Cobra Kai s6e13 and The Residence s1e8: Sorties of Narrative onto the Status Quo

Wherein we remain MOSTLY spoiler free for both series...

Alrighty, straight up reviews from this substack are gonna be rare, and this isn’t even really a “review” per se, but a couple of things “dropped” (as the kids say these days), both from Netflix, that I thought were worth commenting on vis á vis Nouveau Narrative’s stated goals. As ya’ll know I stomp around the world (and here) screaming about alternative structures to the Western standards of narrative. But I’ve always said that one of the reasons I do so is because there’s already so much happening that is breaking form and we’re just not talking about it (much less teaching it).

Zo’. Let’s talk about a couple of things. And, as the sub-title says, we’ll be mostly spoiler free, but for Cobra Kai (not The Residence), there will be some heavy f’in spoilers so, welp, you’ve been warned.

Let’s look at Cobra Kai first. The show is following the big-ass trend set by Wicked (the book) that is a re-examination of a beloved property’s villain in order to humanize them.¹ This plot line really became bog-standard after the blatant absorption of it for the Maleficent films. The “twist” for CK being that instead of an origin story, it is a continuation from the three movies. Overall the tone and plotting and, frankly, the acting of this piece has been all over the place, but I’ve been happy to suck it all down as easy, fizzy, pop culture drenched in nostalgia. (Especially as the show kept the eps to 30 mins a pop, AND the fact that my first real gig in the industry after acting was as a fight choreographer.²) That nostalgia also lead me to a re-watch of the first two movies, and a first viewing of 3 and The Next Karate Kid.

Now, there’s always been a bee in my bonnet about The Karate Kid franchise… the idea that Miyagi-do was defensive and only to be used as such… which utterly, completely goes against anyone from that dojo/mind-set from entering a freakin’ tournament! (Which the show continues as a central plot-point… tournaments, I mean.) At almost no time during the film franchise or the series do we actually see this philosophy in action. EXCEPT s6e13.

BIG-ASS SPOILERS FOR COBRA KAI

Without a major plot breakdown… Samantha LaRousso (Daniel’s daughter played by Mary Mouser) is about to compete for a coveted final spot to win “the” karate tournament when she decides to simply NOT compete. Not only is this a huge win for the consistency of the world of Miyagi-do and the front-loading of character versus the capitalist need for our characters to “win”, it goes against the major convention of the sport’s genre .³ Next bold move, in a setup to repeat the end of the first Karate Kid film, the Miyagi-do male of the team has his leg broken on the mat, who then must forfeit the match to his opponent. (Instead of a magical healing taking place backstage.) These are actual, radical departures from expected norms and actually say something about the characters and the depth of some of the violence shown on-screen. It’s a big win and landed with particular gravitas. Woulda been nice if that was the end of the show… but…

Of course the show then completely falls back into line with the final two episodes with the next expected winners arising from their “proper” places to win their “proper” places as champions. Three. Times. In. A. Row. It’s almost as if the producers were making them pay for their digressions. But, then, the coup-de-fuck-you-to-anything-really-progressive. In possibly the worst punctuation of all time, Rayna Vallandingham playing Zara an Insta-Star we are set up to hate (Rayna has real martial arts skills) gets dispatched by having her front teeth bloodily knocked out and discarded with a sexist “Bitch!” line. Ugh.

But for a brief, shining moment real consistency reigned in the writer’s room of Cobra Kai and for that, I am grateful and was genuinely moved.⁴

Next to sally forth and strike a small blow for Nouveau Narrative is the Netflix show The Residence. A bit of a bog-standard “smartest human in the room” murder for entertainment product this show’s “twist” is that it’s set in the White House and the smartest human is a Black woman. The amazing Uzo Aduba plays Cordelia Cupp a consulting detective⁵ called into solve the murder. Regardless of all its Shondaland loveliness and casting it is simply revolutionary to get to the final episode and watch the entire cast, in the bog standard genre cliché of the “I called you all here because one of you is the murderer” scene, listen to a Black Woman be the smartest person in the room. You feel it in your bones. You feel it forcing you to watch Black excellence. (It also made me feel it in retrospect all the way back through the show watching her being that person). It. Felt. Good.

Then, of course, it drops ye olde ball by fetishizing the White House (a literal building built by slaves, twice!) and government institutions in general. Le sigh. But, MAN, Adbuba’s performance in ep08 is a treasure and Paul William Davies (the show creator and single writer) sure knew what conventions they were playing with and displacing throughout.

I’ll keep my eyes peeled for other examples of Nouveau Narrative out in the wild. Please let me know if/when you find some as well!

As always, below will be a free writing lesson (and the footnotes) for our paid subscribers. Keep writing!