Spoilers: Messy 'Cobra Kai' Hits Reset on Its Underdog Formula One Too Many Times

Through the first five seasons of Cobra Kai, I’ve been mostly impressed with the series’ ability to maintain a consistent level of quality. When it originally premiered on the now-defunct YouTube Red, it felt like a gimmick show that surprisingly managed to combine nostalgia with new characters and storylines to pull off a rare feat: a great reboot-sequel.

A second season felt both inevitable and unfortunate—surely they’d never be able to duplicate that magic again, right? Wrong. Though never particularly original, the series has repeatedly managed to shake up the underdog formula and, at the very least, breathe fresh life into well-worn tropes. The lower production values, after-school special vibes, and mediocre acting abilities of its cast — especially the two leads — actually added to its charm. The show itself felt like an underdog, especially when Netflix not only gave a left-for-dead series a huge audience but also resurrected it entirely.

In this sixth and final season — broken into three parts of five episodes each — it may have finally overstayed its welcome. It’s not that it doesn’t have its charms; it’s just that it’s repeated itself too many times. It’s the Pitch Perfect 3 of seasons, essentially the same thing, only bigger and set internationally, here at the Sekai Taikai in Barcelona.

The first five episodes are training episodes, something we’ve seen entirely too many times in this franchise, only now with a larger group of kids. What hasn’t changed, even after five seasons of constant disagreements, is the bickering animosity between Daniel (Ralph Macchio) and Johnny (William Zabka). They spend most of these episodes arguing over whose fighting style should dominate, only to ultimately agree to combine the two.

Those disagreements carry over to the Sekai Taikai, although Johnny and Daniel’s styles have merged under the Miyagi-Do label. Once again, they’re facing Cobra Kai, now led by John Kreese (who escaped prison) and Kim Da-Eun. Their team captain is Tory Nichols (Peyton List), the sullen Cobra Kai turned Miyagi-Do turned back to Cobra Kai member. She’s still dating bad boy Robby Keene (Tanner Buchanan), but their relationship hits the skids when their teams are pitted against each other in the tournament.

There’s also an additional dojo — Hong Kong’s Iron Dragons — and spoilers: it’s being bankrolled by Terry Silver, who is also out of jail (the criminal justice system in the Cobra Kai universe is wildly ineffective). With Chozen Toguchi (Yuji Okumoto) helping Miyagi-Do (and fraternizing with pseudo-enemy Kim Da-Eun), basically all the major living characters from the previous five seasons are in Barcelona. Because, obviously, two of the best dojos in the world come from the San Fernando Valley.

It probably won’t come as a surprise that Miyagi-Do gets its ass kicked in the first few rounds of the tournament, narrowly avoiding elimination a couple of times. But we’ve seen this story far too many times now, so we know how the formula works: they barely hang on until a big emotional development — here, Carmen’s pregnancy complications and the return of Kenny (Dallas Dupree Young) — and then they start fighting beyond their abilities heading into the big finale.

Spoilers, again: The big showdown between the final four teams — ultimately including Miyagi-Do and Cobra Kai — plays out much like the huge, chaotic house brawl between the two dojos at the end of season three. It also ends tragically, echoing season two’s climax when Robby (Tanner Buchanan) kicked Miguel (Xolo Maridueña) over a balcony. Here, however, it concludes with an angry Cobra Kai member, Kwon, dying after falling on the dagger he grabbed to attack Axel, an Iron Dragons member.

Ultimately, Cobra Kai is a show about teenagers from two main dojos competing in karate tournaments. The concept can only sustain so many permutations, and it might have been better to end after last season’s ultra, ultra All Valley Championship. While the show has worn out its welcome, I’ll grant that William Zabka and Ralph Macchio remain such good party guests that I’ll stick with them for five more episodes, after which, thankfully, they’ll leave on their own (only to reemerge in a new Karate Kid movie).