'Cobra Kai' Season 6, Part 1: Will a 3 part release help or hurt final season of Netflix hit?

It's the beginning of the end of an era with the release of Cobra Kai Season 6, Part 1, the final season of the popular Netflix series, a sequel to the Karate Kid film trilogy. With stars including Ralph Macchio, William Zabka, Xolo Maridue?a, Tanner Buchanan, Mary Mouser, Peyton List, Jacob Bertrand, Dallas Dupree Young, Martin Kove and Yuji Okumoto, the series continues to reveal more about the characters we met in the Karate Kid movies, while developing this new batch of karate hopefuls.

One thing to keep in mind with Season 6 of Cobra Kai is that the evolution of this story will happen slowly. Part 1 has now been released, with Part 2 coming on Nov. 28, and Part 3 will bring the series to an end next year.

What happens in 'Cobra Kai' Season 6, Part 1

Everything seems to be relatively calm when Cobra Kai Season 6 begins. Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) is in jail, and Daniel LaRusso (Macchio) and Johnny Lawrence (Zabka) have merged their dojos into one, with the assistance of Chozen (Okumoto). The motto is: "One purpose. One team. One dojo."

Robbie (Buchanan) and Miguel (Maridue?a) have bonded now that they're about to be half-brothers, and Tory (List) and Sam (Mouser) are in the process of trying to get closer after being vicious enemies.

The one looming threat is John Kreese (Kove), having escaped prison and now in South Korea, he's building his own karate team with the help of Kim Da-Eun (Alicia Hannah-Kim).

Everyone has their eye on the international karate competition, the Sekai Taikai, being held in Barcelona, Spain.

As you'll expect, things can't stay calm for too long. With only a set number of spots open for Sekai Taikai participants, the competition starts to cause friction among the young karate stars, many of whom are in the process of figuring out where they want to go to college, as they are approaching the end of high school.

Maintaining that connection to the Karate Kid films, Daniel also discovers information about Mr. Miyagi's past (played by the late Pat Morita in the Karate Kid movies), as Daniel starts to uncover secrets Mr. Miyagi never told him about.

In line with other seasons of Cobra Kai, Season 6, Part 1 leaves us with a cliffhanger, including a particularly emotional moment for Tory, both in her karate pursuit and her personal life.

Lukewarm excitement before a four month break

Having only watched the first of three parts of Season 6, it's too early to make a definitive call on the success of the show's final season, but we'll move forward with the assumption that these initial episodes are setting the groundwork for the rest of the story to come.

Cobra Kai creators Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg have the formula of the show dialled in. It's a series that leans into melodrama and some cheesiness, with charming characters and a dash of nostalgia for original Karate Kid fans.

But reaching six seasons of the show, are things too repetitive and predictable now? It's starting to feel that way in Season 6, Part 1, and we'll have to wait for the remaining two parts of the season to see if that's rectified.

What is incredibly admirable is that Cobra Kai continues to service both the legacy Karate Kid characters and the characters introduced in the series equally well.

Many of the characters in Cobra Kai remain a delight to spend time with. Characters like Demetri (DeCenzo) are just as lovable as they've always been, Maridue?a and Buchanan have maintained their appealing charisma, and List continues to impressively navigate the big emotional swings of her character Tory.

While we were hoping that the end of the first part of the final season would leave us really excited for Part 2, it's more of a lukewarm excitement. It's not that the first five episodes are boring, but it could have packed more of a punch when there's a four month break. But it does really feel like a sort of setup narrative to what's hopefully on the horizon.

The biggest question we have is whether the three-part release will help, or hurt, the momentum of the final season of Cobra Kai. So far we're not particularly optimistic about the decision for one of the most popular and addictive comfort shows to watch.