Bojack Horseman Season One: TV's Dark Horse
This is very long episode by episode review of BoJack Horseman Season
One that I did quite a while back. It’s a bit different from what I usually
write but I hope you enjoy!
The first thing you notice about BoJack Horseman is an enticing sense of
uniqueness present amidst its admittedly generic adult comedy opening. The
series revolves around alcoholic ex-sitcom actor: BoJack Horseman, and his
difficulties coping with obscurity and handling his ever-looming mental health
and self-destruction issues. Alongside our titular protagonist is an equally
complex collection of dynamic characters – each character grows from
archetypical punchlines to heavily complex and disturbing characters that have
individual consequential arcs. However the animation and world building (or
lack thereof), manages to bring a sense of surrealist comedy to the show, the
dark depressing overtones and harsh issues of representation that is offered up
is placed in immediate contrast to the absurd and cartoonish style and the
anthropomorphic animals which create many jokes but offer up no explanation to
the way they work.
The opening episode: “BoJack Horseman: the BoJack Horseman Story” plays
straight comedy and is admittedly the worst episode of the show. The characters
come off as one-note and slightly irritating. The jokes are solid but they
aren’t especially unique or satirical which the show has grown into. However,
the spark of this style becomes much clearer in “BoJack Hates the Troops” which
starts as a relentless satire of the media and how it portrays scandals with
celebrities. We see BoJack’s character flaws really come to play here, he
orchestrates the whole situation due to his stubbornness to apologise and own
up for his mistakes. The constant hounding of the media results in BoJack
taking refuge at Mr Peanutbutter’s house and using this opportunity as an
apology. We hear a glimpse of BoJack’s hidden childhood, which we act as Diane
as she tries to pry out information but never succeeds. Until the very end,
fittingly BoJack doesn’t have the chance to voice his opinion as it’s
immediately distracted by another pointless antic, we see him finally opening
up to Diane on the roof of their house.
“Prickly Muffin” sees the introduction of my personal favourite
recurring character of Sarah Lynn, BoJacks fake daughter from his sitcom “Horsin’
Around”, who has become a famous and drug obsessed 30-year-old popstar. In an
obvious attempt to recreate his golden days of “Horsin’ Around”, BoJack’s
constant idea of Sarah Lynn as this idyllic sitcom daughter becomes unrelenting
and results in a clear abuse of power by Lynn, until when this is pointed out
and Bojak turns to a deeply disturbing sexual relationship between them. The
show once again plays with how BoJack creates his own problems, yet we are
positioned to question why he does this. Can he blame alcohol? Can he blame his
childhood? Can he blame “Horsin’ Around”? Or is it simply just the person BoJack
is? The ending of this episode, which sees Sarah Lynn leave after selling a
sacred award of BoJack’s, is a fitting method for the two’s contrasting ideas
of fame. Admittedly the ending sees a generic cliff-hanger and obvious set up
for a running narrative, which is fantastically ignored and destroyed later on
in the series.
Episode 4 “Zoë’s and Zelda’s” gives the audience our first look at the
dynamic of the relationship between BoJack and Todd, a character who is almost
exclusively seen as a comedic and over the top role. Todd’s attempt at a Space
Rock Opera is not only hilarious but offers a glimpse into his development, he
is seen striving for something and making progress in his dreams, which is what
scares BoJack. Diane is quick to figure out that BoJack is scared of losing
Todd for his fame and success. This is interesting considering how BoJack
treats him – perhaps it’s BoJack’s inability to cope with his loneliness or
just the chance me may not have someone to let out his anger towards. The
ending is, in my opinion, the turning point for this show, what has been a
comedy for 3 episodes suddenly ventures toward drama with the last montage.
Showing how BoJack foiled Todd’s rock opera through deceit and manipulation,
showing how he made a façade of helping him, only to turn against him in the
last moments.
Episode 5, “Live Fast, Diane Nguyen”, offers an insight into Diane and
her family. After receiving news that Diane’s father has died, she takes BoJack
to go meet the family and sort out the funeral. Diane’s family is a group of
obnoxious Boston stereotypes, which offers incredible amount of comedy, from
their insistence on watching ‘The Game’ and their treatment of Diane. It’s
interesting to see the character of Diane placed in contrast to those she grew
up with, we see how she was bullied and tormented by her brothers and we
realise abandoning them was definitely the right idea. The ending shows an
interesting part to BoJack’s character as he creates a letter from a fake high
school pen pal about how amazing he thinks Diane is. It’s a moment of genuine
friendship and compassion from BoJack, something we rarely see in the series.
The b-plot of Todd turning BoJack’s house into David Boreanaz’s is genuinely
hilarious and the downfall leading Todd into jail is an ingenious set up.
“Our A-Story is a ‘D’ Story” is an amazing episode for a rather
forgotten character of Mr Peanutbutter. Peanutbutter, BoJack and Diane go to a restaurant
and it results in BoJack and PB having an escalating competition to impress
Diane, only for BoJack to drunkenly steal the ‘D’ from the Hollywood sign.
Seeing PB’s suspicions and victory is incredibly compelling for his character,
his ability to change the capturing of the ‘D’ to a romantic gesture shows how
he isn’t as clean as we first perceive. Meanwhile Todd’s arc follows him being
trapped in prison in a competing gang war with a ‘two dates to the prom’ type
situation, it’s comedic and incredibly entertaining to watch the trope get
pulled apart in such a setting. BoJack returns to the restaurant and delivers a
voicemail where he confesses his love for Diane as his final attempt, however
as this is happening PB proposes to Diane, crushing BoJack’s attempt at
romance. The proposal is particularly interesting for their dynamic as we see
PB understand Diane doesn’t appreciate big gestures and over-publicity, so he
keeps it small and personal, only to reveal a grandiose party and celebration,
exposing a fatal flaw in their relationship.
After a Todd episode, a Diane episode and a Mr Peanutbutter episode, a
Princess Carolyn episode was greatly needed in the form of “Say Anything”.
After a drunken bender, BoJack attempts to convince PC to fall in love with
him, with his own sense of cynicism clearly putting him at fault. Meanwhile, PC
suffers having a merger with her arch-agent-nemesis Vanessa Gecko, who seems to
be constantly getting better results than her. Princess Carolyn sets out to get
BoJack a job, so he will leave her alone. The episode shows her sacrifice and
struggle to get this part for BoJack facing people’s constant hatred of him as
a constant hindrance to her plan. Until the closing moments when she finally
gets him the leading role in the film about Mr Peanutbutter’s heist of the ‘D’,
however something has happened to BoJack and he doesn’t want it. We are left in
a position to hate the titular character as the spectator is positioned to
support PC through her struggles only to see her get rejected. The closing moment
where she pulls out her phone to reveal it’s her birthday and she has turned
40, is truly heart-breaking and leaves the audience slightly destroyed for the
final end credits.
“The Telescope” is an absolute masterpiece of a BoJack episode. The
intrigue from the previous episode to what happened to BoJack whilst he was
away immediately braces the audience. I haven’t mentioned much of the “Horsin’
Around” flashbacks because I wanted to mention them together as they come to a climax
in this episode. Most of the flashbacks are small moments that inform the
audience of how BoJack was always this person, I think that’s the core of it.
He has always been this terrible person and we see that he affected and is at
fault for most of the characters and situations far in the future. The majority
of “The Telescope” is the story of how BoJack caused his friend Herb to lose his
job. After a scandal about Herb’s sexuality and ‘lude acts’ breaks out, BoJack
is requested to drop him from the show. We are introduced to the character of
Charlotte, Herb’s ex-girlfriend who BoJack clearly shares a bond with, she
becomes an essential part later on. Unusually we are positioned to sympathise
with BoJack as the situation he is put in is non-negotiable and he has to fire
Herb. Then we see BoJack heading to see Herb, who is now suffering from rectum
cancer (as Sarah Lynn revealed). The meeting is tense but is quickly broken by
Herb’s ability to joke about BoJack’s betrayal. Yet this isn’t enough for BoJack,
he clearly needs the closure, he needs to feel better about himself by
apologising. And then the climax of the episode sees his attempt at
apologising, only to be harshly rejected by Herb: “You have to live with the
shitty thing you did.” The scene is heart-breaking as we see BoJack confronted
by a mistake and how he has to realise what he did was not acceptable and he
has to live with it. It is truly a disturbingly harsh moment as we see the
first use of the ‘F word’ and a fight break out between the two over the very
telescope that brought them together. The closing moments of the episode are
familiar, BoJack pulls over, he’s out of breath and just stares out to the sea,
and we’ve all felt the feeling of being overwhelmed and out of control. He
turns to Diane, who offers help and he makes a mistake. He goes to kiss her,
she walks away. And he is left there, alone, silent, as he has a second to
realise what has happened to him. It’s such a heart-breaking cut to credits as
we see a moment that we know BoJack won’t ever recover from.
“Horse Majeure” is somewhat of a fallout episode. BoJack decides to
attempt to sabotage Diane and PB’s wedding, enticing Todd into the plan, whilst
PC finds a partner in the form of the show’s best joke: Vincent Adultman, definitely
not three small boys in a trench coat pretending to be a man. The various
attempts at sabotaging not only make the marriage stronger, but also begins to
push Todd away from BoJack. He is consumed by this moment of romance and
fixates on sabotaging so much that this cynicism takes its toll on those around
him. Todd discovers how BoJack sabotaged his Rock Opera and the wedding happens
early and with ease. He is left alone, again, all because of his attempts to
create a perfect and imaginary idea of how his life should be. His closing
monologue about his belief of ‘a leak’ that has drained his happiness is
listened to and consolidated by Vincent in a bittersweet moment of just how low
BoJack has slumped.
To run it into BoJack even more, “One Trick Pony” shows him forced to
play Mr Peanutbutter in a rom-com about his love for Diane. It’s a truly
embarrassing moment for BoJack and the whole episode leans on the uncomfortable
and raucousness of the situation and filmmaking in general. Todd convincing the
director, Quentin Tarrantulino to slowly deplete BoJacks role and transform the
movie to eventually becoming a bi-monthly box of snacks, is ingenious satire
and comedy. And then we get to the denouement of the episode, Diane reveals
that BoJack’s book is finished and he excitedly reads it. Only to discover it
is a slating and embarrassing image of BoJack and the events, the brutal
honesty and portrayal of BoJack is relentless and leaves him furious. He
dismisses the book and states he can write his own, only to offend Diane enough
to post the opening chapters to Buzzfeed, of all places. In a repeat of episode
2, BoJack and Diane sit on the rooftop where he abruptly fires her and the
credits roll. A devastating ending leaving the audience in a mixture of panic
and sadistic excitement, the series has built towards the book but is more
about the effect of BoJack on other people, and to see him at his angriest and
most vulnerable is very enticing for an audience.
The penultimate episode of every season has become known as the
climactic epic of the series and ‘Downer Ending’ begins this tradition. We hit
a point where BoJack has put himself in an impossible situation out of pure
spite and refusal to admit the truth of his character. The first part of the
episode sees numerous attempts at BoJack procrastinating writing this book,
until he decides the best way to do this is by getting Sarah Lynn and Todd to
help and get extremely high, thus resulting in an absolute joy of an episode
for an animator, nothing is held back as the visuals indulge in the crazy
possibilities of BoJack Horseman’s craziest trip. Yet we see BoJacks truest
fears and ambitions recreated throughout the bender which offers extreme
emotional impact. The three of them struggle with the concept of an
autobiography with no ending which results in a visually hilarious fight scene.
Until, in the space of 6 minutes we see all sense of realism broken and BoJack’s
fears and hopes are exposed. From all the moments of embarrassment and regret
in his life, a glimpse of Herb and his fear of Mr Peanutbutter’s fame. And then
he’s transported back to “Horsin’ Around”, we finally see the embodiment of
blame for who Sarah Lynn has become and his hope for the simple sitcom-like
reality and subtle glimpses of Charlotte. This is such a beautiful moment of
really digging into his psychosis, as an audience we are constantly reminded
about how BoJack lusts for the life presented in “Horsin’ Around”, and to be
confronted by it and the changes present since those days offers a moment of
clarity. We see a small flashback with one of my favourite characters: Beatrice
Horseman, as she forces BoJack to perform rather ironically due to her hatred
for him being a ‘clown’, this is followed by a brilliant small ‘Peanuts’
reference. Then the episode goes in a very interesting and heart-warming
direction. BoJack is transported to Maine, he imagines an idyllic life in which
he lives with charlotte at a lake house. It’s a very emotional scene as we
witness BoJack have a daughter: Harper, and we see her grow up and get a
boyfriend as BoJack and Charlotte watches on in old age. And then with a single
line, the illusion is shattered, Charlotte says “How happy things would have
been if you had chosen this life,” and it cuts to black. Immediately we
sympathise with BoJack, everyone has that life they wish they could live, if
certain situations had gone through as planned, it’s devastatingly cruel to the
audience and BoJack. He awakens in the middle of nowhere and with little care
to the news of his book failing we see him go to the person whom he seeks the
most comfort from, Diane. This scene feels like a direct antithesis to the rest
of the episode, it’s smaller, quieter, more subtle. Arnett pulls off his best
performance in the series yet, his emotional pleas to Diane, begging her to
tell him he is a good person and he’s not doomed to be this person forever are
truly heart-breaking. With a final deathly silence the camera zooms out as we
hear the soft giggling of Harper in the background, as if the answer to his
question is in that life, as if he can change, he can have Harper and live that
life. Until he’s brought into the reality as a member of the audience
obnoxiously interrupts with “Are you the horse from “Horsin’ Around””, dragging
him back to the idea that that show keeps him here. Truly a phenomenal episode.
The final episode of Season 1 takes a step back, recovering and moving
on. It has one of my favourite openings of a BoJack episode revolving around
Secretariat receiving a letter from a young BoJack on a talk show. He gives a
meaningful speech about not looking back and going forward, only to hard-cut to
him jumping off a bridge and killing himself, it shows how even BoJack’s one
piece of advice and idol was a fraud and a liar. The episode is, by nature, a
recovery. BoJack wins an award for the book so he feels like it’s the perfect
time to begin the “Secretariat” he’s always dreamed of making. He auditions and,
due to most of the people auditioning fell in PB and Todd’s Halloween in
January store, gets the part. Meanwhile Diane gets offered a job in Cordova to
write a book about philanthropist Sebastian St. Clair’s daring escapades to
help dying orphans, but she decides against doing this due to an argument with
Mr Peanutbutter and instead decides to work with BoJack on “Secretariat”. This
results in a final rooftop talk with BoJack and Diane where they both admit
that there’s not much that can make the other one happy, life is just the
things we do. It’s a fantastic scene as it shows the core of the season that is
definitely the relationship between BoJack and Diane, with a final closing line
of “I really wanted you to like me Diane,” “I Know.” The closest BoJack can get
to showing affection. The comes an absolutely beautiful ending montage to ‘Wild
Horses’, carefully tying off each characters final moments, Herb making his
carer laugh, Pinky staying in business, Todd and PB staying in business, Sarah
Lynn caring for a broken Andrew Garfield. And finally we see BoJack watching “Horsin’
Around”, as per, an episode about the values of having everything you need in a
family, as he ironically watches alone clutching to his award. BoJack is
certainly not a character you would expect to have such a desire for a family
life, it’s really nice to see a side that craves the sense of belonging to such
a typical way of life, which he combats with a desire for fame. It’s a paradox
that he’s stuck in as he signs a copy of his book to a fan who calls him a
hero, as he looks out the planetarium where he was told he’d got the part in “Horsin’
Around” with the only true friend that he’[s now lost.
BoJack Horseman Season 1 is truly a unique and fascinating season. From
appearing to be just a generic adult comedy with stylistic animation and an
entertaining world. It evolves into a deep character study and thus study into
the world of fame, depression, family and what it means to belong. It’s a
revolutionary TV series that has clearly got so much room to grow and manages
to balance both intelligent humour and intelligent emotion. Raphael Wakesberg’s
team of writers know exactly how to manipulate the emotions of their audience
through the cast spectrum of subtlety from a small visual/sound cue to an
extravagant sequence. I truly commend all the voice actors, but especially Will
Arnett and Alison Brie who are the core of the series and both manage to
consistently have the clear intention and levels of emotion to really evoke a
range of developed emotion in the reader. An absolute masterpiece, I look
forward to reviewing Season 2.