Even in a landscape full of reboots and sequels, Cobra Kai is still one of the most unlikely hit shows of the last decade. A spin-off of the Karate Kid Franchise inspired by a gag on How I Met your mother and launched in 2018 on the short-lived YouTube Red, Cobra Kai survived, became a cult hit on Netflix, and is now ending a six-season run. Even many of us who like the show have trouble explaining its appeal. It has a D-list cast, a ridiculous premise, and a strange tone—somewhere between a Nickelodeon sitcom, a CW superhero drama, and Towards east and below. Cobra Kai has probably lasted one season too long, with the fifth season of 2022 Really The dramatic limits of a series about rival karate schools in Southern California are being tested, but showrunner Josh Heald and company have picked themselves up for the final round. Part 1 of season six has all the over-the-top teen drama, tightly choreographed action and awkward comedy that fans expect. Like Johnny Lawrence, it’s silly as hell, but you have to respect the confidence.
Season 6 begins with the valley’s various fighters and factions living in harmony. Eagle Fang Karate, run by Johnny (William Zabka), has merged with Miyagi-Do, run by his former rival Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio), and all of their students are getting along for a change, even Daniel’s beloved daughter Sam (Mary Mouser) and his hard-nosed student Tory (Peyton List). Johnny’s family is complete and growing bigger than ever. His biological son Robby (Tanner Buchanan) is back under his roof and Carmen (Vanessa Rubio), the mother of his beloved mentee Miguel (Xolo Maridueña), is expecting a baby. Their internal disputes seem to be behind them, and the gang can focus on the future, like applying to college and preparing for the Sekai Taikai, the worldwide karate competition the dojo qualified for last season. But the peace cannot last long, as there are not enough tournament places for the whole gang. In the meantime, the evil Sensei John Kreese (Martin Kove) has escaped from prison and still harbors glorious ambitions for his own dojo.
Wait, what was the last part?
In recent seasons Cobra Kai has strayed from its narrow lane as an over-the-top, self-aware sports dramedy about characters who take junior karate championships way too seriously and has become a crime drama. This is a series in which 12-person martial arts brawls break out in mall food courts; once a character gets thrown in jail for assault, the show is basically broken. So is the idea that last year’s villain, Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith, reprising his role from Karate Kid III) posed a global threat to the soul of karate was too silly even for this series. Although Kreese’s prison break at the end of last season was also a silly comic moment, it is an example of two wrongs becoming a right, as it once again makes the stakes of the final season hinge on the results of a karate tournament where nothing is at stake but pride and prestige. If Cobra Kai a cartoon, then a tournament anime, not Code name: Kids Next Door.
Although the cast is very extensive and the mythology is dense, this final season of Cobra Kai benefits from a tighter setting and simpler conflicts. Winning the Sekai Takai would be a life-changing opportunity for any of the Miyagi-Do kids, whether as a boost to their college application or as a launching pad for a career in martial arts. They’ve reached the point in their lives where their obsession could actually make a difference in their lives, and for once, the enormous pressure these kids put on themselves to succeed in regional karate tournaments actually seems justified. The final five episodes of the season, coming out this November, will be devoted to the Sekai Takai and are intended to be a worthy finale to the series.
The years of training the young cast continue to pay off, too. The leads do so much of their own fighting that it’s actually jarring when the show cuts to one of their characters performing a somersault or some other demanding maneuver, obviously performed by a stuntman, with their face carefully obscured by a lock of hair. Cobra KaiThe fight scenes remain exciting and inventive, and these five episodes offer plenty of good, GIF-worthy moments of bloodless violence.
There are moments during this series of episodes where it feels as if Cobra Kai could continue even if the original group of teenage fighters grows out of age, turning the show into a kind of karate Degrassi. The younger students grow up and develop their own feuds and internal conflicts. But as rewarding as it has been to watch this growth, there is no such commitment to the growth of Cobra Kai‘s middle-aged characters. From the beginning, one of the show’s central gags is that Johnny is a toddler’s idea of a cool adult alpha male, dragged screaming and kicking into the 21st century. Each season, Johnny has matured into a more functional adult, but now more than ever, that development is thrown out the window when the plot demands it. Johnny has long outlived the jokes the writers want to squeeze out of him, and that’s become the show’s biggest liability to suspension of disbelief. (Let that sink in for a moment.)
It is probably best that Cobra Kai is closing shop this fall. But who knows – maybe the last five episodes will make us all want another sequel, in which stepbrothers Miguel and Robby open rival karate schools and the whole circus starts all over again.
