Nearly two years after the release of Season 5, Cobra Kai returns with its sixth and final season. However, season 6 has been divided into three different parts, with only the first five episodes debuting all at once on Netflix on July 18, 2024. Another five installments arrive in mid-November, followed by the final five releasing sometime in 2025. According to the first reviews of Cobra Kai: Season 6, Part 1, the show either continues to be great or feels like it’s running out of gas, depending on who you ask, but everyone seems to agree that fans of this continuation of the Karate Kid franchise will still enjoy the characters enough to see the series through.
Here’s what critics are saying about the first part of Cobra Kai: Season 6:
Is Cobra Kai still essential viewing for fans of the franchise?
There is still a very specific and appreciated alchemy to Cobra Kai that stands strong as we enter the sixth season, allowing it to mix comedy, drama, campiness and so very many karate fights into one magical blend that somehow works.
— Eric Goldman, Eric Goldman’s Cultured Pop
Though the season stumbles in its middle section with an underwhelming reveal, there’s enough to entertain and intrigue while teasing the big tournament clashes to come… This show is still a blast.
— Rafael Motamayor, Slashfilm
Cobra Kai has been compulsively binge-able from the beginning, and this final season seems like it’s taken advantage of the delay to tighten up its various narrative strands.
— Zaki Hasan, The Wrap
The series’ consistent secret weapon has always been its sense of humor, and Season 6 has plenty.
— Amy Amatangeo, Paste Magazine
Even with a sub-par script, Cobra Kai still makes for comfort TV.
— Alex Godfrey, Empire Magazine
The revelations within may prove divisive for a portion of the fanbase, insomuch as it pokes and prods at a figure considered sacrosanct by the Karate Kid franchise.
— Bradley Russell, Total Film
(Photo by Curtis Bonds Baker/©Netflix)
Has it gotten better or worse?
After six years, the characters are finally grown up (yes, even our middle-aged characters) and even the most forced disagreements feel less petty.
— Rafael Motamayor, Slashfilm
We love these fools and Season 6, Part 1 takes us deeper into their lives than any past season.
— Matt Fowler, IGN Movies
This is the first season that doesn’t seem to be about anything.
— Alex Godfrey, Empire Magazine
It doesn’t have the same intensity or high stakes as previous seasons.
— Ben Gibbons, Screen Rant
This is by some distance the weakest batch of episodes in the show’s run to date because of how toothless and repetitive it all is.
— Bradley Russell, Total Film
Are five episodes enough to satisfy fans?
It all goes by faster than you’d want it to, but these new installments still retain the series’ fun-filled spirit of being a “karate soap opera.”
— Nate Richard, Collider
It’s pretty slow going… These five episodes, structurally, are just the build – and amount to nothing more than a part-season with most of the exciting parts (presumably) held back for part two in November and the final part in 2025.
— Bradley Russell, Total Film
After the cartoonish high jinks that this show has managed to survive on for seven years, diehard fans of the Karate Kid universe will be none too happy with the comparative calm of part one.
— Scarlett Harris, The Daily Beast
(Photo by ©Netflix)
Is this first part of season 6 a good preview of how things will end?
Based on the first five episodes, Season 6 is well on its way to becoming a more than satisfying conclusion.
— Nate Richard, Collider
It’s clear that Cobra Kai is heading toward a big finish that will leave no character unscarred.
— Rafael Motamayor, Slashfilm
If this first batch is any indication, audiences will happily yell “Banzai!” when all is said and done.
— Zaki Hasan, The Wrap
We can see Hurwitz, Schlossberg, and Heald focusing and being able to bring Cobra Kai to the finish line with a funny, emotionally affecting story.
— Joel Keller, Decider
Cobra Kai’s final season may be off to a rocky start, but it does feel as though the rest of the season will have some massive moments.
— Ben Gibbons, Screen Rant
The show feels like it’s coasting, just when it should be hurtling towards the end.
— Alex Godfrey, Empire Magazine
Where does it leave fans ahead of part 2?
By the end of the five episodes that premiere as part of this first tranche of the sixth season, the series delivers one heck of a cliffhanger.
— Amy Amatangeo, Paste Magazine
The way it all concludes almost feels a little too abrupt… Episode 5 ends in a way that makes you question why we’ll have to wait over four months to find out what’s going to happen next.
— Nate Richard, Collider
Ending on a solid cliffhanger builds excitement for the rest of the season, while also highlighting how flat the rest of part 1 was.
— Ben Gibbons, Screen Rant
A final twist – which sets up much of the main tension and conflict of what’s to come in the Sekai Taikai – is eye-rollingly bad and will do little to shake the feeling that this is one season too many.
— Bradley Russell, Total Film
The hope is that the showrunners are saving the good stuff till later — there are still ten more episodes to come, and it wouldn’t be the first time Cobra Kai has gone off the rails before recovering in style. But this part feels like a crane-kick in the face.
— Alex Godfrey, Empire Magazine
(Photo by Curtis Bonds Baker/©Netflix)
How’s the action?
A handful of familiar faces show up to sprinkle in some fun, frenetic action sequences throughout this first part.
— Bradley Russell, Total Film
The fight [in Episode 1] allows fans to see how far the young actors have come as martial artists since the early seasons, and satisfies the episode’s need for some physical action.
— Brittany Frederick, CBR
Does anyone stand out this season?
Peyton List’s Tory becomes the show’s MVP in this first arc of episodes. Like Zabka, List has spun the bad-girl trope on its head and risen above the cliches. Her storyline has more dramatic thrust this season, and List is more than up for the challenge.
— Amy Amatangeo, Paste Magazine
Peyton List’s Tory has arguably the strongest arc in Part 1… Tory has always been an interesting character who feels like she mirrors the teenage Johnny in the original film more than anyone else, and List truly flexes her dramatic chops in several pivotal scenes.
— Nate Richard, Collider
Peyton List and Mary Mouser give their characters some surprising maturity, resisting the easy bait and evolving as people.
— Rafael Motamayor, Slashfilm
Peyton List gets to show off more of her dramatic chops as Tory, while Xolo Mariduena remains a winning, charismatic figure as Miguel throughout.
— Bradley Russell, Total Film
The fact that Yuji Okumoto stuck around as The Karate Kid II antagonist Chozen adds extra dimension. He was mainly a source of humor and action in previous seasons, and the show now takes an unexpected dive into his psyche. I am here for it.
— Kimberly Ricci, Uproxx
(Photo by ©Netflix)
Are there any major issues with this season so far?
It suffers from slower pacing.
— Ben Gibbons, Screen Rant
Cobra Kai is a bit formulaic, and every season follows the same beats… Season 6 is no exception, and many of the plot-required disagreements and fights are a tad too contrived. Without seeing the big picture of the entire season it feels like conflict for the sake of conflict.
— Rafael Motamayor, Slashfilm
Even with this season stretched out over 15 episodes, things feel rushed. It seems like the show is scrabbling around now, desperately trying to figure out who is left to pit against who.
— Alex Godfrey, Empire Magazine
One thing the series can’t defeat is the passage of time… Maybe a year has passed since the show first premiered. That’s a bit of a problem since a lot of the young actors look so much older than when the show first began.
— Amy Amatangeo, Paste Magazine
Will it make us sad that Cobra Kai is sending soon?
It’s bittersweet… The fact that Cobra Kai’s final season will be released in three different parts does help ease that pain.
— Nate Richard, Collider
These guys [Daniel and Johnny] need all-inclusive vacations on separate beaches while Hawk, Tory, and Robby decide to open their own dojo. A possible spin off? Make it happen, Netflix.
— Kimberly Ricci, Uproxx
86%
Cobra Kai: Season 6
(2024)
premieres on Netflix on July 18, 2024.
Thumbnail image by ©Netflix
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