User Reviews

Terry Silver was a one dimensional character in Karate Kid 3, albeit played with gusto by Griffith. He was intimidating then, but in CK 5, he's terrifying. He's quite possibly a genius, definitely wealthy, manipulative, sociopathic ... and quite tall and physically menacing, and knows karate. Once he decides to go physical it's like watching a huge lion about to take down an impala.

Any first impression of Silver that "sure he knows karate but he's rather old" vanishes instantly when he goes into physical mode and you then believe he can defeat anyone on the show with one arm behind his back.

I definitely liked his arc. He was making enemies left and right with reckless abandon so it makes sense that eventually there would be enough to bring him down. His ego just went out of control, the demon Kreese unfortunately released.

Lots of great stuff this season. Good to see Mike Barnes (could have used more!) and that he regrets his actions against Daniel. Chozen is great to have full time, so to speak, and he and Johnny trading Daniel stories is a hoot.

The meetings of Amanda, Sam, Johnny and Chozen to plot against Silver were a bit weird by much appreciated.

I absolutely loved that the good guys accidentally pulled off a two front attack on Silver. As the drunk Senseis pointed out, their direct assault on Silver's house was might just work because it was so insane. (And illegal and highly dangerous.)

Lucky for them the kids staged their infiltration on Silver's dojo at the exact same time.

I've liked Stingray much better in seasons 4 and 5 than in season 2. I despised him in season 2 because there was way too much of him and the character didn't seem real at all. In this season, there's a more reasonable amount of him and he feels much more real. Very good and even touching work by the actor, particularly when he reveals that he's too scared of Silver to cross him.

I don't think there has been a single bad episode of Cobra Kai. I think it helps that the episodes are short and the series doesn't take itself too seriously. Season 5 has been the best season so far, which is rare in any series. It was straight up fun. A lot of TV shows and movies seem to forget how to just make something brilliant, fun, silly and cheesey. The Head of the Snake is non stop action, and the fights are masterfully well done. The fighting choreography this season is good enough to compete with movie quality action. It also helps that it looks like the actors are performing their own stunts.

The best thing about this season has been the characters. Each and every character has their moment to shine - with the exception of Hawk, who actually took a backseat. Which leads to the only complaint I have. Hawk (Eli) didn't do much this season and when he did, he was beaten by Kenny.... What?! Hawk should have used Kenny as his own punching bag. That scene and fight made no sense. But that is the only gripe I have. Everything else is almost perfect. Johnny and Daniel are great and I'm glad they "Finally" solved their bitter hatred for each other, it just didn't take 4 seasons. Sam and Miguel, Robbie and Tory, are all very good, with the actor who plays Miguel being amazing as always. But the standouts are obviously, Thomas Ian Griffith as Terry and Yuji Okumoto as Chozen. Terry wasn't exactly the villian last season, well not until the end, but here, he is a straight up nutjob. And it's fantastic. Thomas plays this guy which such brilliance that everytime he's on screen you forget you are watching a silly karate show and are captivated by his sleezy he is. Terry is fantastic as the big bad with his masterful plans and awesome fights. I hope we don't see the end of him. I don't think we will, he's too good to lose. Then there is Yuji. I have only ever seen him as Chozen and after watching him here, I want to see more of him in more roles. Chozen is just as entertaining as Terry. He's like the goofy funny uncle, who just so happens to be the best fighter in the entire show. Yuji plays him in such a way, you can't help but fall in love with him.

The new side villian, Alicia Hannah-Kim as the ruthless Kim Da-Eun was great. She reminded me a lot of O-Ren Ishii from Kill Bill. I'm looking forward to seeing more of her going forward. And of course, Kreese. This wouldn't be Cobra Kai without the Emperor. This guy spends most of the season in jail, then we see him pull a Joker and sneakily gets himself out. It was a little far fetched, but it works for this show. I am curious where they are going to take him.

Season 5 has been amazing. It has been silly, fun, far fetched, cheesey and very cliche, but it works. It is one of those rare TV shows that isn't politcal, it doesn't try force any PC stuff down your throat. It is just pure entertainment and we need more of that, now more than ever. Can't wait for the next season.

Shows nowadays take themselves so serious, humor is completely extracted. But not here, they know its insane and they run with it.

What an absolute masterpiece of an episode. The three former opponents of the Karate Kid working together. LaRusso taking on Silver

And the ending scene, I really thought this was the end of the show, the final episode. I did not see this twist coming at all.

The only 2 faults I can give it is that it was a bit to focussed on the adults in stead of the next generation. And Barnes was a bit short on screentime.

But overall it was awesome. The season started a bit slow but man did it deliver in its finale episodes.

Wow. That is everything I could have possibly wanted in a finale and more, and while at times it did seem too far-fetched or implausible, melodramatic or maybe a bit overstuffed, it MORE than makes up for it. In its entirety, the abundantly clear thing here, seen in "Head of the Snake" is taking down Cobra Kai! Defeating Terry Silver! But also, bringing them all together, the Warring Dojos! All as allies! It sure did come off as wacky at times, which is GREAT, it is after all still a comedy series, a comedy martial arts drama action. Yes, oftentimes the fight was crowded and there was so much taking place in so little time - come on, there wouldn't be any harm coming out with 15 minutes more, as 48 minutes simply isn't enough, I'm talking episode length - but altogether, I don't mind any of it as it was so GOOD.

And if you thought the school fight or home fight in seasons 2 and 3 finale of Cobra Kai had their sillier, or absurd moments then this probably wins and reigns supreme over both combined, and rightfully so, as this was epic. So epic. There were 1 or 2 kind of out of place, or out of character, moments but what difference does it make, nothing here should've truly been done differently at the end of the day. This finale was just madness, and I loved every moment of it.

This is 1. The darkest and most brutal Cobra Kai episode yet 2. The biggest episode yet. Sure, in time length or whatever, but I mean the scope. The theme. What was taking place. This was a monumental finale. It managed to feel even bigger than the back to back episodes 9 and, episode 10, of season 4 last year. Frankly, I don't see how they can possibly top this one. 3. This was hands down the best finale yet, of the five we have had. 4. As I've said bloodiest/brutal, and darkest yet, this was also the saddest/most heartfelt finale yet, perhaps episode in general. The stuff with Kreese in the beginning.. until we see what that was really about, LMAO. But for sure, there's the stuff with Johnny and the photo of the baby, the amount of beatdowns characters such as Johnny were taking, the stuff with Chozen as well. That is what I'm talking about, again, with bloody and so much more!!

Okay... like.. Sword duals? Sword/blade (my ignorance.. I can't quite remember their names). One of these dudes got his thumb cutoff, Chozen got hurt so bad I stopped blinking, I was speechless! I thought no way is he dead. Barnes and his losses, also sad, and how a broken Barnes comes into it to begin with, this episode. Stuff with students ranging from Kenny to non students Daniel to "students" Stingray again such as even Mitch lol. Mitch double crossing? Daniel doing whatever it takes to take Terry Silver down as we have seen all season and he fights him AGAIN (twice, episode 5 now this), and FINALLY Terry gets BEAT. I mean he was invincible until now. Going on offence, fighting surrounded by all the characters watching. I mean, yes!. Finally. Devin Lee.. Tory Nichols.. Sam LaRusso, they're on the same side now, and that's pretty awesome after waiting a couple years and seeing their rivalry at the early stages to the worst (Tory and Sam). Goodness, I'm so tired folks, but I feel like I'm jumping around whenever something new or else comes to my mind as I write this, right now. While this is supposed to be a review, instead I'm counting it as mostly a collection of everything I have to say after watching this masterpiece of an episode of television, super exhausted, with a myriad of various thoughts hitting left and right and I'm unable to keep it brief or tidy, every last bit of it, so more a talk and blurt session than a review haha.

Before I leave it at that, the stuff with Kreese, very brief, which starts and finishes the episode, was good. Some standout fights is Kim vs Devon Lee/Tory when they're teaming up, and Sam gets involved a bit too. Silver vs Chozen, Daniel vs Terry. Johnny vs the attendance of this year's Royal Rumble (lol seriously the dude takes on like 4-6 guys himself) was madness . We also got a very brief Demetri vs Kyler, like one hit and this was it, but still I loved it. This was pretty much a Royal Rumble this damn episode, like, when they're all battling at the Dojo/Silver's. And there's still so much I wanna mention and talk more about, but I'm exhausted and for now I'll just say this was the best of all 50 episodes. That's right. Cobra Kai best season? 1/5 - I'm going to end up choosing 5. I just had the most fun ever with this one, that's the truth. Best episode? Head of the Snake.

Edit: I'm speaking to you folks a some 3 or 4 days later. You wanna know, I have watched this episode about six times now. I just feel some need to redo my review to some extent, il keep it short & sweet but I'll also keep my original.

Here are my thoughts.

The best moments: protect the egg; Barnes' appearance, as well as the moments in general, they're sooooo great. Barnes/Chozen/Johnny/Daniel altogether? And then Barnes, Chozen and Jonny all go off to face Silver? Dude, this was absolutely absurdly good. As a longtime Karate Kid fan (20 years I think now) seeing this was utterly insane. And I'm glad Mike Barnes is like Chozen. They're completely different guys now, and yet they're both still fantastic fighters, especially Chozen. Chozen vs Silver - Chozen won that fair and square. He only got "beaten" afterwards cuz he was distracted and heard Johnny, and Silver got him when he wasn't looking, cuz no way Silver won! Not to mention,within a second Silver switched from combat by hands and feet to swords, cuz I know he knows he can't beat my man Chozen one on one. Chozen is a better fighter than Terry, he has trained over 30 years and is a teacher. Silver didn't continue training for 30 years he went and played piano and ate tofu on a stick. So yeah; another great moment is they're finished-Cobra Kai is done! The dojo have witnessed the Clip now they're done with Cobra Kai; The second fight between Daniel and Terry. They're excellent here, why? Cuz Daniel is fighting half drunk and Terry is already beaten up. So they're not at their best, yet are such good warriors, you'd not even think differently for a second; I'm not huge on the drama sometimes, but I'm a bit of a hopeless romantic, whatever dude lol. So the moments of confessing their love, Sam & Miguel, it was nice. Very nice after a five seasons buildup. Anthony had another little moment of his own, in doing so kept hold of the tablet to upload it while in the egg circle; Johnny was an absolute machine. Dude got his as@ beat bloody, but still destroyed the, somewhat, four other dudes, barely with any help , just one hit from Barnes and Chozen before he goes after Silver. Johnny was a total machine, great fighter; There were many other excellent moments, il leave in saying one more, and Kreese pulling a Hannibal lector and escaping. This show is so damn far fetched and goofy and silly a lot of the time, and man I love every single moment of it, wholeheartedly.

A couple things I didn't like: stop making Kenny seem like a greatest warrior ever, he is like younger (doesn't really matter but still) and has trained for what, like, six months? He beats Eli because of the Silverbullet move, unaware cuz well, Eli doesn't know of this move. Unexpected, quick. But Eli's attitude was FANTASTIC- that's it. That's life, you win some, you lose some. In life, attitude like that goes a long way, it's inspiring, and it's hopeful. But anyway, he (Kenny) does this move AGAIN to Robby? We know they're better fighters than Kenny, obviously. But they shouldn't have made him look this strong just yet. Great actor and character though; Mitch betraying them, and for what? Everybody is done with Cobra Kai LMFAO, what's he gonna do now? He won't have any friends, idiot; the Crane kick. I don't know why, but I hate the fact Daniel won using that. Every single moment of the fight was electrifying, superb, until that. I think it should have been the pressure point move, and him landing a knockout kick to silvers big ponytail face. Missed opportunity. But was this enough, was any of it enough to minus any points? Still nope. Because the good certainly, absolutely outweighs the weaker moments. The first 10-15 minutes alone give this a 9/10. By the way, Master Kim, her character is cool, and I like the overacting for her character. The way she speaks and her approach is epic, I love the fact that it's slightly overdone. This show is so cheesy, geeky, fun, silly, over the top, epic, dark, fierce, heartfelt, endearing, far fetched, slick, rousing, brilliant and excellent all in one. I think them doing sixth season is good, mostly because while this episode could have been the last one, it was just way too short man, it needed to be at least 60 minutes. So I'd say, maybe, the entirety of the dojos merge together for the Sekai Taikai to win the tournament? Not sure. Anything could happen.

Is this finale still my fave finale? Yes Is it the best finale of Cobra Kai? You're Damn right.

Is it their best season thus far? Yes Standout moments: Johnny seeing the picture of his baby and goes into full machine mode against the sensai, Daniel beats Silver, protect the egg, Kreese escapes, Tory and Sam working together, and basically just any scene with them all working together, when they're at Silver's dojo.

10/10. I don't want them to rush it, cuz we have had 3 seasons in less than 2 years now, which is so amazing. But.. I'd love for them to release season 6 for Christmas 2023. Around December 19th would be... wonderful. Ah saah!

I feel like what made Cobra Kai so great was the yin/yang concept. Danny Larusso may have been the inheritor of a pure and magical karate style, but the guy was arrogant and shallow. Johnny Lawrence was rough and a down and out, his style was more like street karate, but he was authentic and his teaching helped kids who were being bullied. And in this way it was balanced.

Even the addition of Kreese seemed for a time to maintain this balance. For though he taught aggression, striking first, having no mercy, it was put into context by understanding that this was a man with PTSD, that these principles were absolutely essential to survive in a war scenario like Vietnam, that there was a place for this approach.

It started to fall apart for me on a more symbolic level when Kreese could not find any redemption but instead just became pure evil. Because if someone is just pure evil how can you relate to them? They cease being human.

I thought the return of Terry Silver was amazing because here was yet another kind of life journey, someone more cerebral who had had a dark past but had turned his life around after a lot of self-transformation and inner work. Here was someone who could perhaps be seen as dark by some, but who for others could be an example of self- mastery.

But ultimately, he was made more evil than Kreese.

Psychopathically evil. Cartoon evil. And that means no-one can relate to him, we can only hate him. So this entire 5th season has become an old school good vs evil narrative, and the story suffers for it.

Since all the established characters are good, we have a cobra kai class full of faceless extras, a spy in the case of Tori, someone who's there almost by accident (Devon), and Kenny who is just stuck on angry mode even after getting even against his bully Anthony.

It's so lop-sided they introduced a bunch of new Sensei who have no personalities but are simply evil for no reason. (One even has an eye patch!) Faceless extras are only there so our heroes can get free hits in. So Johnny Lawrence defeats 4 of these 4 Sensei simultaneously. If Silver is so intelligent with such high standards, how come he hires such sub-par sensei? No explanation.

And if he's so evil, how come his great master plan is to win an international karate tournament? I mean isn't that a laudable aim? No explanation, no great motivation for all our heroes to get so worked up about it either.

Silver is also portrayed as a better fighter than Daniel destroying him in the fight in Raymond's apartment, yet inexplicably he is beaten easily in the finale by Daniel. Why? Well because he's evil so we have to have him lose at the end.

It's this kind of thing which I find breaks something that was really special in this show in earlier seasons. Don't get me wrong. I still love the nostalgia, Johhny Lawrence is often still really fun, and there are moments of great psychological depth which still take my breath away - like when Kreese is talking to the prison psychologist and we see these different layers of meaning he has attached to people from his life.

So I'd give this season an 8, and this finale a 7.

I started watching this show and loved the basics of it - karate, competing dojos, competition, rivalry, good guys vs bad guys, etc. The stories and character arcs of Miguel, Hawk, Robbie - AWESOME.

However, this season goes WAY over the top as multiple main characters literally commit felonies such as breaking into a home assaulting someone (IN THEIR OWN HOME) and then trying to MURDER them with daggers (this was JUST in this episode. Not even mentioning the fact that Terry Silver BURNED DOWN a furniture store just the owner of the fortnite store because talked to Terry Silver's rival). And why did they break into someone's home and try to murder them? Because they're a rival karate dojo owner. Yes, you read that right. Because of KARATE. If this show took place in real life, LaRusso, Lawrence, and Chozen would all be going to jail for breaking and entering, trespassing, assault, you name it. I just don't understand what the writers were thinking... is Cobra Kai supposed to be a kids show now?

I'm a big fan of this show, even have posters and shirts. I'm hoping that the next season redeems the show and focuses on the BASICS. Karate, rivalry, competition, good vs bad WITHOUT all the over-the-top unrealistic stuff.

End this right before the Kreese reveal, or the Chozen reveal, and it would've been a pretty solid end to not just the series, but the entire show. Other than those 2 moments the finale was very exciting and silly, yet tense and violent. The classic stuff from this show. While I'm a bit split on whether or not they should've kept Chozen alive, I really don't think the Kreese prison break was very good. What are they gonna do with S6? Atp Kreese wouldn't make a very good 'big bad' since Cobra Kai is basically done for and he has no one else on his side. While all the characters weren't completely finished, the arc endings were sufficient in my eyes. Anyways besides all that it's good anyway unless you hate unrealistic stuff.

For me was the BEST way to finish the series.

What a wonderful episode, from begining to end. A flawless episode. Only missed two things: A Rocky fanfare when Johnny gets Up after see his son's picture and Chozen Killing Silver while asks for mercy.

Oh my god what a mix of feelings about this episode and about this season.

I think that Robie and Miguel must Will be like Goku and Vegetta. Remaining like Friends but challenge one to each other to becoming stronger.

Thanks a lot to every people involved into this series. You made me feel like an 12 years old kid remembering the karate kid Saga.

Im Johnny Lawrence team. Cobra kai badasses rules.

I wish you luck guys in your nexts projects.

Young actors have a very good potencial.

Okay, I binge-watched the entire 5th Season in two sittings. I had to stop after the 5th episode because I needed to get some lunch. Overall, this season was just as strong as the last one. Here we have the culmination of everything from Season 1 to now finally coming to a hilt.

Terry Silver is back as the madman behind everything. The man who is determined to put Cobra Kai on the map as well as destroy anyone who stands in his way. As Daniel describes him, "he's crazy but not stupid." At the end of the last episode, someone hijacks Daniel, Johnny, and Chozen. It's bit of a giggle when you find out that Barnes has finally shown up again, and he's more than a little upset about his store getting burned down. Johnny, Barnes, and Chozen decide to go to Silver's home and confront him, while Daniel objects, and is conveniently left behind.

Meanwhile, the Miyagi-Do kids-after finding out from Tory about what Silver has been doing and how to finally implicate him-break into Cobra Kai to try and get that evidence. And finally, we get the ending that we've been waiting for as the episode pretty much covers two major fights: Johnny, Barnes, and Chozen fighting Silver and his thugs, and the Miyagi-Do students against the Cobra Kai students. One disappointment, however, is we don't get to see the fight between Tory and Lee against Sensei Kim. It breaks away, and suddenly everyone is just standing around. I was like, "Hey, wait! What happened?!" But, of course, we finally get the showdown between Daniel and Silver, which everyone was waiting for. Unfortunately, this made the fight between Silver and Chozen a bit predictable, as we knew who was going to win that one.

For the most part, this is a solid 5th Season as we see Daniel unable to cope with Silver's constant attacks. Daniel's biggest weakness has always been his inability to control his emotions. When he lashes out, he's almost always in the wrong. As I've stated before, Daniel may have been Mr. Miyagi's best student, but Daniel constantly proves that he has a long way to go to achieve Miyagi's level of wisdom.

For the first few episodes, Johnny is trying to deal with the arrival of a new baby as well as try to help patch things up between Miguel and Robby. One could argue that Johnny sees the most growth in this season. But, of course, that doesn't stop him from still giving us the most laughs of any other character on the show.

While I thought that bringing back Barnes was okay, I would have preferred them to bring back Bobby and some of the other original Cobra Kai guys. Barnes almost seemed out of place, especially in this episode. And bringing back Robin Lively for one episode was good--until the bar-fight scene, which was definitely pushing the plot point way too much. They make it seem like these people can't go anywhere without getting into a fight. That was more than a little far-fetched.

But, if you're psyched up for a rousing finale-which was like Thanksgiving dinner with all of the trimmings-then you aren't likely to be disappointed. Frankly, this was the kind of a finale that I'm sure everyone was waiting and hoping for. Johnny's epic showdown with at least four of Silver's goons was the highlight!

At this point, I'm hoping that there won't be a Season 6. I mean, what's left? The show covered pretty much everything, and to push another storyline involving Cobra Kai would be superfluous. Let the show end on a high point that leaves the story fully intact. Don't try and force something that's just going to be laughable and unbelievable.

This show goes against everything I stand for when it comes to entertainment! It's cheesy, unreal, inane, moronic, stupid, senseless, brainless, mindless, imbecilic, asinine, ludicrous, absurd, cretinous, preposterous, daft, and so on. Seriously, this show is so ridiculous that I cannot fathom this true fact: I......LOVE.....THIS......SHOW!!!!!

While it truly lives up to every adjective I used above, the show is so entertaining and fun to watch that I can blaze through a season without even thinking about it.

So the end of this episode which I was thinking that this was going to be the end of the series because everything was just coming up roses for everyone and I was not happy with it. It would have been such a weak. Pathetic and lazy ending it would have ruined the entire show for me. But.................

Kreese comes through. KREESE COMES THROUGH!!!!

I cannot wait for the next season!

When I first heard and saw the trailer for Cobra Kai, I think most of us let out a collective yawn and feared the worst.

Great, another reboot sequel that ruins the original.

Not only has this show surpassed my doubts, but it's one of the few today that is written with respect to the past characters and actually makes the original films much more fulfilling when you watch them again.

Seeing Daniel team up to take down Silver with his past rivals was surreal.

Chozen steals the show with a heartfelt and passionate performance.

Johnny once again continues to redeem himself and is played brilliantly by Zabka

I will say they dropped the Ball with Mike though. He was a major player and even with his tease in an earlier season. His appearance was more than a glorified cameo and ofc Is Dismissed so Johnny can have his moment.

It was great to see Sean again though. Everyone slips back into their roles like the pros they are.

I hope he is put to good use next season.

The show has reached anime levels of goofiness though. Legit, everyone is having DBZ talks with one another. And I'm all here for it. You cannot take this show seriously.

Terry is pure evil and it's nice to see a villain that truly is a villain. No watering down here. Thomas Ian griffin Hams it up to 11 and brings his A game.

Seeing Daniel finally get his big fight with him was fantastic.

The house fight turned into Kill Bill haha but I'm all for it.

I didn't care for Da-Eun really. Felt she was a bit too one note imo.

The language got a well deserved upgrade this time around too. Everyone dropping F bombs, it's good. This show needs it and the gloves are off with the stakes.

Everyone finally has some much needed redemption. From Robby and Miguel making amends to Tory having her Vegeta moment, Sam Facing her demons. It's all coming together for Daniel's Dojo.

Kreese's arc was my favorite of course. Seeing him in a therapist office was something else. And you have that moment where he finally lets down his guard and beards his souls..or does he?

I was clapping/laughing when he made his exit and Al thought it was completely absurd, the man deserved his moment above all else.

One thing that bugged me was just how easily convinced people were with Terry. I mean, didn't his company Blatantly dump toxic waste, well anyways suspension of disbelief is your friend around here.

Nice to see Robin Lively return to give Daniels wife some much needed perspective and clarity.

I couldn't watch this series fast enough. And although everyone should be in jail at this point, lol this is still a fun show for true fans of the Karate kid series.

I can't imagine it going beyond one more season though. Better to end on a high note. They set up the ultimate world wide tournament, where everyone will get to show their skills. Exciting!

What is Kreese's endgame? Hmm interested to see.

Will the legend Michael Ironside return? Haha only good part of 4. And still no Dutch cameo, I'm hopeful for next time.

Until next year Cobra Kai.

I think this was a weaker season finale. Sure, plenty happens. There are huge fights. Protagonists find themselves on the ropes as antagonists nearly win the day. Drama. Some victory. Nothing altogether unexpected.

But the broader motivations here ring hollow to me. Terry Silver is a lunatic, and he will make kids worse people if they join Cobra Kai. But beyond that? His plan isn't to use the dojos as a front for something more nefarious. He's just a nut that will stop at nothing to expand his business. That's it.

My issue is the characters treat Terry Silver's Cobra Kai as a Thanos-level event, but it's never articulated why his expansion is really such an issue.

Cobra Kai students mostly don't seem to mess with anyone who hasn't crossed them. They don't appear to cause trouble in the broader community. Yes, they become unhinged, but they aren't being trained for something else - like a violent coup or something.

The good guys' motivations made more sense with Kreese. You have Cobra Kai proactively seeking out and attacking others, vandalizing, etc. But under Silver, they didn't really do anything proactively beyond perhaps the pool sequence.

So what is the issue? I watched a whole season hoping to see that Terry Silver has terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad plans, but at the end of the day, he's just a psychopath that wants his brand of karate to be the dominant form in the marketplace.

And everyone treats it like it's the end of the world.

Season 5 was a season in search of convincing story, but the show is creatively running on fumes.

Don't get me wrong - I know what this show is and I know it's not art - but the law of diminishing returns seems to be taking effect.