Cobra Kai Will Never Die On Blu-Ray (Unless Bitrot Happens)

The easy access of streaming is nice, but at the end of the day, it’ll always feel more precarious than physical media. The former is dependent on your Internet connection and a fee you must pay each month. Also, streaming shows can and do disappear from services without a trace.

Physical releases of streaming shows don’t happen often these days, but we welcome it when they do. That’s why we’re calling attention to the fact that the entire Cobra Kai series will be released to Blu-Ray in March. That’s all 65 episodes across six sets, housed in a large case which can never be taken away from you except in the event of burglars.

On the surface Cobra Kai looked like a shameless cash grab; Sony’s attempt at keeping the Karate Kid brand alive for a few more years. But it ain’t (or at least it didn’t shake out to be that shallow). Cobra Kai is a quality show with rich character development that expands the world of the movies and successfully introduces new characters. Plus Johnny Lawrence is the best thing about it. Get the set just for him.

I want to believe we’ll see a set like this for Stranger Things someday, but in most of the cases when a Netflix show has hit physical, there has been an external third party involved. In this case it’s Sony, who owns The Karate Kid and can do whatever it wants with Cobra Kai. It didn’t even start out as a Netflix series; it began life as the main attraction of YouTube‘s abandoned venture into high-budget original programming.

Netflix owns Stranger Things 100% and, though they put out sets for the first two seasons ages ago, that was then. They haven’t directly put out anything for the Blu-Ray market at any point this decade (if you’re going to bring up Wednesday, that is again a third-party series). A man can dream, though. Maybe some fresh faces brought in from WB will change some policies.

Cobra Kai: The Complete Series lands on Blu-Ray March 3. Special features include deleted scenes and blooper reels for each season, plus commentary from the creators on the first and last episodes.