Season Five Didn't Land All the Intended Punches
After continuing to release new seasons, like one of its aging fighters, “Cobra Kai” doesn’t know when to quit.
By Jocelyn Cosgrove
After continuing to release new seasons, like one of its aging fighters, “Cobra Kai” doesn’t know when to quit.
By Jocelyn Cosgrove
The rise of a karate empire, and way too much teen drama to keep track of, returns with season five of Netflix’s original show “Cobra Kai,” which was released on Sept. 9.
After losing to the Cobra Kai dojo in the All Valley Karate Tournament, both Eagle Fang Karate and Miyagi-Do Karate students and senseis had to put karate behind them, clearing the way for Cobra Kai to take over the valley. As Terry Silver’s (Thomas Ian Griffith) reach grows, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) teams up with his old rival, Chozen Toguchi (Yuji Okumoto) from “The Karate Kid Part II,” to help take Cobra Kai’s reinstated leader down. On the other side of the story, Johnny Laurence (William Zabka) and his son, Robby Keene (Tanner Buchanan) take a road trip to Mexico to do some father-son bonding and to find Johnny’s student, Miguel Diaz (Xolo Maridueña).
While “Cobra Kai” has had its good moments, there is no denying that it has kind of lost its edge since the first season. The comedy is still hilarious, the fight scenes are still pretty spectacular, but by this point, all possible storylines have been exhausted or repeated. Sam LaRusso (Mary Mouser) and Miguel have relationship problems again. Daniel is still trying to bring down Cobra Kai, but this time, it’s become more personal with Silver in charge. Johnny has probably been the only sane and stable character and he actually had a pretty good season. He got some exciting news, made amends with some of his family and didn’t have to deal with as much karate drama as in past seasons.
However, there are some good parts about this season. The fights scenes are well choreographed and pretty action-packed, Tory Nickols (Peyton List) story and character development has really progressed in a really interesting way. Some parts of the season were really well written, including Robby’s and Miguel’s relationship which has been a highlight of this season. However, there were some parts of the story that didn’t need to be put in, like the whole Miguel in Mexico story. It seemed to end very quickly and didn’t add much of anything to the storyline.
I feel that season five was the perfect ending for this show. Every one of the characters are in a pretty stable place and if there is another one or even two more seasons, I think it would ruin that peace. If there is a season six, it would probably repeat plot lines seen in earlier seasons, as discovered in this most recent season. If the last episode of this season had been a little longer, then it really would have been the perfect ending for the show, but sadly, that didn’t happen and season six will probably be announced soon.
Overall, it was a pretty decent season for “Cobra Kai” and despite the negatives, it still made me laugh. That's the good thing about “Cobra Kai.” Even if it’s the worst episode, the jokes and the bits of comedy are absolutely golden and never fail to hit their mark.
Season five of “Cobra Kai” is now streaming on Netflix in full.
After losing to the Cobra Kai dojo in the All Valley Karate Tournament, both Eagle Fang Karate and Miyagi-Do Karate students and senseis had to put karate behind them, clearing the way for Cobra Kai to take over the valley. As Terry Silver’s (Thomas Ian Griffith) reach grows, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) teams up with his old rival, Chozen Toguchi (Yuji Okumoto) from “The Karate Kid Part II,” to help take Cobra Kai’s reinstated leader down. On the other side of the story, Johnny Laurence (William Zabka) and his son, Robby Keene (Tanner Buchanan) take a road trip to Mexico to do some father-son bonding and to find Johnny’s student, Miguel Diaz (Xolo Maridueña).
While “Cobra Kai” has had its good moments, there is no denying that it has kind of lost its edge since the first season. The comedy is still hilarious, the fight scenes are still pretty spectacular, but by this point, all possible storylines have been exhausted or repeated. Sam LaRusso (Mary Mouser) and Miguel have relationship problems again. Daniel is still trying to bring down Cobra Kai, but this time, it’s become more personal with Silver in charge. Johnny has probably been the only sane and stable character and he actually had a pretty good season. He got some exciting news, made amends with some of his family and didn’t have to deal with as much karate drama as in past seasons.
However, there are some good parts about this season. The fights scenes are well choreographed and pretty action-packed, Tory Nickols (Peyton List) story and character development has really progressed in a really interesting way. Some parts of the season were really well written, including Robby’s and Miguel’s relationship which has been a highlight of this season. However, there were some parts of the story that didn’t need to be put in, like the whole Miguel in Mexico story. It seemed to end very quickly and didn’t add much of anything to the storyline.
I feel that season five was the perfect ending for this show. Every one of the characters are in a pretty stable place and if there is another one or even two more seasons, I think it would ruin that peace. If there is a season six, it would probably repeat plot lines seen in earlier seasons, as discovered in this most recent season. If the last episode of this season had been a little longer, then it really would have been the perfect ending for the show, but sadly, that didn’t happen and season six will probably be announced soon.
Overall, it was a pretty decent season for “Cobra Kai” and despite the negatives, it still made me laugh. That's the good thing about “Cobra Kai.” Even if it’s the worst episode, the jokes and the bits of comedy are absolutely golden and never fail to hit their mark.
Season five of “Cobra Kai” is now streaming on Netflix in full.