The thing about ongoing television series, especially when they reach what these days is a rare sixth season, is that they can never quite match expectations. On the one hand the viewers want more of what they liked before yet on the other they want something different. Caught in the middle showrunners and writers often try to meet both these criteria but the results satisfy neither. Cobra Kai has never lacked heroics and excitement as well as some mad twists but even the biggest fan would have to admit that it’s plots have recycled similar tropes across the previous five seasons. When you reach a point wherein characters are discussing how to get two people to fall out to increase their fighting prowess you know the show is eating itself! So the first batch of episodes, dropped in the summer, seemed to lack the tournament vigour required though they had their moments.
Almost every plot point
in those episodes mirrors or riffs off ideas from previous seasons.
Of course this may be enough for some people but good drama should never quite
give you what you think you want. When characters make up or break up, when
alliances are formed or broken, when plots are hatched it feels over familiar. That
being said the series remains breezily likeable with some commendable morality
even if it’s layered on heavily at times and the comedic vibe between Johnny
and Daniel is always worthwhile. This season Johnny even ends up working in the
Le Russo car dealership! There is one significant new development opening up
something of the history of the mythical Mr Miyagi involving an incident that
alters ours- and Daniel’s – perception of him. It’s the most intriguing plot in
an otherwise rote series of developments. Though you have to say- has nobody
moved that bed in a decade or more to notice the hidden vault?
Having incredulously
faked his death in a prison last season, Kreese returns as the season’s initial
principal antagonist who after being forced into an absurd ritual with a snake
is allowed to establish a new Cobra Kai using highly trained and very serious
fighters somewhere in the East. You have to applaud Martin Kove for bringing
something out of this odd scenario.
Elsewhere harmony has
descended on the rivals in the Valley which you know won’t last though the
beefs are so forced you just don’t buy it. The nadir is reached when Daniel and
his wife are trying to engineer an argument between Tory and Samantha so they
are more competitive! This first set of episodes is more of a build up to the big
Sekai Taikai tournament the opening of which forms the final scenes of the
first batch of five episodes. Kreese’s appearance to the shock of our regulars
is so melodramatic complete with choral incidental music you would think the
Devil himself had materialised in a pillar of fire. Give his narrative
trajectory superpowers can only be a few episodes away!
The far
more engaging second set of five episodes, released in November, are mostly set
in Barcelona and the show benefits from a change of location and the pressures
of the latest tournament. This is the setting for the Sekai Taikai the biggest
tournament since the last one! Seriously though this is a souped up
championship whose preference for tag team contests, sometimes taking place on
a raised platform, adds an extra tension. Myagi-Do do begin with their
customary wobbles, this time Robbie is distracted by the unexpected presence of
Tory in Cobra Kai so its left to Miguel to keep them in. Kreese now hangs about
being obviously villainous all the time manipulating everyone and even
persuading Daniel to go and check out a hitherto unmentioned Sensei who knew Mr
Miyagi. In a particularly unlikely turn
Daniel ends up in a cage adjacent to several feral dogs. It all makes
for good melodrama of course though lacking any context especially the bit
where he buys a keyring outside which then enables him to later break out of
his confinement. Maybe in Barcelona kids really do sell plot devices?
The season underscores how the kids are starting to mature to the point where it is Miguel who gives the pep talk that shakes Daniel and Johnny out of their slump. Mind you Mayagi Do does have a tendency to be their own worst enemy. To be honest the differences between them, once fun and well observed, now seem too rote to the point where whatever one of them says, the other disagrees with. It is Miguel too who pulls Robby to a place where he can focus on the contest. Xolo Mariduena is excellent this season both in the action and in some crucial family scenes. Peyton List as Tory also impresses dealing with the character's conflicting loyalties and recent trauma give her more to play with than most of the cast. There’s some interesting material too for Mary Mouser who plays Samantha. Compared to these three the others have to get by with a minimum of material though the chemistry built over so many seasons does help even the most banal dialogue spark a little.
Kreese and Terry Silver have now become so melodramatic that they really need long capes to swish as they enter a room but it does suit the tone of the show. The key characters though remain Daniel and Johnny even if their disagreements have becomes over familiar. Both work so well together and invest these characters with considerable depth and also humour.
What you
are not prepared for though is the mayhem that ensues in episode nine. Fans
recall with fondness what is probably the series’ peak sequence at the end of
season two in which dozens of pupils are involved in a ten minute fight that
moves around the building. It remains an iconic tv moment not just for the spectacle
but the way it was shot. Now the final section of episode nine actually betters
it.
Similarly
exploding suddenly, though after a number of issues push different characters
to the edge, this time we have the regulated discipline of the tournament
shattered when a fight breaks out that spreads across all the teams. And it
lasts for thirteen minutes in all, constantly taking the viewer from one dust
up to another, a battlefield in which even the referees find themselves
involved. It shows how each character’s
individual fighting style comes into play and I like the fact that the choreography
still manages to find flecks of both humour and real danger. Plus, it does mean
everyone in the cast gets to fight one more time. The sequence is quite an
achievement and everyone involved should be applauded.
How this
concludes has caused something of a mixed reaction from fans though Brandon H
Lee’s Kwon has been written as a fairly one dimensional villain that his death
lacks the impact that would be generated had one of the regulars suffered the
same fate. I really thought Kreese would use that weapon on Silver (or even
Johnny) but the fact that it was dropped
in a moment not seen till after is a little bit of a copout. It is quite bold to present your big action
moments in the middle of the season and raises the bar. It took a while but
season six has got good in the end.
(Five more
episodes to air next February)
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