https://blacknerdproblems.com/cobra-kai-never-dies-but-it-is-ending/

I have been here since the beginning. The forefront of the Cobra Kai beat. I got a free trial of YouTube Red (which dates this review in a very specific way) to watch the season and then kept it because 1) ad free viewing on all devices is an absolute game changer and 2) I needed more of the sports drama webseries that could. When it moved to Netflix for its third season, I convinced everyone who had ever watched The Karate Kid in three different discord servers to watch the show because I needed this show to keep going. However, after the (second, third, fourth?) fight for the soul of the Valley, it did become clear that the story was reaching the logical conclusion of the narrative. When they announced that the sixth season would be its last, I nodded my head solemnly and prepared for the epic conclusion of the series. 

And then also stayed awake at night thinking about the implications about the series ending in time for the newly unified Karate Kid cinematic universe, which is still keeping me up on the odd night. But that’s not why we’re here today. We’re here today because the creative team behind Cobra Kai realized that 10 episodes wasn’t enough to wrap up everything up but that was 20 was probably too much, so we ended up with 15 episodes broken up in 3 parts. Which… is some Attack on Titan final season nonsense, but at least they were upfront about the timeline and distribution and I’m not going to complain about more Cobra Kai, although I will complain about having to wait. This is appointment television. This is “watch the drop the moment I can” content. This is “rewatch immediately after completion” television.

To quickly recap season 5: John Kresse brought in Terry Silver who evil masterminded a little too hard and got the Valley Branch of Cobra Kai closed down for real. Again. But for actual real time. There was a lot of criminal activity involved in this go around that makes it actively difficult to avoid. Lots of assault by like adult adults. Bribery and near child abuse. Framing. A whole litany of terrible any of which alone could have been the straw that broke the camel’s back, but all of them definitely doing enough damage to end the stateside reputation. This leave the unified house of Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang as the only dojo in the valley and the school that teaches both offense and defense as needed awarded a spot in the Sakei Taikai, an apparently ongoing global karate tournament that has been going on in the background that never really caught sail stateside, but since Silver and Kreese opened the door, the Miyagi-Fang alliance is going international after earning a spot.

Season 6, Part 1 opens to the least volatile the Valley has ever been. Daniel has finally gotten over another one of his traumatic specters. We also get to see Johnny preparing to be a proper father to his new blended family unit. Not everyone is friendly, but no one is actively trying to inflict bodily harm onto another person, in prison, on the lam, or otherwise dealing with grave moral dilemmas, and that is a significant improvement over where we left off in the previous seasons. Kreese is unaccounted for, but Danny, Johnny, and Chozen are teaching the next generation of karate kids and the likelihood of another gang war is at an all-time low since the combined school is preparing for the most difficult trial of their lives. It is very early on that we can see the structure of season 6 laid out. We are preparing for a tournament in part one. We are going to a tournament in part two. We are reconciling all of the fallout for the tournament in part three. Great. Here for it. No notes.

Cobra Kai has always been ambitious with its multi-generational ensemble, and season six continues to swing for the fences as we follow the high school kids (the eldest of which are now seniors and the youngest a freshman), the new founders of the combined Miyagi-do/Eagle Fang owners, and because Cobra Kai isn’t Cobra Kai without a sufficiently larger than life karate villain, Kreese. With a total runtime hovering around three hours, there are a lot of storylines in play, but, thankfully, we’re able to cover the multiple storylines much more efficiently given that the number of principle perspectives has essentially been halved. Rather than having to divide time between the student/instructor dynamic of three different dojos, we have high school drama, martial arts drama, and Kreese’s third stage villain arc making him even more villainous like that was even possible. And yes, we still have about twenty named characters that we are following, but significantly less silo-ing. The kids are showing growth while still predictably being kids. Danny and Johnny are still figuring out how not to bring out the worst of each other (which honestly is impressive how much they backtrack).

And while I can’t go into too much detail because I would never dare risk spoiling it, the show manages to tackle some pretty difficult topics ranging from the different manifestations of privilege and opportunity, what redemption and legacy truly mean, and as is the staple of the series: the lingering effects of trauma. And these ideas have underlined the series since the beginning, but season 6 is really the first time where it feels like they’re tackling these concepts in other frameworks than martial arts to surprisingly potent effect. Since it their year, a lot of the kids are talking about college, and the conversations they have about the process are honest and heartfelt. It sneaks up on you in surprising ways, often leveraging the guest spots in inventive ways where one minute I’m going “why would you…” and two scenes later going “oh. Oh okay.”

Although, a nontrivial amount of hype of the show comes from the fights, and you can tell this is the last season because the production on these fights is next level. After six some years of stage fighting, these actors are beasts on set, and it shows in the intricacy of choreography and the dynamic filming. And this is just prologue to the main event in the grand scheme of things. I can’t wait to see what they have cooked up for the back 10 episodes.

Season 6, Part 1 isn’t faultless. If you thought after 50 episodes of teeter tottering social dynamics of Johnny and Danny boy would have run its course, you won’t actually be shocked to hear that 51 through 55 still manage to find ways to introduce two people who literally two sides of the same, who have trained their current generational duo who have managed to mend fences, to still remain in constant conflict. And given that there are only five episodes, there are some subplots that are just sort of left hanging. Even though I trust that everything will be resolved, some of the loose threads are appropriately pinned and some seem aggressively dangling in the complex tapestry that this final season is turning out to be. (To say exactly one thing about the potential of a partially unified Karate Kid universe, which… I still don’t understand the benefit of unifying these three things, but I’m not Sony Pictures.) And there is a level of cartoonish villain that exists when John Kreese is on the screen, but at the same time Martin Kove is so gotdamn good at playing him that I am willing to look the other way like 95% of the time. 

Ralph Macchico and William Zapka tread familiar and new water and are fun to watch. Peyton List gives out a knockout performance (pun intended) with Tory’s arc. Courtney Henggeler’s Amanda continues to be the one sensible character in the entirety, which brings me endless joy. Xolo Maridueña and Tanner Buchanan play out the rivals and pseudo brother dynamic of Miguel and Robby brilliantly. I could sing the praises of all of the main and support cast for days. The writing is a clean modernization of every late 80s/early 90s sports drama. It is kinetic, it is frenetic, it is passionate, and more than anything else you know that Heald, Hurwitz, and Schlossberg love this franchise with their whole hearts and want to bring it forward for years to come.

If you need to find me, I will probably be rewatching the Cobra Kai again. And again. And again until the second drop on November 28 and then just feverishly waiting for the true finale in 2025. I would have much rather have all 15 at once, but it’s also very much one of my favorite televisions shows to come out in the last decade, and it continues to earn that right every drop. So there’s that. 

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