REVIEW: ‘Cobra Kai’ Season 6 Part 2 Continues To Bring The Series Back

Cobra Kai Season 6 Part 2 alleviates a lot of these issues by giving Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) a renewed focus, expanding on who Tory Nichols (Peyton List) is outside of her trauma, and letting Miguel Diaz (Xolo Maridueña) thrive again. More importantly, season 6 continues to let karate be the main focus again.

Cobra Kai Season 5 was a frustrating exhibition of the series’ worst characteristics. The melodrama melodrama-ed too hard, and the heart that made the series stand out was gone in Season 5, Part 1 of Season 1, largely due to the continued focus on the LaRusso and everyone else existing as some sort of antagonist. Part 1 of Cobra Kai Season 6 started to right the ship.

Cobra Kai is written and executive produced by Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and co-creator Hayden Schlossberg via their production company, Counterbalance Entertainment. When Cobra Kai started on YouTube Red, it focused squarely on Johnny and Miguel.

Karate became a language for the unlikely father-son duo to communicate and grow as people. But throughout the series, the absurdity has kicked it up several notches, the LaRussos have taken center stage, and Miguel’s story specifically has felt like an afterthought – instead of the series lead as the series continued on Netflix.

Cobra Kai hasn’t been trying to give Johnny redemption for some time now, but it is looking to grant him emotional moments with his sons. While Cobra Kai Season 6 Part 2 isn’t entirely focused on Miguel, the attention all of the teen cast garners feels significantly more even. Tory isn’t cast as the horrible villain.

Robby Keene (Tanner Buchanan) makes mistakes. Miguel and Johnny’s relationship develops even further, with Johnny truly wanting to be a father. It all comes back to what made the series special. Sure, the LaRussos still have too much of the focus for my tastes, but as the series’ final season, the writers are beginning to right the ship.

The Sekai Taikai brings the Cobra Kai focus back to Karate.

At the Sekai Taikai, the extravagance of the challenges is fun to watch and makes each character compensate for their weaknesses in different ways. It allows the characters to showcase their skills similarly while their opposition to other Karate teams helps to round out their choices, strengths, and weaknesses. Facing the new Cobra Kai in Spain led by John Kreese (Martin Kove) and Sensei Kim Da-Eun (Alicia Hannah-Kim), the Iron Dragons led by Sensei Wolf (Lewis Tan), and the bevy of other teams, the matches get mean.

As the Miyagi-Do students begin to falter under the pressures of the Sekai-Taikai, their personal lives start to take the spotlight. With dumb teenage choices peppering their experience in Spain and ultimately winding up in things they can’t take back, even if they want to.

The dynamics between the couples this season are also interesting. They’re still complicated, but the series lacks the awareness to write grounded teen relationship stories, often relying on tropes reserved for characters far older than the ones we see on screen. Hawk (Jacob Bertrand), Devon (Oona O’Brien), Demitri (Gianni DeCenzo), Samantha (Mary Mouser), and Kenny (Dallas Dupree Young) are all of the characters who see some action. Still, they all end up as less compelling explorations than the others in the cast.

As the second part of a season, there is an emptiness to this batch of episodes. Rolling into any second block can feel detached as we wait for a finale, even if the cameras capture a shocking ending before Part 3 drops in the new year. But without watching Part 1 before Cobra Kai Season 6 Part 2, Chozen (Yuji Okumoto) feels like too much of a joke, the side story of kid LaRusso being a bully falls flat, and ultimately, some of the tension between Robby and Miguel falls flat.

Cobra Kai Season 6 Part 2 can’t leave the LaRussos out of it.

Much like Part 1, though, Cobra Kai Season 6 Part 2 squanders narrative time by dedicating it to Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and his quest to learn Mr. Miyagi’s past. Focusing so much on Danny makes it easy to notice that he’s not the strongest element.

Add in the fact that the tournament’s focus isn’t so much about overcoming new challenges as the fighters become more fierce, but rather Danny and Johnny fighting about the right style to teach…again, and Part 2 isn’t perfect.

That said, as old enemies like Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) resurface and Miyagi-Do inches closer to not becoming world champions, a narrative ramp-up is beginning to pay off. More specifically, the chaos that ensures from punches thrown in an all-out brawl adds entertainment value to Cobra Kai’s final season. The draw may not be rival dojos like it was for the All Valley karate tournament, but it is still about how the characters deal with large rifts in their relationships.

Cobra Kai Season 6 Part 2 has a lot to offer, but it’s up to the third part to seal the deal on this continuation of the Karate Kid movie. Does it win out, or does it falter under the weight of LaRusso melodrama? I’m hoping Miguel gets to take everything out on the mat and retake the series’ focus to send it off. But that may just be wishful thinking.

Cobra Kai is streaming now on Netflix.

Catch up with reviews of each season:
Season 1-2 | Season 3 | Season 4 | Season 5 | Season 6 Part 1