When they meet for the first time in episode 1, BoJack worries Diane will get sick of him, and she says that won't happen. Their relationship becomes increasingly strained over the course of the last two seasons as a result of BoJack's actions, and although their conversation in the Series Finale is friendly, its implied their friendship is over for good.
BoJack's "The Reason You Suck" Speech in "BoJack Hates The Troops" is this when you realize he's actually venting all of his pent-up self-hatred that becomes more apparent in later episodes.
That whole episode can be seen as a Foreshadowing to what happened to Hank Hippopopalous, or rather what didn't happen to him. Both were involved in controversy but were treated differently by the media, due to Hank being a beloved artist and as such, his CRIMES are mostly ignored. Meanwhile BoJack, while a politically incorrect jerkass, was just expressing his free speech.
A more subtle one: this episode is the first appearance of BoJack's parents. In Season 4, we specifically learn more about Beatrice's past, and how her family fell apart because her older brother died in World War II.
Also in the first episode, we have Princess Carolyn breaking up with BoJack because of his lack of desire to have a child with her. Given her subsequent struggles with actually carrying a pregnancy to term, this becomes a lot harsher.
The very first thing BoJack says when he meets Herb? "Get cancer, jerkwad". Especially bad because we only learn of Herb's terminal cancer one episode later.
Mr. Peanutbutter revealing himself as an Anti-Nihilist in "Later" suggests that the character meant to be a more positive alternative to BoJack's self-destructive lifestyle is, in fact, far more miserable than BoJack himself. His story arc in "After the Party" furthers the fridge horror. Mr. Peanutbutter seems terrified of death and is even more terrified of the fact that he's going to lose Diane someday. And these fears come to haunt him in later seasons when his brother gets a possibly-fatal twisted spleen (though he survives) and Diane divorces him.
Though now they are more heartwarming after Spider-Man: No Way Home where he appeared again and now in the light of film being a box-office smash there's speculation of the ASM universe coming back.
In "The Telescope," BoJack pulls over to the side of the road on his way home from Herb's, looking like he's ready to cry, but he doesn't. In "The Shot," we learn that his mother told him never to cry in front of other people when he was a kid.
The backstory of BoJack's failure to stand up for Herb becomes harsher when he learns that Angela's threat to his career was a bluff and he could have saved Herb's job if he'd stuck to his guns.
In the third episode of both Seasons 1 and 2, Sarah Lynn's death from Season 3 was foreshadowed:
In "Still Broken" at Herb's funeral when Sarah Lynn mentions that the cast of Horsin' Around probably won't meet again until the next funeral, and everyone looks at BoJack. Becomes this when it turns out she's the one to die next.
Sarah Lynn all but foreshadowing her own death during her official debut in "Prickly Muffin" in which she proclaims that she can just keep surrounding herself with sycophants and enablers until she dies a tragically young death. Cut roughly two years ahead...
In the first scene of the pilot episode, BoJack defends Horsin' Around to Charlie Rose, saying, "It's not Ibsen, but..." We find out in season 2 that after attending a live taping of the show, BoJack's mother's only comment was, "Well, it wasn't Ibsen."
And then that hits harder when we learn of Beatrice's trauma in season 4 and how she likely did enjoy Horsin' Around but withheld her affection because of her traumatized, lobotomized mother telling her to never love anybody. The Ibsen comment also gets a lot clearer when we see a flashback of BoJack's childhood in season 5, where his father mentions Beatrice had just seen A Doll's House and then locked herself in her room to loudly weep. Given Beatrice's own backstory revolves heavily around misogyny in a similar fashion to the protagonist of that play, suddenly her usage of Ibsen as a cornerstone of great storytelling makes a lot more sense.
In "It's You", BoJack is apparently nominated for an Academy Award, but this turns out to be a mistake since the announcer, Mister Peanutbutter, had lost the real list of nominees and proceeded to make up a new list on the spot. During that year's Academy Awards, La La Land was mistakenly announced as the winner for Best Picture instead of the actual winner Moonlight (2016) due to a mix-up with the cards.
After having a big fight, one that leaves BoJack alone and he tempts Sarah Lynn to break her sobriety, he and Diane reconcile at the funeral. Diane says that Warts and All, she doesn't believe that the horse is poison to everyone as he claims in a fit of guilt. BoJack, in turn, promises to never stop being her friend or to let her demean herself. The Series Finale shows BoJack accepting Diane calling him out, and it implies their friendship is over because of his toxicity.
"That Went Well" having Adam Levine tweeting about Sarah Lynn's fatal drug overdose with the Innocently Insensitive hashtags "#SheWillBeLoved" and "#WatchTheVoiceSeason10" is particularly harsh after in Real Life, Adam Levine's onetime contestant on The Voice, Christina Grimmie, was murdered shortly after season 10 of The Voice finished and shortly before season 3 of BoJack Horseman was released.
Season 4's "Thoughts and Prayers" became this in the wake of the Las Vegas Strip shooting that left 50+ dead and 500+ injured, as that exact (flippantly-delivered) sentiment got to be trending on Twitter. While the episode intended to mock this mentality, it was something of a bitter reminder of just how accurate it was. Made even worse when savvy watchers realized that, if Netflix had released the episodes weekly instead of en masse - this one would have played the same weekend as the shooting itself.
The episode also had the dark joke of California finally banning all private gun ownership after a woman commits a mass shooting since America hates women more than it loves guns. Seven months later, a rare female committed mass shooting did occurr, leading to more "thoughts and prayers" expression and no discussion of gun control.
Beatrice's speech to BoJack about him being born broken is far worse after we learn about Beatrice's own dysfunctional family in "The Old Sugarman House" and her and Butterscotch's beginnings and subsequent harsh life in "Time's Arrow".
"Hank After Dark" sadly continues to be relevant every time news about sexual harassment in show business comes out (particularly the outpour in fall 2017, which left many well-known and beloved stars denounced as predators) but the case of Chris Savino is particularly harsh because one of the first alleged victims to speak up was Anne Walker Farrell- a storyboard artist and lead animator for the episode.
Also, one of the people accused of being a long time sexual abuser was Charlie Rose, who appeared in the show's own first scene (albeit not actually played by him, as he'd done in several other shows and films).
One joke in "Bojack Kills" can be particularly depressing, considering it was released over a year before the Weinstein sexual abuse allegations broke:
Bojack: The Academy does not look kindly on murder. Rape, they don't seem to have a problem with.
In Season 5, Bojack insists the guilt he feels over all his misdeeds means he's suffered more for it than any of the actual victims of his behavior. Diane immediately calls him out on this by bringing up Sarah Lynn, and Bojack has a lot of trouble trying to uphold his claim because of that. Just a few days before the season's release, Norm Macdonald got in hot water for appearing to have this view toward the people brought down by "MeToo", and then had a hell of a time finding the words to extricate himself.
After learning how The Amelia Earhart Story inspired Princess Carolyn when she was young, her gynecologist's way of announcing her miscarriage sounds even more heartbreakingly personal.
Also, Princess Carolyn’s frustration with Diane's decision (even though she ultimately respects it) is a lot more sobering after season 4's "Ruthie," when we learn that she's incapable of carrying a baby to term and has had multiple miscarriages, making her feel inferior to her inversely fertile mother. To her, Diane getting pregnant by accident and not wanting the resulting baby isn't just ungrateful, it's downright unfair!
Flip McVicker's behavior towards Bojack and the rest of the cast during the production of Philbert becomes even more harsh, when Flip's voice actor Rami Malek himself had to deal with a lot of stress on the set of Bohemian Rhapsody, because the director Bryan Singer (who Flip might be based on) had misbehaved with him and the rest of the cast and crew, and was exposed for past sexual misconduct, which resulted in him getting fired and Fox not renewing their deal with him. And all of this happened one year before Season 5 was released..
The plot of "Thoughts and Prayers" revolves around trying to deal with a film being released after a brink of mass shootings until eventually just shelving the film entirely due to becoming too much of a potential PR disaster. A similar fate would happen to the 2018 TV series adaptation of Heathers, it was delayed from airing for over a year(first it was delayed over Parkland and then over a synagogue shooting, though it had aired overseas on HBO unedited much earlier) and while it did eventually air in the U.S.(albeit with some edits with a two-part episode getting edited down into a one-part episode to remove a school getting blown up with students getting killed) the show was later cancelled entirely due to poor ratings and reviews from critics.
Stefani gassing the cockroaches at Girl Croosh for trying to unionize is darker now that BoJack's animators have their own union struggles.
When Katrina (who is established as working with corrupt lobbyists) begins managing her gubernatorial campaign in Season 4, Jessica Biel gets heavily involved with California politics. Fast forward to 2019, and the real Jessica Biel- while not Ax-Crazy- also got involved with controversial California politics by lobbying alongside anti-vaccine activist Robert F, Kennedy, Jr.
Despite Sarah Lynn not being based on any specific Former Child Star, her appearance and character arc resemble Aaron Carter circa 2019 a little too closely (public abrasiveness, gaunt appearance from drug abuse, ambiguous history of being sexually abused, ugly tattoos). Even more awkward is that her character was meant to darkly satirize how child stardom damages young women in particular, while the real-life celebrity who resembles her the most is decidedly not female.note Her character is based on Britney Spears and The Olsen Twins, with hints of Drew Barrymore, Lindsay Lohan and Miley Cyrus, but not any one female celebrity specifically. The fact that a singular male celebrity ended up representing this amalgamation, rather than the other way around was rather ironic This comparison has become even harsher in November 2022, due to Carter's death at the age of 34.
Every sweet moment between BoJack and Hollyhock, especially the final scene of season four, is difficult to watch after Hollyhock is all but confirmed to cut him off permanently after learning all the horrible things he's done, to the point where she even changed her phone number so he couldn't contact her in the latter half of season six.
In season five, a lot of Pickles and Mr. Peanubutter's relationship becomes tainted by what later happens:
Despite being as ditzy as Mr. Peanutbutter, Pickles is obviously insecure about the fact that she's a rebound, and Diane is doing her best to remain amicable with them both. It comes to a head where she has a breakdown at BoJack's Halloween party over the worry that she's not young or fun enough for him. Diane goes to comfort her and says that Mr. Peanutbutter loves the woman he's with best at the time. The season ends afterMr. Peanutbutter and Diane hook up, after which the Retriever proposes to the pug. When Pickles finds out, she understandably becomes upset and sobs on social media. Then she leaves Mr. Peanutbutter for Joey Pogo.
Pickles doesn't understand why Diane is being nice to her. Diane says it's because she has been in the pug's shoes, and wants her to be happy. That relationship dissolves into tatters come season 6 when Pickles learns about the hookup.
In "Surprise!" Diane begs BoJack that she can't move to Chicago unless she knows he's going to be okay, and he insists she go and that he'll be fine. A sweet moment that becomes utterly crushing in light of the final two episodes, where a heavily intoxicated BoJack calls Diane for help before going into his pool and nearly drowning, only for him to not reach her due to her being in Chicago. The serious guilt Diane feels afterwards almost convinces her to not move to Houston with Guy.
Another moment that becomes harsher due to the above is this line from Season 3's "It's You":
BoJack: There's going to be plenty of people around when I kill myself!
In the episode "The Old Sugarman Place", Bojack tells Eddie that attempted murder tends to be a series wrap on a friendship. In "The Stopped Show", Bojack would find himself at the receiving end after nearly strangling Gina to death in the previous episode.
In the penultimate episode of Season 3, Bojack is present when Sarah Lynn succumbs to her overdose, and public (and audience) opinion was sympathetic towards him as he essentially witnessed the passing of his surrogate daughter. However, after Season 6 revealed that Bojack waited 17 minutes before calling for help in order to create an alibi, it is impossible to sympathize with him as we now know that Bojack prioritized himself over Sarah Lynn, despite the latter being in a worse place.
that left 50+ dead and 500+ injured, as that exact (flippantly-delivered) sentiment got to be trending on Twitter. While the episode intended to mock this mentality, it was something of a bitter reminder of just how accurate it was. Made even worse when savvy watchers realized that, if Netflix had released the episodes weekly instead of en masse - this one would have played the same weekend as the shooting itself.