Cobra Kai’s sixth season just debuted on Netflix this week, though the ending is nowhere in sight, and won’t even be seen until next year.
Cobra Kai is tripling down on the worst Netflix trend we’ve seen over the last few years, the desire, the desperation to take any remotely popular show and break it up into multiple parts. For a while, that’s been two parts. Now? It’s three for some shows like Cobra Kai and for whatever reason, That ‘90s Show.
I remember seeing this start around the time Stranger Things season 4 came out. The rationale there was that the final two VFX-heavy episodes would not be ready in time for season launch. But now it’s happening with almost every single well-watched show they have from You to Bridgerton to Lincoln Lawyer.
Cobra Kai’s season 6 Part 2 and 3 release dates are now really stretching things. Part 2 will not arrive until November, which is four months away and far from the one month break these two-part break-ups usually see. Then Part 3 doesn’t even have a launch date, just some unspecified release in 2025, and again, all of these are just five 30 minute or so episodes.
There is no “we need more post-production time” excuse here. Its creator has his own explanation though does not discuss a specific Netflix demand, which no doubt is in play here:
“15 episodes felt like the perfect number, in terms of the real estate of space, to tell the final chapter. [But] it’s tough to binge all that in one sitting.”
That just does not track, as people binge that many episodes and more all the time with longer, licensed shows like Suits on the service. And even if no, you don’t want 15 episodes in a day, you can easily do it in a couple days, a week? Two? But the idea that this just launched in July and it needs to be broken up over half a year or more is absurd.
The very obvious conclusion here is that Netflix is trying to have it both ways, keeping some semblance of a binge model but understanding they can get people to keep subscriptions going longer if they break these shows up and make the second or third parts arrive one, two, six months later. This may prevent binging, cancelling, binging, cancelling every time a big new show is out. But it’s the worst of both options, as straight binging would certainly be better, or even weekly releases would have these shows watched the same amount of time with less choppy storytelling. Five episodes, then 1-4 month break, then maybe even one more after that is a terrible way to tell a story.
There are no signs this is going to stop. Netflix will keep debuting new shows as all-at-once binges so they have the potential to grab an audience, but anything successful is going to be broken up. Get ready for Wednesday season 2 Parts 1, 2 and maybe 3, for instance. I don’t even want to think about how they’re going to slice up Stranger Things season 5.
