Board 8 > I never understood the praise, "Better than it deserves to be."

(+) Yeah! (+)

I just finished watching Cobra Kai after binge watching both seasons on Netflix. Naturally, I opted to go find some discussion on the show, and I found many people praising it highly (which I agree with), but with lots of people saying that the show was "Better than it has any right to be," or "Better than it deserves to be."

Is this a prejudgment that the show should suck, but instead it didn't? This description is used for things like TV Shows and Movies, Food, Video Games, and probably literally any other source of entertainment or enjoyment found in life. I honestly don't get how this kind of description is praise, and is instead feels more like a back-handed compliment.

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It is praise how I use it. 'I didnt like this concept at all but holy shit this was good'

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For Cobra Kai in general it looks like a general nostalgia cash grab that could be phoned in and the same amount of people would watch it. It's basically the Fuller House of Karate Kid. The fact that it actually is watchable makes it better than it deserves to be.

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It's like saying it's greater than the sum of its parts and that it exceeds the concept, but it definitely is backhanded since at the least it's saying the brand isn't good. Like a Karate Kid show being good drama is only surprising because you think it's a cheap cash-in on the movie, or maybe that Karate Kid itself is bad drama.

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It is essentially judging a book by its cover, but still reading it anyway and finding one happy one did.

It represents an awareness of surface level criticism and acknowledges some wisdom in such, while also rejecting it when exceptions come along.

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it's just a fancy way of saying "I was wrong"

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At face value this should suck, but it doesnt

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LeonhartFour posted...

it's just a fancy way of saying "I was wrong"

It allows you to hold on to your prejudgement by making it sound like it was objectively justified, even though you were wrong, so you don't have to admit you were wrong.

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