PLOT: Season 4 finds the Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang dojos joining forces to take down Cobra Kai at the All Valley Under 18 Karate Tournament… and whoever loses must hang up their gi. As Samantha and Miguel try to maintain the dojo alliance and Robby goes all in at Cobra Kai, the fate of the Valley has never been more precarious. What tricks does Kreese have up his sleeve? Can Daniel and Johnny bury their decades-long hatchet to defeat Kreese? Or will Cobra Kai become the face of karate in the valley?
REVIEW: When Cobra Kai initially debuted, I was a little disappointed by the YA approach to the story despite the series hitting all of the right nostalgia points for me. With the shift from YouTube to Netflix for the third season, Cobra Kai got better with a balance of mature stories for Ralph Macchio, William Zabka, and Martin Kove along with better storylines for the teen cast. With Cobra Kai IV, the stakes are higher than ever with the return of Thomas Ian Griffith reprising his villainous Terry Silver from The Karate Kid Part III. With Johnny and Daniel aligned for the first time in franchise history, this season delivers the most balanced story yet with some true ups and downs for every cast member. In short, Cobra Kai IV is the best of the martial arts series so far.
Picking up after the season three finale wastes no time in formally introducing Thomas Ian Griffith as Terry Silver. A two-dimensional antagonist in the third Karate Kid film, Silver was a dastardly villain one mustache short of twirling it on screen. But, with his back story an integral part of the Kreese flashbacks last season, Silver becomes much more than a glorified cameo. Series creators Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg provide a season-long arc for Silver that factors in with the narrative paths for Kreese, Johnny, and Daniel. I really appreciate that this show doesn’t portray Johnny or Daniel as good guys or bad guys and that has extended to Kreese and Silver, both of whom are more flawed and human than before. Some may feel this undermines the feature films, but I will happily take the more complex psychology to my stories any day.
As the trailer promises, this season sees the dojos of Eagle Fang and Miyagi-do teaming to take down Cobra Kai. This means the friends and enemies amongst the students are more fraught than ever. Both Miguel (Xolo Maridueina) and Sam (Mary Mouser) are torn between the senseis with each being attracted to the teachings of the opposite side. This also forces Daniel and Johnny to try and tolerate each other. William Zabka and Ralph Macchio have spent so long playing roles against each other that teaming feels like a martial arts equivalent of The Odd Couple. But, it works as these ten episodes take each of them on a significant journey that ends how I expected it to but with some welcome surprises.
On the kid side of things, there is a lot of time spent with Robby Keane (Tanner Buchanan) and Tory (Peyton List). Each season so far, I have found Sam and Tory to be the least interesting and most annoying characters, but this year we get to see some new elements to their personalities that, like with Kreese and Silver, lends some welcome complexity to their roles on the show. I was also surprised by new character, Kenny (Dallas Dupree Young), whose introduction provides a larger role for Daniel’s son, Anthony (Griffin Santopietro). Without giving away any details. the legacy of Miyago-do takes a much different path for the youngest LaRusso. This season also sees the return of multiple characters we have not seen for a couple of seasons and it works wonderfully as the series heads towards the concluding All-Valley Karate Tournament.
The trailer promises some big changes for the tournament this season and once you see what they are, you are likely to predict where next season will go, but it never comes across as cliche. In fact, the martial arts sequences this season are much better than anything from the first three and introduces a new move that could rival the crane kick in Karate Kid history. The biggest weakness this series has always had was the somewhat cheesy teen storylines, but with more characters getting into the mix than ever before, including Amanda LaRusso (Courtney Henggeler), this is the most engaged I have been with this series so far. The ten episodes fly by with each clocking in at a full half-hour except the finale which is ten minutes longer. This is an easy binge and a perfect one for this New Year’s Eve.
The fourth season of Cobra Kai is the most balanced story we have seen so far from The Karate Kid spin-off. But, it also represents the last stunt the series has up its sleeve. Short of Hilary Swank, all of the major big-screen characters have made return appearances at this point, so the fifth season of Cobra Kai will have to stand on its own merits while dealing with the aftermath of what happens this year. With this season delivering new alliances and reignited feuds, what comes next will have a lot to live up to, but the season ends with multiple threads leading into the next season. Cobra Kai IV is as inspirational as it is funny, nostalgic as it is timely, and gives us more reasons to love this franchise while finally going in the direction I was hoping it would.
Cobra Kai IV premieres on December 31st on Netflix.