BoJack Horseman

Try to imagine the most depressing movie/TV show you’ve ever seen. The most dreadful, miserable, soul-crushing story you’ve ever experienced. Got it? Good. Is it a colorful comedy cartoon with a bunch of talking animals? No? Weird, because mine is.

BoJack Horseman is a adult cartoon created by Raphael Bob-Waksberg, and distributed by Netflix. It’s protagonist, the nominal Bojack Horseman, a anthropomorphic horse, is a washed-up TV star with a failing career, and he’s also a total fuckup. He drinks, he does drugs, he screws up every gig, and he’s just generaly an asshole to everyone around him.

The show takes a long time to get into its groove. I had trouble pushing through the first season, because the series doesn’t yet know, what it wants to be. The basic premise of BoJack is, that, unlike the majority of animated television, it is serialized rather than episodic. The status quo changes, and actions have consequences, which allows for characer development, and that is the crux of this show. We follow five main characters, Mr. Peanutbutter – a loveable, goofy, positively minded labrador, Princess Carolyn – a celebrity agent, workoholic cat, Todd Chavez – BoJack’s young housemate, Diane Nguyen – a aspiring writer and a misunderstood intellectual, and finaly the titular BoJack Horseman, and we see them grow and develop over the course of several years and lifechanging events, but you’d have a hard time discerning that from the first twelve episodes. We get a lot of character background, and Bojack changes a little bit, but the rest of our main cast remains static, with Todd and Mr. Peanutbutter really acting more as comedy reliefs than anything else.

Nearing the end of season one and during the subsequent seasons this changes though. The show, that previously felt like a subpar comedy with some dramatic overtones, shifts into a dramatic show with a comedic delivery, and it sits in this lane way more comfortably. I believe BoJack is at its best when handling the difficult and troubling sides of human existence, and the humor and jokes are more of a delivery aparatus for a story, that might otherwise get too tedious and depressing to watch. The show’s dramatic writing is top-notch. BoJack is able to relay deep emotions and truths through very human and down-to-earth dialogue containing lines, that will stick in your mind for weeks, if not months. Its comedic writing was (as is often the case) much more hit or miss for me. The series delivers some terrific jokes and gags, but some just unfortunately fall flat making some episodes or plot lines feel kind of unnecessary.

That is trully the biggest problem, holding BoJack Horseman from true greatness. The episode vary greatly in quality from one to another. The genuine gems like The Old Sugarman Place or Free Churro lie next to the uninteresting episoded like Live Fast, Diane Nguyen or Chickens. I have to applaud the writers for experimenting with different forms and structures, because when they do, they consistently end up with the best episodes of the entire series. My favourite episodes are probably Free Churro, The Old Sugarman Place, Escape from L.A., Fish Out of Water, Stop the Presses, That’s Too Much, Man!, Ruthie, Time’s Arrow, A New Client and The View From Half Way Down, almost all of which have some sort of special quirk, attached to them. We have an episode from the viewpoint of a person with Alzheimer’s, a dark trippy conteplation of the last moments before death, episode where the a-plot and the b-plot are happening at the same place, but at different times, and they are told together, the best portrayal of monotonous exhausting stressful worklife put to screen, an episode that’s one giant monologue, and in sharp contrast my absolute favourite episode – episode 3×4, Fish Out of Water, where, apart from a few introductory lines and one sentence at the very end, no words are spoken at all. This episode really shows you the strenghts of the writing team behind this show, as it is such a huge departure from BoJack’s usuall dialogue-heavy form, and yet it came out as an absolute masterpiece. It’s a calming, saddening experience contemplating loneliness and connection, carried on a backdrop of subtle, but beautiful music and top-notch animation, that manages to relay all the emotions, even through it’s simplistic style.

Experimentation really is the name of the game, when it comes to BoJack Horseman. From the show’s concept itself, through the dark subject matter, down to the small things like little animal gags and inventive tongue twisters, the creators aren’t afraid to take risks, and go to places, where other shows might not dare to venture. They skillfully handle themes of depression, stardom, corporate greed, addiction, suicide, childhood trauma and many others, without being untactful due to the show’s humorous nature.

That same humorous nature is a bit of a dilemma for me though. The critic in me thinks, it was the right choice, as it takes the attention away from the serious and often sad subject matter, but it really sticks out like a sore thumb at times, especially when it consumes an entire b-plot (or God forbid, even the a-plot) of an episode. I don’t mind the little gags, that can be found in every episode, but I watch BoJack for the emotionally mature content, not to watch a hammerhead shark hammer down nails at a construction site.

Lastly I want to touch on the unfortunate nature of the show’s ending. Raphael Bob-Waksberg, the show’s creator, has said that the show could have gone on for a couple more years, but Netflix unfortunately decided to end the show after its sixth season. Luckily they gave Bob-Waksberg enough of a notice, that he could have planned the final season to a satisfying ending. Did he manage to do it though?

Well, yes and no. The final season got the privilege of being four episodes longer than the average BH season (16 instead of the usual 12), and it’s very clear, that the creators took advantage of this extra time, and tried to get all the characters to their intended destinations. I would say they mostly succeeded, but the end result feels a little rushed. The majority of our main cast surprisingly end up in a very happy place. I especially loved, where Princess Carolyn and Mr. Peanutbutter wound up. The former for a deserved happy ending, and the latter for the newly found maturity, but as I said, it all feels a bit too quick. All that was necessary, was there, but Diane, Todd and Princess Carolyn all could have used at leat one more episode focused mostly on them, and the series as a whole would have probably benefited from a few more episodes, to tie up all the loose ends, and give a proper goodbye to some of the less important, but still beloved side characters.

Over all, Bojack Horseman is a great show with moments of true excelence. It balances comedy with adult subject matter in just the right ratio to achieve a compelling and engaging story. Its sharp writing and complex characters will have you coming back even after some downer episodes (either qualitatively or emotionally).