Whether or not you’re a fan of the hit Netflix drama Cobra Kai, which is a continuation of the story from the Karate Kid film franchise, you can’t help but admire the fact that the show was so successful on a niche streamer (YouTube Red) that it was able to make the jump to the biggest streaming giant in the world — and then, from there, it got to tell its nostalgia-laden story across the same number of seasons as Netflix gave to The Crown.
We see this time and time again from Netflix. An old movie that nobody watched gets added to the streamer and proceeds to blow up. A TV series from yesteryear that already ran its course hits Netflix and gets a second life. And, sometimes, a quality title that didn’t get the chance it deserved somewhere else, like Cobra Kai, gets another chance to shine thanks to Netflix’s size and global reach. Cobra Kai’s first season on Netflix alone was viewed by 50 million households in its first four weeks back in 2020.
Next week marks the beginning of the end of the show, which is not just the biggest Netflix release coming over the next several days but also one of only a handful next week worth spending any amount of time on. Furthermore, the release rollout of the show’s sixth and final season attests to how popular it remains.
About that last point: By now, we’re all accustomed to Netflix’s biggest and most popular titles sometimes being split into two parts upon the release of a new batch of episodes. Cobra Kai’s supersized final season, however, is getting an unprecedented three-part rollout, with the first five episodes coming on July 18. The next five arrive on November 28, with the final five coming in 2025 (Netflix hasn’t set a release date for those yet).
“It’s gonna be a banger,” Xolo Maridueña, who plays Miguel Diaz, said about the final season in a behind-the-scenes video from the Cobra Kai set. As for what the sixth season is actually about, it picks up with Cobra Kai having been eliminated from the valley. The students and senseis must decide if and how they’ll compete in the karate world championship, while Cobra Kai founder John Kreese is also back in play after faking his death and busting out of prison.
What else to watch
As for the rest of what’s coming to Netflix next week, you can always consult our monthly Netflix guide, available here, which details each day’s batch of new Netflix TV shows and movies. With that in mind, two other Netflix releases coming next week worth putting on your radar include:
Homicide: Los Angeles (July 16)
True crime fans, this next one is for you — courtesy of the creator of Law & Order.
Dick Wolf, along with his Wolf Entertainment, teamed up with Alfred Street Industries (the company behind shows like Netflix’s Is It Cake? and Sparking Joy with Marie Kondo) to launch his first foray into true crime. It’s a two-season Netflix docuseries about homicides, the first season of which focused on New York, while the upcoming second round of episodes will shift things to Los Angeles.
The idea behind the show is that each five-episode Homicide season will “illuminate the stories of notorious murder cases as told by the people who know them best: The detectives and prosecutors who cracked them.”
As for Homicide: Los Angeles, specifically, Netflix adds that “It may be known for sun, surf, sand, and star power, but Los Angeles County is also home to more than 9 million people — which means that the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is tasked with investigating a vast number of harrowing cases.”
Skywalkers: A Love Story (July 19)
This third Netflix release is a documentary film based on more than 200 hours of material shot across seven years and six countries.
Love, we’re told in Skywalkers, is a little like heights. The fear of them both never goes away, “you just get better at facing it.”
This film, from co-directors Jeff Simbalist and Maria Bukhonina, follows two daredevils from Moscow who share a passion for scaling the tallest structures in the world. That passion is presented in this film as an expression of their love for each other, never mind that everyone watching will no doubt do so in honor, peeking through their fingers. There’s a fine line between adventure and recklessly tempting fate — and the “skywalkers” of this story tiptoe back and forth across the line, repeatedly, daring death to catch up to them.
“There’s a danger to romance,” Zimbalist said in a Netflix promotional interview. “It crushes us. It breaks our hearts. It breaks our hopes. Here, that danger is material. If the love falls apart, if the trust falls apart, it’s life or death. That felt like such a potent way of taking this amorphous sense that we all have in our romance and externalizing it and making it tangible.”
