Just finished it. A few disappointing things, mostly the continuous rehashing of the same stuff, it did become very repetitive and soapy. However, my biggest issue by far is that there’s no respect given to longevity, in the sense that this season there’s 3 or 4 characters who literally train for a month or two and are then competing in the tournament against people who’ve been at it for years. I know it’s meant to be fiction, and in some respects the original Karate Kid did the same thing and it’s a trope of all underdog sports stories (e.g. mighty ducks etc.) but doing it over and over means you can’t think “well, Diaz and Robby are the best” because they can just throw a new character in for a few episodes. When there’s no consistency in those kinds of rules it’s very hard to be invested. Also, the age of the competitors grated on me this time. It’s an U18 tournament, Daniel and Jonny are the same age, Daniel won it twice and before win Jonny twice, so Jonny was 14 when he won it the first time?! This season there was a middle schooler (with about 2 months training) competing. I probably shouldn’t care, but it just feels like you have a suspend a little too much disbelief.
Having said all that, it’s still top TV, I loved it. Plug it straight into my veins.