Cobra Kai Season 4 reminds me of a pro wrestling pay per view. A good one, to be sure. SummerSlam, the Survivor series, whatever you’re watching, the best part is guessing who the writers matched to win, and whether that is believable or enjoyable for the fans. And in the best, well, you get an end rightly not see coming. I don’t know who you had in your betting pool for the 51st Annual All Valley U18 Karate Championship, but I didn’t get anywhere near guessing these winners until the very last stroke.
Cobra Kai The season 4 result lingered with me for a good two days after seeing it, much like WrestleMania when it really delivers. But the problem these PPVs have is that Cobra Kai Season 4 shares is that they often sag in the middle part with less conflict and explanatory dialogue, and sway as they build up to the main event. Satisfaction with the result makes the trip forgivable; The end of the seventh episode delivers a breathtaking moment as the show quickly sheds its campy shell and very serious and very determined.
Cobra Kai Season 4 begins with old frenemies Johnny (William Zabka) and Daniel (Ralph Macchio) merging their dojos to win the upcoming tournament and John Kreese (Martin Kove) on the terms of a loser-leaves town out of the valley drive away bet that no one expects anyone to honor them. Kreese is responsible not only for Cobra Kai, but also for Johnny’s estranged son Robbie (Tanner Buchanan), whose time in juvenile detention turned him into a scowling karate Anakin.
Robbie has done worse than turning to the dark side. Now he’s teaching the Cobras the Miyagi-do secrets he learned from Daniel in Season 1. For their part, Johnny and Daniel waste time disagreeing on whose style should be prioritized in their classes. This manifests itself mainly in a series of humorous montages that go far beyond the type. Johnny’s “Eagle Fang” style expects children to jump over rooftops and kick each other in the gonads in a dimly lit warehouse. Daniel has the children hunt carp around a koi pond to be another exercise tool.
But even if it introduces new conflicts worth exploring, like Samantha LaRusso (Mary Mouser), who adopts Johnny’s strike-first ethic, Cobra Kai Season 4 can’t wait to add more characters to an already rushed ensemble narrative. It’s a confusing place to watch as this year’s 1980s movie recall is the strongest and most dynamic of them all: Thomas Ian Griffith as Terry Silver is the psychopath that the Cobra Kai Dojo has been asking for so badly and that the 75- The one-year-old Kove only provided subtle care in the previous two seasons.
Silver, in the canon of the Karate Kid, was Kreese’s rich pal who funded an intricate scheme to defeat and discredit Daniel The Karate Kid Part III. The character arc chosen by showrunners Hayden Schlossberg, Josh Heald, and Jon Hurwitz for Silver virtually replaces the entire 1989 film, which was a critical flop. Silver is teased out of his new age rehab lifestyle in Malibu by Kreese that needs cash to make Cobra Kai thrive. Kreese is getting a lot more than he expected, and it’s fascinating to see Griffith defeat Svengali Kove in every scene they share. Silver’s cliffhanger knife twist completely surprised me and makes me really optimistic about the fifth season, which has already given the green light.
As if Silver wasn’t already enough of presence, we also get Kenny Payne (Dallas Dupree Young) as the brand new prism through which Cobra Kai breaks its annual cycle of bullying, revenge, and dehumanization, both of which cause. Again, more time for new characters means less time and distance for the established characters. But it’s not like the writers or Young are wasting the space given to Kenny. His character and circumstances are well-written and personable, especially the joke that drives him to see Robbie and Cobra Kai. His tyrant is Daniel’s previously unused son Anthony (Griffin Santopietro), a great choice as an antagonist as it adds some depth to Daniel’s conflict management and provides a solid foundation for future seasons.
That’s still a a lot of the territory covered in seven half-hour episodes. As interesting as the new characters and their dilemmas are, by and large it feels like the first two thirds of the series Cobra Kai Season 4 isn’t held together by anything stronger than an ongoing comparison of the conflicting methods of Daniel and Johnny. For example, Robbie and Tory (Peyton List) ‘s coupling with damaged goods gets a couple of quick turntables before the story storms to the other end of the stage to do maintenance on what was going on with Hawk (Jacob Bertrand) and Demetri (Gianni DeCenzo.) going on). It’s a shame because List’s breakout performance over the past two seasons made me want more from Tory than anyone.
Of all the antiheroes in Cobra Kai‘List does the best job of selling the chip on Tory’s shoulder, seething with deserved resentment and underprivileged insecurity. Don Lee’s fight choreography is overall more visceral and visually entertaining in season 4 than in the previous three seasons combined. It elevates Robbie’s character to the status of one Cobra Kaiis the undisputed best fighter. But when applied to Tory, we see the kind of barely controlled anger that characterized the original Cobras in their scenes from the first film.
As expressive and satisfying as List and Buchanan’s fight scenes are, Mary Mouser steals this particular show with the bespoke fighting style that Lee created for her. It visually marries Cobra Kai‘s meta-meta-Meta Conflict between Daniel and Johnny’s training and traditions, in a kind of interpretive dance. No amount of explanatory dialogue could sell the point, and probably no other character could bring it home. The result is a brilliant duel in which the viewer – like the Robbie vs. Miguel finale of the first season – burns for both fighters and thus gets a really exciting ending, a rarity for a sports film.
After the rescue efforts – nonetheless successful – of the third season, I was skeptical that Cobra KaiThe story weirdos really had a universe and characters that could go beyond a trilogy. Season 4 proved me wrong. Though it meandered a bit on the way to the finale, I still ended episode 10 feeling like the show was reborn. This is largely thanks to Terry Silver, as well as scenes that reset the story and the chemistry between Johnny, Daniel, and Robbie. And there’s not just one visual cliffhanger that needs to be resolved quickly, like the end of season two. There is real ground to break new ground, especially with Kenny and Anthony next year.
Cobra Kai season 4 will begin streaming on Netflix on December 31st.