Cobra Kai Season 4: What We Learned

Although there have been several television adaptations of iconic films, the Cobra Kai season is the most successful attempt in recent memory, particularly in terms of live-action adaptations. Given that it's already in its fourth season, Ash versus Evil Dead is the most significant recent TV continuation that I can recall, even though it only lasted three seasons till 2018. If that's the yardstick, Cobra Kai has done rather well for itself. Previous seasons were very entertaining and based on themes from the original films, however, Season 4's major narrative is based on Karate Kid III, the poorest of the original trilogy.

This Cobra Kai Season 4 focuses on the reappearance of Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith), the evil guy from the third film, and delves into Daniel LaRusso's (Ralph Macchio) history. To take down the duo of LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka), he pairs up with Kreese (Martin Kove) again, building towards the second All-Valley Karate Tournament on Cobra Kai. However, the rationale for his reappearance is arbitrary and illogical. Silver has a life outside of karate in which he is affluent and still has a lot of money.

The development of Anthony LaRusso (Griffin Santopietro), who has become a bit of a bully, is one of the season's bright spots. His character has some significant transformations during the season, which is fascinating to observe. In addition, this season introduces a new student Kenny (Dallas Dupree Young), who is trying to take his place in school, prompting Kenny to join Cobra Kai to develop the capacity to stand up for himself. Kenny's tale is certainly the most compelling of the season outside of the grownups, and Young is a fantastic fit for the characters. His presence brings something new to the season.

Without going into too much detail about how Cobra Kai Season 4 ends, several of the characters on both sides of this karate battle make some fascinating choices. It raises a lot of issues for Season 5, without making Season 4 feel like "watch bait," where you're simply waiting to see how the tales of the previous group of episodes finish up. Most of the tales are wrapped up by the end of the karate competition, so these ambiguous character choices are more of a tease for the next season.

There's nothing quite like Season 2's high-school brawl (the Jets and Sharks are nothing compared to these feuding dojos), but this fourth season is a slicker affair, topped by a show-stopping climax that manages to increase the stakes once further as it sets the stage for Season 5. This karate battle has begun.

Final Thoughts:

Cobra Kai Season 4 is a fictional character created by Cobra Kai: Season 4 isn't the worst season in the series' history, but it's also not the best. It simply lacks the same "oomph" as the prior installments. It's the season coming up to the next All Valley Karate Tournament, but the episodes building up to it felt very hurried. It's a season when characters switch from baby face to heel—and vice versa—and it feels forced and out of sync with the series' tone and flow. In some ways, Terry Silver's participation as Season 4's "big evil" works, but his introduction and motivation for teaming up with Kreese don't.

Cobra Kai Season 4's brightest star is one of the new characters, who brings something very original to a program that shows no signs of staleness anytime soon. Even if the current season falls short of expectations, Cobra Kai remains one of Netflix's greatest original programs.

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