By: Jesse Striewski
Like many, I too was excited for yet another new season of the hit series Cobra Kai. But even with some returning familiar faces, the show unfortunately feels more tiresome and strained than ever before this time around.
It starts off promising, albeit predictable enough; John Kreese (Martin Kove) recruits his former partner and Cobra Kai co-founder Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith, who returns to the franchise for the first time since 1989’s The Karate Kid Part III) to compete with Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) and Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio), who have now splintered off back to their own respective dojos.
It’s painfully obvious this season is solely a Netflix production; not only is it dumbed-down to the most low-brow levels possible every chance it gets here, the characters show such little signs of any actual human development. The adults still exude constant unrealistic immaturity, while the teens continue to answer any conflicts with as much whining and/or ridiculously reckless behavior as possible.
It takes until the eighth entry for things to finally start picking up a little, eventually peaking by the tenth and final episode. And of course the door is yet again left ajar for a fifth season, with Silver (hopefully) hinting at the return of Mike Barnes (Sean Kanan) from Part III. But even still, the show has sadly become far too self-aware, and not much more than just a parody of itself; I truly hope it can somehow find its way back on track to being “the best around” by the time the next season drops.
Rating: 1.5/5 Stars
