‘Cobra Kai’ Season 6 Part 1 Review

Much like Ralph Macchio‘s Daniel LaRusso in the original Karate Kid, the success of Cobra Kai feels like a classic underdog story. While creators Hayden Schlossberg, Jon Hurwitz, and Josh Heald did have the benefit of continuing a well-known IP, when it was first announced, it gave many, including me, hesitation. While the promise of the return of Macchio and William Zabka as Daniel-san and Johnny Lawrence, respectively, was intriguing, it initially did sound like your typical legacy sequel that we seem to be getting so much of nowadays.

However, upon watching the first season, I was blown away by the series. Yes, Cobra Kai has a fair amount of cheesiness, but there was so much energy and pure passion on display that it was hard not to be wrapped up in its charm. Yet, since the series had debuted on the now-defunct streaming service YouTube Red, I didn’t know many people with whom I could share my love of the series. Even after that shocking Season 2 finale, casual audiences weren’t that well aware of the show, despite its excellence. It wasn’t until Netflix picked up Cobra Kai in 2020 that it truly blew up and became one of the streaming service’s most popular series. The mantle “Strike First. Strike Hard. No Mercy.” was now back in the mainstream, and I couldn’t have been happier.

Now, Cobra Kaiis coming to an end with its supersized sixth season, and it’s bittersweet. While you wouldn’t want the show to wear itself thin, and its young stars are beginning to age out of their roles, the fact that Sony is making their own legacy sequel as a feature film, without the involvement of Schlossberg, Hurwitz, and Heald, does feel a bit strange. The fact that Cobra Kai‘s final season will be released in three different parts does help ease that pain, and based on the first five episodes, Season 6 is well on its way to becoming a more than satisfying conclusion.

Daniel and Johnny’s Bromance Has Truly Blossomed in ‘Cobra Kai’ Season 6 Part 1

The Season 6 premiere begins a few months after the bombastic Season 5 finale, the Cobra Kai dojo is no more with Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) in prison. Daniel and Johnny are finally getting much closer to seeing eye-to-eye, as they have finally combined their two dojos, Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang, with some assistance from Chozen (Yuji Okumoto) — although the two frenemies disagree over what to name this new collaboration. Daniel is still trying to adjust to working with Johnny, and soon has a crisis of faith after making a startling discovery about Miyagi’s past. Meanwhile, Johnny is trying his best to become the perfect father figure to his blended family, which now has former rivals Miguel (Xolo Maridueña) and Robby (Tanner Buchanan) under the same roof, with a baby on the way as well.

The teens are also looking ahead at their academic futures. Miguel is hoping to fulfill his lifelong dream of attending Stanford, while Hawk (Jacob Bertrand) and Demetri (Gianni DeCenzo) are seemingly dead set on getting into MIT. Sam (Mary Mouser) and Tory (Peyton List) finally seem to have put aside their differences after their long-standing rivalry, with some help from their boyfriends. Kenny (Dallas Dupree Young), having now left Cobra Kai, now refuses to talk to Robbie, despite his mentor’s best efforts. Having escaped from prison, John Kreese (Martin Kove) has made his way to South Korea and has begun building a fierce new karate army of his own alongside his old ally Kim Da-Eun (Alicia Hannah-Kim), who he’s known since she was a child. On a larger scale, the world karate tournament, the Seikai Taikai, looms over everything, threatening to tear Johnny and Daniel’s students apart.

‘Cobra Kai’ Season 6 Part 1 Is Short But Sweet

While, in past seasons, Cobra Kai released all 10 episodes at once, these first five episodes do fly by a little too fast, especially since it’s been nearly two years since we’ve last seen the characters. They’re also incredibly dense. These new episodes still have time for some entertaining and humorous subplots — including Chozen accompanying Johnny in finding a new house, Johnny hosting a girls’ slumber party for Samantha, Tory, and Devon (Oona O’Brien), and Miguel, Dimitri, and Hawk reuniting with their former bully Kyler (Joe Seo) at a frat party. That said, whenever one of these light-hearted storylines isn’t taking up the screen, a large chunk of these five episodes is spent setting up the remaining ten.

It all goes by faster than you’d want it to, but these new installments still retain the series’ fun-filled spirit of being a “karate soap opera.” The jokes still land — when it will not be funny to see Johnny Lawrence try to stay hip with Gen Z? — and the heart remains strong. Cobra Kai has yet to miss a beat and those who enjoyed the previous five seasons will still love these new episodes just as much as the rest.

There is plenty to be satisfied about in the first third of Season 6, but the way it all concludes almost feels a little too abrupt. Without delving into spoiler territory, as you’ll want to go in knowing as little as possible, Episode 5 ends in a way that makes you question why we’ll have to wait over four months to find out what’s going to happen next. It would be understandable if the cliffhanger acted as more of a mini-season finale or if there was a shorter gap between the first two parts, but instead, it builds up momentum so much that you expect to have the next episode waiting for you. Only time will tell whether Cobra Kai can maintain viewer anticipation in the long stretch between episodes, as Part 2 will inevitably pick up mere seconds after the cliffhanger.

Everyone Gets To Shine in ‘Cobra Kai’ Season 6 Part 1

Much like Daniel-san and Johnny attempt to balance the teachings of Miyagi-do and Eagle Fang, Cobra Kai has always been able to strike a balance between its adult characters and its karate-chopping teens. Season 6 Part 1 is no different. Zabka continues to be the highlight of the older generation of characters, but he is especially able to bring in the laughs whenever he’s sharing the screen with Okumoto’s Chozen, with the two sharing some excellent comedic chemistry. Macchio gets to show an even more vulnerable side of Daniel than he has in the past. While his character began the show as being kind of a cocky, rich auto-dealer, he’s evolved throughout the story. We’ve seen him struggle before, but this time, Season 6 of Cobra Kai feels more focused on Daniel’s mental health, and Macchio effectively pulls it off. Without getting into too much detail, Kove’s Kreese is back in force after spending almost all of Season 5 in the slammer. Kove gets to play Kreese as a pure villain once more and watching him train his new pupils brings an even greater sense of danger to the stakes this season.

Maridueña, Buchanan, Mouser, and Bertrand are still as charismatic as ever in their roles, but List’s Tory has arguably the strongest arc in Part 1. The five episodes greatly expand not only her masterful karate but also her personal life and getting used to being on the same team as Mouser’s Sam. Tory has always been an interesting character who feels like she mirrors the teenage Johnny in the original film more than anyone else, and List truly flexes her dramatic chops in several pivotal scenes. DeCenzo’s Demetri also earns an unexpected but welcome arc, as he continues to become even better at karate. Young’s Kenny has always been one of the series’ most fascinating and unpredictable characters since his debut in Season 4, and once again he has a lot of moments to shine — and sits at the center of one of Part 1’s best fight sequences in the premiere.

While it will inevitably be hard to say goodbye to Cobra Kai, if Part 1 of Season 6 is any indication, longtime fans of the series and the franchise as a whole will get the best possible conclusion that they could have hoped for. Schlossberg, Hurwitz, and Heald were able to do the near-impossible by making this series as great as it is, and the fact that they’ve been able to maintain that same level of quality as the series nears its end just goes to show that Cobra Kai never dies.

REVIEW

Cobra Kai

Cobra Kai Season 6 Part 1 kicks things off to a great start, retaining the same level of quality as the past five years.

Pros

• Everyone in the cast gets their chance to shine, with Peyton List, Dallas Dupree Young, and Gianni DeCenzo being major highlights.
• William Zabka and Yuji Okumoto are a comedy dream team as Johnny and Chozen.
• The new fights are some of the series’ most exciting yet.

Cons

• The ending of Part 1’s five episodes feels way too abrupt.

Cobra Kai Season 6 Part 1 begins streaming on Netflix on Thursday, June 18.

Watch on Netflix