"A big part of the show for me is what is the silliest thing I can think of, and then how do we take that really seriously? How do we find the beating heart underneath that?"
— Raphael Bob-Waksberg, in an interview with Indiewire
For the Deconstructed Character Archetype page, go here.
One of the main reasons why Bojack Horseman has received much critical and audience attention is its harsh and successful Deconstruction of Hollywood, life, true love, narcissism, depression and the eternal search for happiness. A number of tropes were deconstructed.
- A Man Is Always Eager: Men aren't always looking for intercourse every single second of their lives, nor do they enjoy or are pleased if an offer is given to them. Case in point, Todd, who is a romantic asexual. And as Bojack learns the hard way when it comes to Penny and Emily, having a large libido you can’t suppress when it’s not appropriate can screw you over and destroy your relationships with others, such as Charlotte (who is Penny’s mom) and Todd (who was dating Emily when Bojack had sex with her).
- The high point of this trope being deconstructed is in the latter half of season 6, where Bojack's publicly revealed history of sleeping around with any woman he yearns for comes back to haunt him, being one of the main factors that causes both his life and career to be derailed .
- Aesop Amnesia: There are only so many times you can fail to learn your lesson before you screw up irreparably.
- Bojack's perception of the world has been predicated on the belief that life, especially in the one he had on his old sitcom Horsin' Around, is basically rinse-and-repeat: someone does a bad thing, they learn an important lesson and are forgiven by the people around them. This would be fine and well, except he thinks this also applies to real life. While it could be attributed simply to him being a moron or an immature jerk, it's instead shown to be a response to the complexity and overbearingness of real, day-to-day life and how Bojack wishes it would be. Of course, Bojack's ability to forget each lesson he's taught and bad action he has done hasn't stopped others from remembering his misdeeds in painful and resenting detail or calling him out... or refusing to speak to him again... or hating his guts... or just plain sabotaging his chances to become a better person. Part of Bojack's arc is the realization of how this worldview has destroyed most of the good things he once had.
- Despite Diane saying how much she doesn't like parties or Grand Romantic Gestures, Mr. Peanutbutter forgets that over and over again and never considers what Diane wants. This ends up being one of the main reasons why Diane finally decides to end her ten-year relationship with him in "What Time Is It Right Now".
- Diane herself undergoes this a few times about the nature of consent when writing about real people. While the show portrays that her writing her Warts and All biography of BoJack had payoffs in that it boosted both of their careers, BoJack also confronts her for how hurtful it was. She took details of his life and put them all in, without considering that it would turn him into a laughingstock. When she finally realizes, Diane sincerely apologizes and commits to not doing that again. Then she gets hired at Girl Croosh in Season 4, and starts writing smear pieces about her own husband because he's running for governor and she can't in good conscience support his campaign, especially when he accidentally supports fracking thanks to Todd signing a document under orders from Katrina. Mr. Peanutbutter confronts her because it is beyond disloyal, and they spend a portion of season 4 trying to repair their relationship from the fallout. It comes to a head in Season 5 when rather than confront BoJack about the tape that Ana gave her, regarding his nearly sleeping with an underage girl, she types it into the next episode of Philbert in a fit of rage. When she cools down, Diane and BoJack become awkward towards each other, though she maintains that they are not alike and he is a worse person by refusing to make an effort to change. It takes her going on antidepressants and writing about herself in season 6 for the lesson to finally stick, that Diane realizes that she doesn't want to put her trauma on the page and immortalize it for everyone to see.
- Animal Stereotypes: While mostly being Played for Laughs, most of the animal characters presented in the show have one or two characteristics that have always been linked to their species and quickly underline how such mixture of characters can create some pretty awkward or even life threatening situations.
- BoJack, being a horse, could be normally expected to be a noble, loyal and steadfast animal. He is all of those things: He is noble, when his flaws and depression are not messing with his attitude. He is loyal, perhaps too loyal even if he doesn't believe in the cause. He is steadfast in the most cynical, soul-shattering way. Does any of these qualities help him in any form when trying to improve himself? They don't. They really, really dont. That could only happen if those qualities had been developed in a positive way.
- Princess Carolyn has all the traits to qualify for Cats Are Mean cred. Or so it seems: She is manipulative when it comes to getting her clients parts, she is plain rude often to get a point across someone, especially if they're messing up and has a pretty cold personality, requirement if a woman's to make it into Hollywoo's alphas. At the same time, however, she has a tender side, she's emotionally needy and she keeps coming back to people who have hurt her repeatedly, much like the reputation actual cats have for being aloof but actually being fairly affectionate animals.
- One of Princess Carolyn's most marked qualities is her ability to always land on her feet. However, her unwavering faith in herself that she can get anything done alone renders her nearly unable to accept help from others. In "Ruthie" specifically, she has an entirely private breakdown after a particularly devastating setback, and the episode's Framing Device revolves around her overreliance on the idea that everything will work out for the better.
- Mr. Peanutbutter, a yellow Labrador, is happy-go lucky because he doesn't want to face up to the horrible truths of reality, is unpredictable and impulsive while at the same time being too stuck up in his ways to truly change and often wishes to make everyone happy to the point of annoying people. As such, he is often seen as a Fearless Fool or The Ditz despite being somewhat intelligent. He can also be cowed into accepting typical dog obedience orders, stay, go, fetch etc.
- There are plenty of background jokes involving animal habits and instincts that often hide quite dark and depressing messages: a little bird has just hatched in his stroller and suddenly leaves flying while still being a baby]]; a wolf using a "Sheep" T-shirt approaches an unsuspecting female sheep while a friend tries to get her away, the list goes on.
- Blackmail: Two bird paparazzo take compromising pictures of Bojack and Sarah Lynn making out and decide to squeeze as much money as they can out of it. Not only are they constantly rebuffed and fail to even get in touch with Bojack, when they finally manage to contact his agent and expose their reasons and demands, the tables are turned against them with threats of legal action for a) taking pictures on private property and b) attempted blackmail, with the only way to stop it being delivering the pictures and receiving no compensation at all. All for Nothing, indeed.
- Because I'm Good At It: As Bojack points out to Princess Carolyn, just because you're good at a particular job, it doesn't mean that you have to do that job, especially if you hate it.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Todd is shown to have a lot of skills, to the point of being Renaissance Man material. One particular instance of this is his Rock Opera which Bojack eventually helps him produce, which manages to get a producer interested in the project. However, Todd eventually reveals a weakness: his laziness and addictive nature toward Decapathon, a video game from his old college years, that eventually cost him his friends, family and education due to his inability to stop playing it. Todd's reinmersion in the video game causes him to miss the deadline to present the Rock Opera to potential investors and ends up ruining the chances of it ever getting made.
- Catharsis Factor: In BoJack's words, "Closure is a made up thing by Steven Spielberg to sell movie tickets." Real-life drama doesn't wrap up in a neat little package once all is said and done, especially for those living with clinical depression, for whom the simple act of "being happy" is an elusive concept. Therefore, neither do any of the episodes or story arcs, meaning that the tension is never released and the audience, like the character, have that cloud of anxiety hanging over them as the series goes on. Had Herb not rejected BoJack's apology, it would cheapen the message that BoJack owes a lot of people apologies, but he doesn't deserve a single acceptance, whether we want to see him get it or not, and Todd has no choice but to jump to conclusions when BoJack tries to apologize for something which is, ultimately, not his fault for once. Lampshaded by Diane in "One Trick Pony," when she tells Naomi Watts that, while she enjoyed her wedding a lot, she now has to actually live the "happily ever after" part, which has its share of high highs and low lows. The only reason any of the characters got their respective bittersweet endings at the end of season 4 was because they made huge sacrifices to earn them.
- Contractual Genre Blindness: Bojack, being a former TV star, can often predict the way things are going to turn out in a given situation and he is quite savvy about his life, the people around him and his actions. However, he still does what's expected of him because of a stubborn and desperate belief that no matter what he does, the workings of typical cliches will come to his aid or his actions will end up invoking them in Real Life. Needless to say, this turns the advantage of his genre savviness into a flaw.
- Convicted by Public Opinion: Even if Diane had convinced some newspaper or media to believe her and publish an article about Hank Hippopopalous, it's unlikely anyone would believe her (or that Hollywoo wouldn't try covering it up). The public's point of entry (MSNBSea, newspapers and the Hollywoo hype machine) on the case against Hank Hippopopalous are biased or just plain designed to influence the people to swirl to his favor. Not helping is the way Hank is portrayed on media and how people remember him from his own talk show, which only makes them way more inclined to believe a version of reality in which Hippopopalous' wouldn't do such a thing, rather than accept the quandary and judge the morality of his actions at the cost of losing the esteem with which the public once held him. Furthermore, as the case against him recedes, the coverage starts to blindside the public into other themes, as the scandals against Hank and the interest in this fades into obscurity.
- Conversely, Bojack's ultimate fate shows just how devastating it can be to find yourself on the receiving end of a conviction by public opinion. Over the course of the series there's no denying that he's done some utterly reprehensible things, from sabotaging his friend's rock opera purely out of a fear of being alone to nearly sleeping with his friend's barely-legal daughter, to nearly strangling his co-star to death on set to getting Sarah Lynn killed through inaction (admittedly it's by no means certain that she could have survived had Bojack acted immediately instead of in his own self-interest, but the 17 minute delay certainly did not help her chances of survival). But Bojack had finally started to really put the work in to make himself a better person. He's been to rehab, he was genuinely making amends, he started doing genuinely selfless things for his friends, and he was really turning his life around. Then the story broke about how he was really involved in Sarah Lynn's death and it all fell apart. Not only did he crack under the pressure and back-slide into old habits, he ultimately lost his jobs, his fortune, his home and his friends, the only people willing to still hang out with him being other cancelled celebrities. He even lost his legacy (and associated residuals) from Horsin' Around when he was edited out of it, and his fall eventually lead to a suicide attempt. Maybe the old Bojack might have deserved all that (though it might be argued that even he didn't deserve such a harsh treatment), but did the new Bojack deserve to be torn down and destroyed the way he was?
- Cutting the Knot: This trope was Joseph Sugarman's Fatal Flaw. He didn't have the patience to actually think his actions through, and demonstrates a disturbing tendency to choose what might appear on the surface to be quick and easy solutions to his family's problems, but are incredibly destructive and harmful to those around him. Is the wife struggling with mental illness? Have her lobotomized so you don't have to deal with it again! Is the child sick with a contagious disease? Burn all of her possessions! Is the said child crying for her lost possessions? Threaten to give her a lobotomy like her mother. That'll shut her up! Who cares if she's sad? As long as she's quiet!
- Freudian Excuse: Crappy things may have happened to you, and those experiences can influence who you become, but it won't earn you an Easily Forgiven card when you hurt others because you are still responsible for your own actions.
- The ending of "It's You" took an axe to this trope; Todd finds out that Bojack slept with Emily, and with it being the very last straw in several greviences against Bojack, confronts the horse about it. Bojack attempts to justify it by saying he was completely drunk. Todd angrily cuts Bojack off and tells him that no matter how much he wants to pin everything that happens on his Dark and Troubled Past, it's extremely selfish of him to use it to justify hurting other people. The lesson here is that, yeah, Bojack's had a tough life (Abusive Parents, broken relationships, tons of trauma, drug abuse issues), but he's still the only one responsible for his shitty choices and actions, especially when hurtful consequences occur.
- Flashbacks in Season Four shows that Beatrice Horseman, Bojack's abusive mother, didn't have a great childhood herself. She was raised by an extremely sexist father who gave her mother a lobotomy when she "couldn't keep her womanly emotions in check" after her grief from their only son Crackerjack being Killed In Action during World War II consumed her. He was also completely unsympathetic when he forced her to burn Beatrice's favorite doll due to her Scarlet Fever, even obliquely threatening the crying Beatrice with a lobotomy of her own if she didn't reign it in. Her father later tried to get her to marry someone for his own financial gain, but she instead wound up marrying Bojack's dad after accidentally becoming pregnant and refusing to abort the baby that would become Bojack, and their marriage soon fell apart in part because of his inability to make money through his writing. That being said, it's made clear that none of that justifies being an Abusive Parent, and despite Bojack acknowleging that she had a lot of bad breaks and ultimately deciding to be the bigger person by willingly ending their relationship on a positive note, he never forgives her.
- Friend-or-Idol Decision: The choice Bojack made in his past with Horsin' Around had consequences that he'll have to live with. When forced to choose between Friend (supporting his best friend Herb, who got him the job on Horsin' Around in the first place, by threatening to walk if Herb gets fired) or Idol (keeping quiet, thus saving his own skin but getting Herb fired for sure and backstabbing their friendship), Bojack chooses Idol. Bojack keeps quiet, and Herb is fired. While Bojack feels extremely guilty about it, he makes no effort to contact Herb for twenty years, until Bojack finds out Herb is dying of cancer (indeed, Herb was still able to have a successful career afterwards, and his beef is with Bojack cutting off their friendship, not for helping him not get fired). Their last meeting before Herb dies sees Herb reject Bojack's apology, and makes it clear that Herb will never forgive Bojack for his decision, even if it made sense at the time.
- Genre Savvy: BoJack, in a lot of ways, shows what someone who thinks in terms of fictional tropes would be like in real life. He often tries to solve his problems using insane antics that would fit in a typical 90s sitcom, but because everyone else in the show responds to this realistically, he comes across not as charming and witty, but rather as an immature asshole with no impulse control. Instead of everything being resolved at the end of 30 minutes, more often than not he's made things worse and caused more problems that will haunt him later.
- Hilariously Abusive Childhood: Beatrice and Butterscotch Horseman, Bojack's parents and pretty much the ones who turned him into what he's today ended up married due to an unexpected pregnancy and Beatrice's unwillingness to abort. There was no love lost between them and each of their shattered dreams and lives fed their increasing resentment of little Bojack. Each one of their "The Reason You Suck" Speeches were just as much as directed to Bojack as to themselves. And even when it's all said and done, each one of them were as screwed and as unhappy as Bojack would become. As mentioned above, Diane's abusive childhood is basically "What if the exact kind of abuse Meg Griffin suffered from was taken seriously?"
- Innocently Insensitive: The "innocent" part never cancels out the insensitive part. As "Mr. Peanutbutter's Boos" demonstrates, the main reason why Mr. Peanutbutter's had so many failed romantic relationships is because he constantly failed to notice or learn how certain behaviors of his can demolish the patience his current partner has with him, and he never listens to what his partners truly want.
- Love at First Sight: Bojack and Wanda met each other through Pinky and fell in love the first time they talked and laid eyes on each other, which only increases when Bojack finds out that Wanda might be the only woman in all Hollywoo who doesn't know who he is, believing her to be a chance to start anew, since they clearly love each other. This instead blinds them to each other's flaws and different personalities, which only exacerbate the other's life. Eventually, they realize that although they still care about one another, they rushed things and can't be together anymore.Wanda: It's funny. When you look at someone through rose-colored glasses, all the red flags just look like flags.
- Nostalgia Filter: Bojack's perception and remembrance of the '90s does involve a few embellishments, often being held by Bojack as the peak of his career and life. However, as the first season begins and progresses, it becomes all too clear that even back then, he was far from happy, stable, and mature; something that has carried on toward his middle age in the present with the problem of it all being something within himself. As of the end of season 2, his rose-tinted version of this early part of his life has been shattered as well, with BoJack realizing that his young adulthood was in some part self-denial at his increasingly clear issues. It only gets worse in season 3 when Sarah Lynn's death and the misfortunes he faces forever taint his memory of the show, to the point of running out of the set of Ethan Around after one of his co-stars mentions how she wants to be famous, reminding him of Sarah Lynn's destroyed life.
- Protagonist-Centered Morality: Bojack thinks this trope is at play and is confused when others hold him to a higher standard. This is explored in "Free Churro" when Bojack explains that his family did not provide any guidance to him as a child, so all of his moral standards came from watching TV shows where Easily Forgiven, Rule of Romantic, and Status Quo Is God were all in effect and there were no lasting consequences for the main characters.
- Really Gets Around: Bojack sleeps with different women a lot. One episode has a list of statistics mention that he's had sex with over 100 women. But, it's mentioned time and time again that one of the main reasons he has random sex with random women is to fill his loneliness, which doesn't. It also becomes one of the reasons why Bojack ends up being portrayed as a predatory abuser when his past misdeeds are exposed in the latter half of Season 6.
- Sympathetic P.O.V.: Bojack can be frustrating even for those with insight into his past and mind, especially since he often uses his Freudian Excuse to come off as sympathetic to people. And even that can only go so far, as Paige, Max, and Biscuits' exposés on him demonstrates how much someone like him can be viewed as a predatory abuser to the outside world once you make him stop using his past as an excuse for his actions.
- The episode Old Acquaintance is a major deconstruction, as it deliberately takes the Sympathetic P.O.V. away from the main characters and gives it instead to a group of people we've previously seen as antagonists to whom we weren't meant to be sympathetic. With the Sympathetic P.O.V., Princess Carolyn comes across as a determined badass agent who is willing to do anything for her clients. Without it, she becomes a self-serving manipulative jerk who's prepared to throw anybody under the bus if it furthers her own goal. Conversely, people like Vanessa Gecko and Rutabaga don't look so bad if they're portrayed as human beings with home lives, wants, needs and fears of their own. This episode is a stark reminder that nobody is the villain of their own story.
