Netflix rewards ‘Cobra Kai’ with a fifth season

The karate chops will keep on coming as Netflix has given “Cobra Kai” a fifth season.

Production is set to begin this fall in metro Atlanta, though the show itself is fictionally set in the Los Angeles area.

The fourth season, which was completed earlier this year, is set to debut in December.

The series debuted in 2018 on YouTube’s subscription service but YouTube dropped scripted programming by 2020, giving Netflix the opening to grab the well-regarded series and provide it a much larger platform.

As a result, the show, which artfully blends comedy and drama while evoking warm memories of the original films, has received even more eyeballs and plaudits, including four Emmy nominations. The third season, when it came back last year on Netflix, was in the service’s top 10 for several weeks.

“Cobra Kai” is a continuation of the “Karate Kid” series from the 1980s with two of its key original actors Ralph Macchio and William Zabka back as Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence, respectively. The series focuses on both their stories and a new generation of kids.

At the end of season three, frenemies Daniel and Johnny combined their dojos to battle villainous John Kreese, played with gleeful evil by Martin Kove.

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