Cobra Kai’s best quality has always been that it knows exactly how cheesy it wants to be, but Season 6 Part 1 struggles with where to put the cheese.
The show, for the most part, has been a very consistent ride in both quality and a punctual release schedule. Six seasons in seven years seems hard to accomplish in the streaming era, but Cobra Kai has relished that delivery despite moving networks, a global pandemic, and a strike that ended all work for months.
The binge-release model the show has had for its entire run is still there, but now the 15-episode final season is split into three, with the second part set to release in four months. All this to say that it’s a different viewing experience, and perhaps more of the flaws are easier to spot or these flaws have grown with the expectations of delivering on the final season.
Cobra Kai Season 6 opens with all the fighters finally under the same roof. Well, almost all, but hey, at least it’s the closest we’ve been to unity amongst these dojos. No Silver, and seemingly no Kreese. Just Daniel and Johnny with their dojo under one roof—what could go wrong? A lot but we’ll get to that later.
The first episode opens up pretty mellow. There’s a certain level of breeziness to the show that there is seemingly no apparent conflict in sight. Then we soon realize there is inner turmoil within the group that needs to be dealt with. I mean, all these characters have switched sides more times than Italy in World War II.
I feel mixed in how the show handles its arcs even just beyond the turmoil. The show in earlier seasons was as cheesy as it is now, but what made it so fun was when it handled more serious subject matter—it felt more grounded in that. Now it feels like it is trying to re-create that without dedicating enough time to it, and when they do, it feels superficial in the worst way.
At times, the show feels like a Flanderization of itself, partly because the characters feel like Flanderizations of themselves. Johnny barely has an arc, and Daniel’s arc is too focused on Miyagi even after six seasons and forty years. The show focuses on the futures of these kids, going off to college soon but it doesn’t have anything interesting to say about it which is frustrating given how big of a focus it is.
But even with all this, the show is still easy as hell to watch. The lure of the show is how simple it is. It’s very much a turn off your brain and go “KARATE AWESOME” type of show and that’s why it’s so fun. I still love those elements in the last two episodes of this part. The first 3 however, I was less satisfied partially because it was less plot-focused karate. When the show pushes the plot forward with karate, it’s always great to see.
To me, that’s why the first few episodes are so unsatisfying. They don’t do much for these characters or the plot. While it does have the benefit of having 15 episodes, I would prefer it uses them more wisely than wasting them with boring arcs that offer no deeper insight.
It’s like making nachos. The show, for the most part, has always made really good nachos but in an attempt to change up the format, the recipe changes where it puts the cheese. Imagine nachos but with the cheese at the bottom, that’s what Part 1 feels like. Now the beauty of making this mistake is that they can easily rectify it by adding more cheese to the top like intended, and that’s precisely what it has a chance to do in Parts 2 and 3.
I think episode 5 sets up Part 2 really well and I am very curious to see how that unfolds. The twists and turns of the show have always been interesting, and Part 1 has some fun ones at the end, and I’m sure Part 2 will as well.
All I hope for the final season of Cobra Kai is that it delivers a satisfying bite with every element incorporated—the nachos, the cheese, the onions, the meat, the guac, and the beans. Sometimes you get an uneven bite like I felt with Part 1, but I’m open to finding that perfect bite as it winds down.
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