Sunday, January 24, 2021

NETFLIX, TAE BO Founder BILLY BLANKS Present “COBRA KAI” WORKOUT


Season 3 of “Cobra Kai,” the surprise hit sequel series to the “Karate Kid” series of the 1980s, has been a massive cash cow for its current streaming home at Netflix, the same way it had been for YouTube Red (now YouTube Premium) during its first two seasons. Fans may be eager to see what happens next when the former rival karate classes of Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) and Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) unite by necessity against the increasingly monstrous Cobra Kai led anew by original founder Kreese (Martin Kove). But that probably will not come for one more year.

In the meantime, quite a number of outfits have been doing homages or even cross-promotions with “Cobra Kai” with its incredible streaming success. According to Comic Book Resources, one particularly stand-out example by Netflix involves a cool new Cobra Kai-esque workout routine developed by Billy Blanks. If the lead stars of the series are big names in the Eighties, then Blanks would be prominent in the following decade with the popularity of his Taekwondo-Boxing hybrid exercise program, aka Tae Bo. A video on the Netflix YouTube page features Blanks as an “honorary” Cobra Kai sensei who is giving his Tae Bo routine the “Strike Fast, Strike Hard, No Mercy” treatment.

William Zabka starts things off with a nifty introduction about Blanks, who then declares that viewers who wish to follow his new exercise routine will be pushed like never before. The video workout, which lasts about 40 minutes, comprises of limbering warm-up stretches and push-ups, before moving on to the trademark stances, footwork and moves that are signature to Tae Bo, but with the intensity of Cobra Kai as seen in the show. The fact that Blanks and his exercise companions are conspicuously dressed in Eighties workout gear is yet another fun viewing bonus.

There is no word yet on when production for “Cobra Kai” season 4 will commence, much less when it might come out on Netflix. There is speculation fueled by cast member Barrett Carnahan that a spinoff featuring the earlier days of evil Karate master John Kreese is being conceptualized. Carnahan portrayed a younger Vietnam War-era Kreese in flashbacks of the character during season 3, which depicts the future founder of Cobra Kai as a well-meaning all-American boy who is twisted by his wartime experiences and the betrayal of his first martial arts teacher into the amoral yet charismatic specter that has haunted Johnny and Daniel since.

All three seasons of “Cobra Kai” are viewable on Netflix.

Image courtesy of Men’s Health

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