I’m still sad Mr. Robot is over and today I’ll be reviewing a happy cartoon show.
Back in the 90’s, Bojack was in a very famous tv show called Horsin’ Around.
For the first couple episodes I was amused by his antics and bad dating habits….then
I became concerned cause….I have the same dating habits.
I’m a little embarrassed it took a retarded cartoon horse to make me realize my romantic
woes were atleast partially self-inflicted but I kinda just think that’s the power
of good writing.
My teachers were always saying life was gonna pass me by cause I’m a lazy fucker but vlr
was what eventually got through to me.
The show also has a shockingly good line about infatuation, delivered by this wise night bird.
Even though there’s a lot going on in the
series, the main throughline is BoJack trying to overcome his sadness and it’s done in
a very realistic way.
Usually Mr. Horseman does better for a while, then things go bad, back and forth, back and
forth.
In season 4 we get his inner monologue, which makes him probably the most relatable character
on television and gives an honest look at depression.
And since Bojack clearly has a long face, several characters give him possible ways
to overcome that sadness, which can also serve as solutions for the viewer.
I’m fully aware that clinical depression can’t be cured purely by a change in philosophy,
but I do think the show’s ideas can help you.
One of its more obvious takes is that you shouldn’t romanticize your own sadness.
Another is that happiness is a moment to moment thing.
If you blindly pursue one goal and think “this thing will make me happy” you’re just
gonna get disappointed.
A buddy of mine won a sports thing, something he had wanted forever, and he said it was
the best night of his life.
Followed by the worst morning of his life when he still felt empty.
It’s depressing for sure but you can’t ignore the truth because it’s sad.
I think the reason the program is so good at getting these points across is how well
done every aspect of the show is, I’ll start with the characters.
I always thought Bojack was entertaining but I didn’t realize how much I cared about
him until I teared up at the season 4 finale.
There’s also a moment when he finally seems happy with a woman then she clicks with another
dude and my stomach dropped.
Then there’s Mister Peanut Butter, an oblivious idiot or the deepest cover troll operative
in history. Early on, he serves as a good counter weight
for Horse man , since he was on a tv show as well and has kind of made peace with the absurdity of life.
There’s also the underrated princess Caroyln, Bojack’s agent.
And Horseman’s roommate, played by Aaron Paul.
He gets in misadventure after misadventure and invents a store with no floor so people
fall when they walk in the door. Finally, there’s Diane, a ghostwriter who
gets paired up with Bojack by a perpetually panicked penguin.
She’s a flip floper who tries to do the right thing but usually goes about it in the
most retarded way possible. But true to her flip floppy nature, she also
has some of the best lines of the series.
Finally finally there’s the secret protagonist of not only Bojack Horseman but our entire
universe, Vincent Adultman.
I don’t want to bog the video down by going into it but I have a conspiracy theory that
he’s actually three kids in a trenchcoat, I’ll make a patreon only video on that one.
In addition to documenting Bojack’s meaningless existence, the show also functions as a satireization
of Hollywood with tons of celebrity guest stars.
The program also makes fun of Buzzfeed and the media a little bit,
cleverly disguising MSNBC as MSNBsea so they won’t know.
A few episodes have outstanding narrative structure with my favorite being Princess
Carolyn’s granddaughter giving a presentation about Carolyn’s life.
There’s also a silent episode, and ones that center around other characters cause
Bojack is off being productive.
In the first few episodes the jokes are kinda straightforward but after that there are quite
a few that subvert expectations.
The show also does a good job of separating its own point of view from the characters
so people can say anything and they do say anything.
And of course, I gotta mention the catchy as hell music.
Only slight disclaimer I have for the show is while the first six episodes are by no
means bad, I don’t think their as good as the rest of the series.
A neat little story I heard from this guy’s channel is Indiewire had a policy where when
a new Netflix show dropped they only watched the first half of the season.
They reviewed Bojack and gave season 1 a C + based off that.
However, after watching the 2nd half of the season they regretted it so much they changed
their policy, which I think was stupid to begin with.
And in 2018 they named Bojack Horseman the greatest animated show of all time.
Of course, this is Netflix who can’t not ruin a good thing so they still canceled it.
But they did tell the creator beforehand so the recently released season 6 part 2 is a
good and defined ending to Bojack’s story.
In fact, I’d say the final episodes are some of the best (and by that I mean really
really dark) Then the finale wraps everything up nicely,
without making it too easy.
There’s also an extremely powerful anti-suicide speech so if you’ve ever had any sort of suicidal
thoughts or ideas and don’t want to watch the whole series, just look up. Half-way down on youtube.
Oh and for whatever reason Netflix listed the holiday special as a separate thing so
I completely missed it my first time though And you don’t want to miss it.
If you’re willing to put up with a little melodrama, another show that covers mental
illness is Spinning Out on Netflix, it’s like a more grounded black swan.
If you want trashy reality tv there’s the circle, also on netflix.
And if you want to see what a good Metal Gear Solid movie would look like, you should watch 1917.
I'm thinking about reviewing 13 reasons why cause I keep seeing videos about it
and it looks like alot of stuff happens in that show so let me know what you think about that.
I’m gonna go finally play fire emblem, and I’ll see you on the next one.