Cobra Kai Season 4 is the fourth season of an American martial arts comedy-drama streaming television series and a sequel to the original The Karate Kid films by Robert Mark Kamen. Originally streaming on YouTube, the series followed the characters and scenarios from the movies, initially focusing on the Johnny Lawrence character (William Zabka) as the narrative takes his point of view over thirty years after the events of the first movie. The series was acquired from the third season onwards and has proven immensely popular, with a renewal for a fifth season already in place.
Cobra Kai Season 4 demonstrates once more that the formula of nostalgic fan-service and a deft handling of plot and characterisations make for successful TV in this highly competitive streaming milieu. Hard to imagine that The Karate Kid film series has managed to give birth to such entertaining TV fare more than three decades later. Drawing out such a fine tuned and interwoven story tapestry from these three fairly average movies seems quite an achievement!
In the last 3 seasons, the audience has been treated to a rollercoaster ride of connections and conflicts, as loyalties and enmities get constantly switched up whether it’s amongst the adults or the teenagers in the series. Cobra Kai Season 4 brings back Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) from The Karate Kid III – not a great movie in itself! – as John Kreese (Martin Kove) calls on Silver to assist him to run Cobra Kai as the karate dojo faces off with the combined schools of ex-Cobra Kai sensei Lawrence and Daniel Laruso (Ralph Macchio) – in an unlikely collaboration – for the upcoming All Valley Karate competition.
All the fan-favourite new characters come back with different motivations, relationships and rivalries to create a rich and engaging series that never fails to entertain. Highly recommended.
Now streaming on Netflix.
… still there’s more …