#29: Bojack Horseman
Who would have thought that a show about a horse would be the one that is the most human?
When I first came across Bojack Horseman while scrolling through Netflix, I had fairly low expectations. I expected another animated comedy series of the likes of The Simpsons or Bob’s Burgers. Some of the earliest episodes, while having glimpses of the darker themes that it became known for, had many of the cutaway gags that resembled episodes of Family Guy. Alas, Bojack Horseman didn’t quite find its stride until the end of season 1, but once it did, it got increasingly better, season after season.
It centers around the character Bojack Horseman, a horse/man who lives in a fictionalized version of Hollywood—Hollywoo (you have to watch the show to see what happens to the d). The series starts with him as a washed up actor who is trying to reclaim relevance in the industry by writing an autobiography. The show also follows his agent, Princess Carolyn, his ghostwriter Diane, his roommate Todd, and his friend/rival Mr. Peanutbutter.
As someone who suffers from depression, I found Bojack Horseman to be the most realistic representation of life, mental illness, and the human condition I’ve seen. In many ways, the show was cathartic. It expressed a lot of what I felt, but I was unable to convey to others the emotional rollercoaster that depression can often be. And often when I did, I felt neglected or felt I wasn’t quite understood. Weirdly, Bojack’s battles with depression resonated with me.
A quintessential example is the episode, Stupid Piece of Shit, which centers around themes of self-loathing and self-blame. His inner voice is labeling him a “stupid piece of shit”, and the episode focuses on how our inner voice can often be destructive in pushing us away from our loved ones and in creating self-defeating beliefs about ourselves. The entire episode is brilliant and tragically relatable, but the first two minutes below will give you a perfect taste of how the show mixes humor with serious themes.
This feeling of being trapped in a never-ending cycle of your own incorrect beliefs and cognitions is something that is difficult to fully understand unless you go through it yourself. You see Bojack in many episodes cope with it by drinking away his sorrows, like he does at the end of the above clip, but what he’s actually doing is avoiding dealing with the problems he has in front of him. Instead, he’s more comfortable wallowing in his own self-pity, convincing himself that his sadness is justified because of what he went through as a kid.
Bojack Horseman tackles the idea of trauma in a very accurately nuanced way. For Bojack, his trauma was from his childhood, never getting the love he needed. He had an alcoholic, absent, and abusive father, and an alcoholic, resentful, and unsupportive mother. However, the show taught me that while, yes, his parents were terrible, and so, yes he objectively was placed in a bad situation, ultimately it is about the perspective you have, and what you do about your circumstances that dictate your happiness, your satisfaction, and your emotional well-being. Everyone has their demons.
This powerful scene in season three hammered home this point that no matter what has happened to you in your life in the past, you’re responsible for the choices you make in your life.
While I relate to Bojack on many levels, some see his actions as so terrible that it’s impossible to relate. Time after time, being the self-centered, narcissistic person he is, he made choices that not only harmed him, but those closest to him. While we have all made mistakes, Bojack made a series of significantly horrifying ones. If you were to tell me a celebrity in real-life did the same things, I wouldn’t be very fond of them. And yet, the show somehow still has me pulling for Bojack by the end, still feeling bad for him through it all. It’s similar to Walter White in Breaking Bad or Rick Sanchez in Rick and Morty. You know the character is deeply, deeply flawed but some part of me is still rooting for him, maybe because I am irrationally comparing myself to him at my worst.
As a whole, the animated tragicomedy series is nearly flawless. Bojack Horseman is the rare show that has the range to juxtapose humor with heavy topics. From its countless animal puns to its real exploration of the human connection, the show takes you on a journey from the highest of highs to the darkest of emotions. You’ll be laughing out loud and then you’ll be crying from being gut-punched, sometimes within seconds. The show will make you feel every emotion, and then have you thinking about it long after the episode credits roll.
It is difficult to choose my favorite moment from the series, but perhaps the most poignant is from one of the finest episodes of the show, Fish Out of Water. Bojack comes to the realization that
In this terrifying world, all we have are the connections that we make.
Like I said, there’s more to the animated show about a talking horse than meets the eye.