Judging by the 95% Rotten Tomatoes score for the fifth season of Cobra Kai, critics haven't been bothered by the endlessly recycled plot lines and convoluted story arcs.
But despite the parallel 93% audience score, maybe some Netflix subscribers are starting to notice.
Debuting on Friday, Cobra Kai: Season 5 generated 106.7 million hours of streaming on Netflix's global platform in its first three days, which led all films and TV shows on the world's biggest SVOD service for the week of Sept. 5-11.
Notably, however, Season 5's bow registered a significant 11% drop from the 120 million viewing hours captured from Dec. 31 - Jan. 2 by Cobra Kai's Season 4 debut.
Yes, even with the new-agey Terry Silver (actor Thomas Ian Griffith) taking over the dreaded Cobra Kai dojo from the always ill-intentioned -- and now apparently imprisoned -- John Kreese (Martin Kove), the CK outfit teaches the wrong kinds of overly aggressive values to the impressionable youth of the San Fernando Valley ... and it's up to Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and the ever-present ghost of Pat Morita's "Mr. Miyagi," along with always-under-redemption enemy-turned-ally Lawrence (William Zabka) to keep the All Valley trophy from falling into the wrong hands.
Blah, blah ... blah.
We'd say Cobra Kai has jumped the shark, but then the writers just might have Macchio, in Season 6, lead his Miyagido minions out to Point Dume to perform some dangerous shark-jumping exercise that was forced upon him by his own Japanese karate master back in the '80s.
These guys don't need any more crazy ideas.
Perhaps more impressive was the performance of the No. 2 ranked show on Netflix, mystery/horror-themed limited series Devil in Ohio, which grew its audience to 70.8 million viewing hours after a lukewarm three-day premiere of 35.4 million viewing hours the week prior. Next TV was under the mistaken impression that this was a documentary focused on Ohio GOP Congressman Jim Jordan, but it's actually a fictionalized miniseries about a psychiatrist who gets more than she bargains for when she shelters a cult escapee.
Notably, Netflix is still getting traction out of off-network show Manifest, which -- a year after a phenomenal debut on the platform -- resurfaced Season 1 at No. 7 among English-language TV series with 16.7 million viewing hours, while Season 3 ranked 10th with 11.9 million streaming hours.
Netflix agreed to produce a fourth season of the Jeff Rake-created mystery series last year, after NBC cancelled the show and the first three campaigns suddenly jumped to No. 1 on the streaming service ... which somehow wound up with the streaming rights instead of Peacock. That fourth season debuts on Netflix Nov. 4, and fans appear to be lining up and re-binging, based on the regular surfacing in recent weeks of Manifest in the top 10.
Also notable: Season 1 of The Crown resurfaced at No. 7 on the English language TV ranker amid the unfortunate passing of Queen Elizabeth.
Meanwhile, finishing at No. 8 on the English-language TV series chart with 16.6 million viewing hours, Season 4 of Stranger Things has ranked in the top 10 for the last 16 weeks.
