Brian Earl Spilner said:
The whole vibe of the series if completely different from the movie. The movie was a fairly straight drama whereas the show has more of a cheesy 80's comedic vibe. (And it works for it.)
Not quite comparable imo.
I'm not sure it was a vibe thing. On the original karate kid there were no "cringe" moments based on anybody's acting. Now Ralph Macchio's acting seems stiff. I can't really put my finger on it, but it seems like he is trying too hard to make Daniel have gravitas like Miyagi. Maybe it's that he is good at the "aw shucks" type of thing (which is all he did in the original KK movie), but comes off like Pee Wee Herman trying to play General Patton when he is in "sensei mode". And his karate makes me cringe. Looks like hasn't done it at all since he left the KK set.
BTW, this makes me respect Pat Morita more. He went from Arnold in Happy Days to playing Miyagi as convincingly as anybody I could imagine, including the karate. Even though he didn't do anything particularly fancy, I always had the notion that he could.
I have the opposite feeling about Zabka (compared to Macchio). I basically forgot about him as a has-been. I've only seen him in KK1 and Back to School. He was good at being intimidating in KK, and okay in BtS I guess, but he makes this show. Without him, this show would be like Saved By the Bell with karate. I never considered that he could be funny, but he's damn funny even with the subtle physical humor. And he's quite convincing on karate. It seems he has kept at it since the original movie ended. Either that or he is a natural athlete who can just pick that stuff right up. Now I hope he ends up in more stuff (not tied to KK) in the future.