‘Cobra Kai’ It was born as a series that seemed doomed to be little more than a curious idea that would later lead nowhere. After all, the fact of recovering the young villain from ‘Karate Kid’ So many years later it sounded like an attractive premise but with a limited scope, but those responsible soon made it clear that this was not the case.
In fact, this Friday, September 9, the fifth season of ‘Cobra Kai’ arrives on Netflix, and it does so preceded by a fourth batch of episodes that in my opinion was the best so far. In addition, it opened a promising plot line that this new installment recovers and develops without the level of the series suffering in the least. Or at least that’s how it has been during its first five chapters.
LaRusso bottoming out
And it is that you could almost say that those episodes function in themselves as a season in itself with the objective of LaRusso hitting rock bottom. Obviously, there are more open fronts, all of them designed to provide more details to other characters, but Daniel’s confrontation against Terry Silver is the great common thread of these episodes and also how the character played by Thomas Ian Griffith always seems to be one step ahead.
In fact, this start of the season seems more designed to wear down Daniel, since it is true that Chozen becomes a great ally, but there is also a certain idea of isolation for the character of Ralph Macchio which is becoming more evident as the episodes go by, to the point of ending up practically defeated.
The series also links all these events quite well with the suffering that his character suffered in ‘Karate Kid III’, a film already very important in the fourth season but here it is even more so. And I’m not just referring to a certain return that Netflix itself revealed during the promotional campaign, although I will say that I really like the use made of that character in ‘Cobra Kai’.
Other details of season 5
Otherwise, ‘Cobra Kai’ manages to maintain interest at all times, even when some subplot begins to be somewhat burnt, something that the series itself seems aware of so that there are certain very important changes in the dynamics between certain characters. All this without ever giving up this peculiar cocktail between drama, comedy, action and a touch of soap opera that has always characterized the series.
It is true that the cliffhanger that left the series regarding the character of Miguel gives the feeling of being more a narrative island to save time and introduce other elements than something that really interests those responsible for the series, but in return everything that surrounds it, including Johnny’s search for his character, gives us enough joy so that we can ignore it, but if its virtues are highlighted, let us not leave aside what does not work as well.
And it is that it is still a way to get all the main characters busy to have their share of prominence in parallel to that descent into LaRusso’s hell. Luckily, it has already become clear that this was the necessary preparation for what is to come, and best of all is that at no time is it heavy and one goes on devouring chapters without stopping. It’s still so addictive that I finished these five chapters in one go and only stopped because I forced myself to.
In short
‘Cobra Kai’ is still a joy. Entertaining at all times, even when it focuses on some facet of the series that on paper stimulates less than others or uses somewhat debatable plot resources as soon as one thinks about them a little, and knowing how to play their cards very well to that one ends up hooked and simply forgets everything to continue watching chapters until there are simply no more.
In Espinof: