The first part of the sixth and final season of Cobra Kai dropped on Netflix recently. The fact that this show even lasted past its second season is a testament of how to do a legacy series the right way and avoiding that dreaded F word – fanfiction.
On the surface, the series could’ve failed. It premiered on YouTube Red in the spring of 2018, almost 30 years since we had last seen Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio). And neither Macchio and William Zabka, who plays Johnny Lawrence, had appeared in anything of true substance for years. Zabka had been nominated for an Oscar for the Czech live action short Most and Macchio had played Joseph Stefano alongside Sir Anthony Hopkins in Hitchcock.
But for the most part, the two had mostly stayed dormant in their careers appearing every now and again on TV shows and commercials. When Macchio appeared on the dais at the Comedy Central Roast of Rob Lowe, a running joke is how Macchio in his mid-50s at the time still look young but it was because he had been spending most of his time indoors. And two of the co-creators are Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, the two guys who gave us the Harold and Kumar movies.
But from the first episode on , the show had a lot of promise as it focused on the lives of both Daniel and Johnny as they are in their 50s living in the San Fernando Valley. Daniel is a successful businessman and civic leader with his car dealership while Johnny was struggling as a handyman for hire. What made the show work is it delved further into Johnny making him a more three-dimensional character while showing that Daniel has as many faults as Johnny.
One thing the three movies did was show Daniel evolve from a cocky kid from Jersey to a cockier young man from southern Los Angeles. While the third movie is not the best, it showed how Daniel seemed to turn against Mr. Miyagi who had become his father figure. Cobra Kai has shown how both Daniel and Johnny are more alike as they both seem to be stuck in the past as Daniel keeps bringing up his past championships like the guy who peaked in high school still expecting free beers at the dive bar he hangs out at because he scored a championship win 30 years prior.
And as they fought and made a truce only to break it and make peace again, it’s evident that there’s a bond between them they both don’t want to admit. The first five episodes of the sixth season show Daniel and Johnny seemingly falling into the routine of normal lives. Chozen (Yuji Okumoto) is still in America and more or less crashing with the LaRussos much to the passive-aggressive chagrin of Amanda (Courtney Henggeler). It is nice to see that Daniel and Amanda’s son Anthony (Griffin Santopietro) has actually had some subplots written about him this time. He’s seemed almost to vanish in the background in some previous seasons.
To be honest, the main complaint I’ve had with Cobra Kai is there are too many people to keep track of. I’d hate to say this, but it feels more like a soap opera at times. There’s several subplots going on with us following Johnny and his family, Daniel and his family, as well as the teenagers being trained under Daniel and Johnny and John Kreese (Martin Kove) has made his escape from prison to join the dojo of Kim Da-Eun (Alicia Hannah-Kim) to reinstate Cobra Kai. There’s about two dozen characters to focus on.
Johnny has more or less made peace with his son, Robby Keane (Tanner Buchanan), and taken on the role of stepfather to Miguel Diaz (Xolo Mariduena) as Johnny and his mother, Carmen (Vanessa Rubio) are expecting a child. I like this Yours, Mine and Ours style that Johnny and Carmen have settled into as well as Robby and Miguel coming to peace and realizing they’re family. What has made Cobra Kai so good over the past few years is how it shows friendships and relationships are fragile but they can be mended if both sides do what they must. Daniel’s daughter, Samantha (Mary Mouser), and bad girl, Tory Nichols (Peyton List), seem to have called a truce and become friends. (In real life, I’ve heard Mouser and List get along very well.)
No spoilers but I will say we finally do get to see Tory’s mother and no, it’s not Hillary Swank as it was rumored. Whether or not Swank (who had appeared in s) will appear in the series is still left open. Netflix has plans to release the rest of the season in two more installments with the next dropping on the streaming service in November and the third and final in 2025. Daniel discovers that Miyagi owned a boxing gym and had a criminal history from his youth. It’s possible this may have a link to Swank’s Julie Pierce who is the granddaughter of Miyagi’s commanding officer during World War II at which time his wife during during childbirth while being interned at Manzanar.
While fans may be a little upset because most of the episodes deal with the students preparing for the Sekai Taikai, the powers that be appear to be working good at wrapping things up as Eli “Hawk” Moskowitz (Jacob Betrand) and Demetri Alexopoulos (Gianni DeCenzo) prepare for college. The series has worked well at focusing on the lives of both the older and young characters. However, the first five episodes leave more questions than answers, which hopefully will be revealed in November.
There isn’t a release date for the final episodes in 2025 but hopefully, it will be a fitting end.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 