You're All Right, Lawrence

Cobra Kai (Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz & Hayden Shlossberg, 2018-2025)

Intentionally waited for the last part of the sixth and final season to be available before binging my way through all fifteen episodes. Whose idea was it to split the entire season into three parts and stagger it over nearly a year? Netflix pulled a similar stunt with the second season of Squid Game (2024) and it left many folk feeling short changed as it was nothing more than a glorified half season, than a proper one. But I digress, Cobra Kai Season Six is composed of fifteen episodes of teen drama and action that mostly delivers on its ridiculous premise, and most importantly, is a fitting send off to an Eighties intellectual property which succeeded in going forward where many of its peers failed.

It's not all perfect, however. There were a bunch of filler episodes in the final season; particularly most of Part One. Ideally, the whole season could have been streamlined into the previous one, but it's hard to hate on it when the other parts picked up the slack so well.

Season Six's most noteworthy moments (spoilers ahead):

• The Cobra Kai jungle cave reminding me of the Dagobah scene from The Empire Strikes Back (1980).
• William Zabka's performance during the Johnny and Kreese making up scene.
• Hawk's stars and stripes mohawk. 
• Kenny shitting himself in front of everyone.
• Surprised Hilary Swank's Julie Pierce from The Next Karate Kid (1994) didn't appear considering practically everyone else from the movies was in Cobra Kai at some point, including Darryl Vidal.
• Danny LaRusso being kidnapped and put in a dog cage in Barcelona. Genuinely thought this was going to wind up like the Hostel films. 
• The awful CGI Mr. Miyagi during Danny LaRusso's dream sequence with the skeletons. So unnecessary.
• John Kreese putting a final end to Terry Silver's villainous shenanigans and his final redemption on the yacht. Those final words "No!" and "Mercy!" So cartoonish, yet so satisfying.
• The other karate schools in the Sekai Taikai tournament. Namely, Iron Dragons, Furia de Pantera and Dublin Thunder.
• The epic brawl hilariously not being pulled from live television for nearly quarter of an hour, even after Kwan's death.
• Kim Da-eun murdering her evil Pai Mei looking grandfather.
• The cheap-as-chips Rocky training montage.
  
• Johnny Lawrence and Sensei Wolf's beef kicking off over steak at a food buffet.
• Dimitri and Hawk creating an ultra realistic, virtual fight simulation with some ancient Alienware PC for Robby's training.
• Iron Dragons' Axel Kovačević essentially being a Poundland Ivan Drago and Zara Malik being an obnoxious Instagram influencer.
• Tory, Miguel and Johnny bowling into the Sekai Taikai wearing Cobra Kai Gis again with AC/DC's Thunderstruck in the background.
• The expectation of Johnny Lawrence performing Danny LaRusso's trademark Crane Kick, but he sweeps the leg instead.

Truth be told, with so many characters in the show, it was always going to be hard to see each of them getting a truly satifying final moment from them. However, Cobra Kai did achieve some satisfying resolutions for its core characters. Obviously stoked with Johnny Lawrence finally getting an ending that he deserved, along with his first student Miguel getting to shine in those last remaining episodes. Even supporting characters like Dimitri and Hawk being like nerds again was satisfying. 

Make no mistake, Cobra Kai was never meant to be on the same level as top tier TV shows like The Sopranos (1999-2007). It totally embraced its cheesy Eighties factor unapologetically, entertaining me for the majority of its six season run. For that reason, Cobra Kai has been one of the most fun shows I've watched in recent years.