BoJack Horseman

I've started watching the show. On episode 3. Now I know what Mabel from Gravity Falls would sound like if she was a washed up actress in her 30s.

edited 24th Jul '15 1:14:06 AM by DS9guy

I've just started. I actually like the first 3 episodes fine. There's still quite a lot of self-awareness on Bojack's part. He's the first guy deep down to tell you how messed up, washed-out, and terrible he is as a rolemodel, so he comes off as a lot more sympathetic than other drunk jerk adult protagonists.

The first thing to make me burst out laughing was this:

Bojack: Ah! Why are you here?

Diane: You told me to come at 9:00.

Bojack: That doesn't sound like me.

Diane: I have your email right here. [clears throat]

"Diane, why don't you come over Tuesday morning at 9:00? Also, you should bring this email with you because I might not remember it because I just took a bunch of horse tranquilizers, ha ha.

Also, please don't put in my book that I use horse tranquilizers, ha ha.

I just use a small dose to help me fall asleep at night and then a much, much larger dose to get me through the day.

Also, I'm drunk.

Also, I'm alone, so alone, so, so alone.

Please don't put that in my book, book, book, book 'em, dildo.

Does it taste like magenta in here?"

Then I think you fell asleep on the keyboard because it just says the letter "B" 27 times.

I've watched the first season. Episode 11 is some heavy stuff.

Also watched the first episode of season 2 last night, gonna watch more today.

edited 18th Aug '15 10:34:36 AM by Pannic

I just caught the first season myself. The first couple of episodes I actually liked; it's humor was crass like a lot of its contemporaries, but it was clever and hilarious in how much it cold-cocked me. But as the series progressed and it started peeling more and more at the layers of Bojack's depression it really started becoming something of an experience.

But the major climax, the Mushroom Samba in "Downer Ending", did something I never expected it to: it shook me to my core. The absolute mindfuck of a trip breaks down every way that Bojack has been fucked up as a person, but then you get to the imaginary future with Charlotte and Harper in a nice log cabin, and it's precisely because its so sweet and lovely that makes the snap back to reality so painful. It's cliche of me to say that it made me reflect on my life decisions and regrets, but it really did resonate with me, in a way that few cartoons have.

Haven't started Season 2 yet, but dammit if I'm not looking forward to it.

As someone with severe depression, I found the experience rather cathartic. It didn't make me cry, but it came very close. The atmosphere is extremely dark, trippy, and horrifying, going to places of psyche only hinted at before.

And there's the last scene, which really nothing more need be said.

Huh, we're talking about "Downer Ending" here? God, THAT episode. That and "The Telescope" are the episode I regret re-running every time I feel like rewatching the season.

Started out funny with Bojack's egotism getting the best of him because the book Diane wrote isn't to his liking leading to him writting an entire autobiography in one night before the day of publication. Pretty much standard sitcom plot that you know will end with hilariously results and the protagonist admitting he is wrong in the end. Some jokes here and there are funny, from the Call-Back to the Dr. Hu joke leading to a very subtle {{Who's on First?}} joke and some of the early drug trip sequence.

But as the episode moves along, it becomes . . . dark. The sequence becomes less silly and more serious as it points out to how truly horrible of a person Bojack becomes and how he is well aware he is of his trait. The alternate timeline scene always gets me, basically telling the audience that Bojack's choices were all bad and he regrets them.

In the end, it ended as expected with him admitting he is wrong, but not a hilarious way as it initially started out as. Kind of amazed how the second season's episode 11 manage to be worse then season one's.

edited 2nd Sep '15 6:50:19 AM by BigK1337

You know, I wasn't as emotionally affected by Escape From L.A. despite it being a fantastic, well-written episode. I'm gonna chalk that up to binge fatigue. I'm going to have to rewatch the show before season 3 comes out.

But yeah, episode 11 is really an incredible piece of animated television. It's like... just so great.

So I was thinking about Bojack, and I had a theory about what really drives Bojack's actions.

I mean, we can already figure it isn't as simple as "he wants to re-live the glory days." Beyond that we've seen that he really wants people to love him. I'm going to go a step further:

He wishes he could be the character he played on television.

Yeah, that becomes pretty evident with the retooled biopic, where it becomes an episode of Horsin' Around if you squint a bit. Combined with his fear that he never was an actor to begin with, and it seems he turned that down because he knew that was never for him, no matter how much he wanted it.

Finished the season. It got a lot of hype, and some of it wasn't as shocking as I'd hoped, but I think it's great. Season 1 had a better conclusion, but calling a Bojack season not quite as good is still calling it great television.

Bo Jack Horseman is one of my favorite shows. It raises the bar for what an adult cartoon can and ought to be, and helped me get through a confusing time of my life- my senior year of high school. Diane was my favorite character of Season 1, and Mr. Peanutbutter was my favorite character of Season 2. Never judge a show by its first few episodes.

Season Three coming July 22.

Oh, and "Weird Al" Yankovic is going to have a role on the show.

might just start watching this!

I'm over halfway through the first season as of today!

Greatness will follow. Especially "Downer Ending".

Bojack's the kind of show I wish I had when I was in high school. It's without a doubt the most accurate depiction of depression in any medium I've seen. In fairness it's a central focus, but still.

Ahh, now you're going to get the really good stuff.

Yeah, the turning point of the show for me and probably a lot of people is finding out Bojack sabotaged Todd's musical.

Season 3 trailer.

Wow. That's a great trailer.

One thing I notice: the trailer for this season is very different from the last two. They seem to have noticed what got season 2 really loved by the critics, so the marketing is definitely pushing the drama angle moreso than the comedy. Heck, look at the description in that Youtube video: "Season 3 of the critically acclaimed drama."

Ha. Yeah, they totally know what they were doing, there.

The show's been about riding that uncomfortable line between comedy and tragedy right from the beginning. Laughter is a pain response, joking is a defense mechanism, humor equals tragedy plus time divided by distance. Sure it's easy to laugh at the Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist, because thank god we're not that guy, but this show takes an unflinching look at what it's actually like to be him, and how hard that is, and what made them that way. In that sense, this show becomes something of a long-term Reconstruction of exactly this sort of character. I'm not even just talking about BoJack, the whole cast is like this. It's really kind of ingenious.

edited 30th Jun '16 1:05:08 AM by Unsung

Even Mr. Peanutbutter, the sociable Nice Guy has his insensitive moments and doesn't just ignore when Bojack's being a dick to him.

Todd's the only one who seems immune from a lot of the cast's hangups. In a show where everyone has their moments of jerkassery, depression, crisis of faith, self-guilt, etc, his arc is about learning to accept his own offbeat nature.

The idea that the only person who's actually happy is the one who's never actually had to engage with the reality of adult life, and is kind of an idiot, is not, I think, an accident.

But even that isn't played in a purely cynical manner. Sure, ignorance is bliss, ha ha— but happiness itself is not at fault. That Mr Peanutbutter and Todd are superficially similar characters shows what might otherwise seem to be a one-dimensional character at two different points in life, not just in age but in their situations. It gives them both additional...facets, if you don't want to call them depths. Todd tends to see the best in people because it doesn't occur to him to look for anything else, but Mr Peanutbutter, in a fantastic twist, turns out not to be totally devoid of self-awareness. Instead, he lives his life to the fullest despite if not *because* he doesn't believe in chasing after abstract ideals of success, achievement, or lasting happiness. I love that.

Just watched the first six episodes of season three, it's still great. Episode six might be my favorite so far, because holy shit, this show does not pull punches. "We've assembled this diverse panel of white men in bow ties to talk about abortion."

edited 22nd Jul '16 8:54:48 AM by Rvdz

The line of the year, as far as I'm concerned

Agreed. Though episode 8's "What if we made our safe space for woman also available for men?" comes close. This season is incredible.