The stars of the Karate Kid trilogy are back as Cobra Kai season five premiered on Sept. 9 with a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes, becoming the number one show on Netflix. With new intense fight scenes, and the return of characters from the original movies, this season was definitely one of the best yet.

The new season picks up where it left off when Miguel Diaz (Xolo Maridueña) goes to Mexico unannounced in search of his father. The trip to Mexico is best described as a disappointment. Not only did Miguel get robbed and realize his dad really was a bad person, but it was also a disappointment for Robby Keene (Tanner Buchanan)— who is sensei Johnny Lawrence’s (William Zabka) son by blood— since he thought that he was gonna go on a father-son bonding trip, but instead, sensei Lawrence lied and the whole purpose of the trip was to look for Miguel. 

What I liked the most about this new season was the character development of Miguel and Robby Keene. These two have always been rivals since season one when Miguel beat Robby in the All Valley Karate Championship final. This rivalry even left Miguel in a coma after Robby kicked him off his school’s second floor stairs railing. In this season, Johnny Lawrence decided that it was time for them to let this rivalry go since he was going to have a baby with Miguel’s mom. Ironically making Miguel and Robby into step-brothers. Sensei Lawrence kept insisting on planning out things to make them bond, but they would always decline, until he told them to settle it in a dual. After they fought, they put their differences aside and realized they could actually get along well. It was really heartwarming to see them getting along really well throughout the season.

Last season also left watchers on a cliffhanger, when Tory Nichols (Peyton List) finds out that her sensei, Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith), paid the All-Valley Karate Tournament referees to give Cobra Kai the win which would cause the rival karate school to close. Throughout the entire show sensei Lawrence, sensei Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and sensei Chozen (Yuji Okumoto) were trying everything they could to expose sensei Silver, but every time they would get close to exposing him, Silver would always be one step ahead. In the end, sensei LaRusso fought and beat sensei Silver using his famous crane kick.

As a Karate Kid fan, what I really enjoy about Cobra Kai is how all the characters from Karate Kid have been involved with the series. This season we also had the appearance of Mike Barnes (Sean Kanan), who was also one of LaRusso’s rivals. It’s really interesting how LaRusso became friends with all of his rivals. But in this season they became his friends and they were the ones that helped him expose Silver.

This season had everything from action to romance. There were also some incredible character developments from multiple characters that made the storyline even better. I’m really curious to see what will happen in season six because in my opinion they should’ve ended the show with Kreese dead and Silver in jail. But honestly, I’m not complaining as this show is definitely one of the best currently out there.