Johnny (William Zabka) and Daniel (Ralph Macchio) face each other once again. Photo: YouTube Red Technically, The Karate Kid is a film franchise, one that consists of four movies and a 2010 remake. But with all due respect to Jaden Smith, Hilary Swank, and to Peter Cetera’s “The Glory of Love,” it’s the first 1984 feature — the one that introduced us to Daniel LaRusso, his karate mentor Mr. Miyagi, and Daniel’s mortal martial arts enemy, Johnny Lawrence — that remains the most beloved of them all. The team that made Cobra Kai, a new YouTube Red series that reignites the LaRusso/Lawrence rivalry in the year 2018, clearly feels the same way about 1984’s The Karate Kid. Josh Heald, co-writer of Hot Tub Time Machine, joined Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, who co-wrote the Harold and Kumar movies, to create ten half-hour episodes that treat the original not just as canon, but almost like the Bible. That first film provides the … [Read more...] about Is a Clever, Reverent Update to