Finally, after five seasons of brutal martial arts tournaments and epic cafeteria brawls, there is peace in San Fernando Valley. With their enemies vanquished, the various factions of karate-obsessed high schoolers who make up the cast of Cobra Kai unite under a single banner — but deciding what that banner should be proves surprisingly difficult. “Cobra Kai” is obviously out (too evil), and while Daniel Larusso (Ralph Macchio) would prefer to honor his beloved sensei Mr. Miyagi, Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) doesn’t want his newer “Eagle Fang” dojo to disappear in the merger. So the kids come up with a solution: Miyagi Fang Karate, complete with a cartoonish drawing of Miyagi sporting some blood-soaked canines.
Thankfully, Larusso and Lawrence agree on one thing, and it’s that nobody is calling their dojo Miyagi Fang. But while this scene is played for a joke in Episode 1 of Cobra Kai’s sixth and finale season (spread over three parts with the first streaming now on Netflix), it perfectly illustrates how the once-great Karate Kid-spinoff series has gone off the rails. Without a clear enemy or much narrative momentum, Cobra Kai Season 6 sputters along in its first five episodes, unsure of what it wants to be — though there’s still hope for a comeback before the final showdown.
The first episode of Cobra Kai Season 6 is titled “Peace in the Valley,” and that’s exactly where the story picks up. With the evil senseis Terry Silver (Nick Marini) and John Kreese (Martin Kove) out of the picture, the good guys can settle their differences and set their eyes on a new prize: the international Sekai Taikai karate tournament.
Most of these first five episodes focus on the tournament and who will get to compete. As we learn early on, only six members of any dojo can participate, which is a large enough number that all our main characters are safe while still creating the tiniest bit of tension. To be honest, this plotline isn’t particularly interesting, which is a bummer since it’s the driving force of the entire season. However, based on where we ultimately end up by the time credits role on Cobra Kai Season 6 Part 1, there’s reason to think the story will improve with Part 2 later this year.
Beyond the tournament, the kids’ plotline mostly focuses on a topic that karate-hungry audiences will likely find thrilling: college applications. Cobra Kai does a decent job of exploring what this means to various characters, from the upper-middle class Samantha LaRusso (Mary Mouser) to the more economically insecure Miguel Diaz (Xolo Maridueña), but I can’t say I particularly care where any of them wind up matriculating. This makes an episode where the gang all visit a nearby safety school and wind up fighting frat boys feel like a particularly unnecessary departure. It’s almost as if Cobra Kai’s final season took on too many episodes and needed some filler. (More on that in a minute.)
Meanwhile, the most interesting story happening in Cobra Kai Season 6 involves Daniel and a mysterious trunk he finds under the floorboards in Mr. Miyagi’s old house. I can’t say much about this plotline for spoiler reasons, but it’s interesting to see the show play with (and possibly even retcon) some key details about the entire franchise’s foundational character. What it all leads to remains to be seen, but it’s enough to keep me invested for now.
As for this season’s three-part structure, while Cobra Kai’s showrunners told io9 they wanted to go big with their final season, breaking the story into three parts was probably a mistake. (Season 6 is split into three five-episode drops, with Part 1 streaming today, Part 2 arriving in November 28, and Part 3 sometime in 2025.)
When you’re making prestige TV like Breaking Bad (or even BoJack Horseman) it makes sense to stretch out the final season, but I’m not sure Cobra Kai is quite on that level. Breaking up Season 6 makes this first piece feel hollow. Part 1 is lacking the drama and action that’s defined the series since the very start. With no clear villain or serious tension, Cobra Kai falls back on heavy melodrama and character-driven subplots that probably don’t belong in the final season of a beloved show. (Sure, applying to college is tough, but that’s not why we’re watching Cobra Kai.)
I still have hope that Parts 2 and 3 can turn things around deliver the roundhouse kick Cobra Kai is worthy of, but for now, it’s hard to recommend the show’s final season to fans based purely on what’s available at the moment.
