Netflix has unleashed the first look at the fifth season of Cobra Kai—and we now we know when the series will finally be hitting the streamer too.
When we last left the Valley, Terry Silver had fixed everyone real good: his dojo had won the All Valley Karate tournament—by nefarious means—forcing Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence out of the sensei game, in addition to having his Cobra Kai partner and longtime friend John Kreese arrested on trumped-up assault charges.
Now, Silver has opened Cobra Kai dojos all over the apparently lawless Valley—where all differences are settled by high school karate tournaments. And LaRusso has recruited former foe Chozen Toguchi—the pair made peace during a stellar episode in season three—to help put a stop to Silver’s quest to infect California with gangs of Cobra Kai trained bullies.
Meanwhile, Johnny is trucking down to Mexico in search of his prodigal protégé Miguel, who is on his own quest to find his biological father.
Each season has found a legacy character returning to the fold: Elizabeth Shue even came back in season three—but there is no mention of Next Karate kid star Hilary Swank or Sean Kanan as Mike Barnes, Silver’s student from Karate Kid III. However, Cobra Kai is always full of surprises.
Cobra Kai continues to be one of the better legacy sequels out there. Based essentially on an Internet meme suggesting that Daniel LaRusso was not the nice guy that the three Karate Kid films portrayed him as, the show explores themes of forgiveness and friendship. It creates a world where everything isn’t black and white, and it revels those grey areas. The heroes are not completely virtuous, the villains are never pure evil, the adults aren’t always right, and the kids aren’t always wrong.
It also delivers old-school karate action couched in ‘80s nostalgia while even parodying some of the series’ ridiculousness. One of the best lines of the fourth season comes from Thomas Ian Griffith’s Silver: “I was so hopped up on cocaine and revenge... I spent months terrorizing a teenager over a high school karate tournament. It sounds insane just talking about it.”
How many more seasons can the series stretch out this concept (the high school characters are slowly approaching their thirties)? We can only hope long enough to finally have Jackie Chan make an appearance.
A New Year’s Day tradition of the past few years, Cobra Kai will now hit Netflix on September 9.