Netflix Smash Hit Nostalgic Action Series Final Season Is Here

Cobra Kai begins 34 years after the end of The Karate Kid (1984), following middle aged Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) and Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) as they lead very different lives outside of Los Angeles. LaRusso is the successful owner of several Japanese car dealerships and lives with his wife and two children in the lap of luxury. Lawrence seems to have peaked in high school and has taken a mighty fall from the grace that his senior-year athleticism bestowed to him.

Lawrence has never gotten over losing the All Valley Championship to LaRusso in The Karate Kid and devolved into a life of heavy drinking and unskilled and low paying odd jobs. He’s curt, gruff, and disconnected to everyone around him. This is in stark contrast to LaRusso, whose financial successes have led to a level of arrogance that seems to have made him forget the path that his mentor Miyagi guided him along during his training years.

Over the course of its first five seasons of Cobra Kai, these two former rivals reunite (sometimes as friendly adversaries, most often as foes) and establish competing martial arts studios for the teens of the Valley. Like the people of the Valley in the original The Karate Kid, the ones that live there today seem to live and breathe all of the kicking and punching that takes place on competitive mats and give audiences the impression that the All Valley Tournament is the one event that their entire year revolves around.

Cobra Kai brings in multiple characters from across the first three Karate Kid movies, including the manipulative founders of its original dojo John Kreese (Martin Kove) and Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith). LaRusso’s Miyagi-Do and Lawrence’s Cobra Kai attract a number of teens who all do battle on and off the mats in a high school kung-fu frenzy that would make Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan blush. After the evil Kreese and Silver take Lawrence’s studio away from him, Johnny starts up Eagle Fang Karate (eagles have fangs?) and sets up a new wrinkle to keep the show pulsing with excitement.

Cobra Kai is silly fun, wrought with tongue in cheek humor and a heightened level of self-awareness that makes it one of the best shows to stream on Netflix. There’s plenty of well-choreographed action sequences, some of which seem to last half of an episode’s running time. The characters belt out as many funny lines as they do punches and kicks, succeeding in giving audiences a show that is never off balance.

Fans often find themselves cheering for different characters at different times, as the teens throughout Cobra Kai’s six seasons continue to evolve and change. One minute might find you loving Eli “Hawk” Moskowitz (Jacob Bertrand), while scenes in another episode might have you enraged at the character’s attitude and actions.

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On a higher level, Cobra Kai sends the message that none of us are infallible and are all much more complicated than we might appear. The true path to finding ourselves and keeping our conflicts in check is discovering and maintaining our balance. The show does this both figuratively and literally, sometimes making you forget that you’re watching a bunch of high school kids beat the Hell out of each other.

Season 6 does not disappoint and is poised to continue to captivate audiences when the next five episodes debut on Netflix on November 28.

You can catch the final episodes of Cobra Kai streaming on Netflix.