and a California karate champion met on a beach in the San Fernando Valley. They fought. They challenged each other. And, eventually, the infamous crane kick happened. “The Karate Kid” galvanized audiences when it first came out. Three decades later, “Cobra Kai” subverted the franchise’s traditional narrative by transforming the bad boy of karate, Johnny Lawerence (William Zabka), into a Mr. Miyagi figure. The series, which first premiered in 2018, begins 34 years after the original “Karate Kid” and introduces Johnny as a dead-beat father still reeling form his defeat in the All Valley Karate Championship. When he
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