Longtime readers will know that I love BoJack Horseman and considering how many times I’ve written about it, well, it’s easy to say it’s one of my favorite shows. So when I found out that a lot of the animations and one of the head writers from BoJack was going to take that cool world concept, art style and make it more female-centric starring Tiffany Haddish and Ali Wong? Cool, sold. Let’s talk about Tuca & Bertie and with maybe some restraint but still likely some spoilers because that’s how your prince rolls.
Tuca & Bertie centers around two birds: Bertie, a song thrush and Tuca, a toucan. Bertie is reserved, neurotic and sensitive and Tuca is sexually liberated, free, loud and pretty out there. It’s a classic comedy set up but modernized for a modern audience. It’s like Broad City but animated and with bird titties. And don’t let the animation fool you, this is for sure not for kids.
Right off the bat, this show does a lot for me. I’ve always praised BoJack for its animation and the animation is beautiful, fluid and really fun. The music from episode one is a banger and I love it and the character design is really thoughtful. The voice acting…well, this may be my internalized misogyny but I do take umbrage with Tuca being voiced by Haddish, she is very much black coded and Tuca has the least amount of her shit together. So as a young black biological female to have yet another character who does not have their shit together and lives in a crappy apartment with crappy taste in men and is slutting it up around town…it just doesn’t do it for me. Tuca’s family is also very black coded and that bothers me for reasons we’ll get to.
The series has an overarching plot and centers around the two birds as they figure their lives out. Bertie has just moved in with her boyfriend, Speckle, and Tuca is now living on her own. The series throws a lot of plot at you and really takes its time telling you why these things matter. I won’t spoil everything but I want to talk about a few of the places the show loses me, especially with Tuca.
Remember how I said that Tuca’s coding as black really irks me? Well, Tuca has a rich aunt who she mooches off of and her aunt is very abusive to Tuca. Tuca also has a bunch of siblings and a mom who died young and tragic. With Tuca being black coded, that hits too close to home and it’s a narrative that’s powerful but because it hits too close to home, it was actually a little distracting for me because I suddenly wondered if I was a toucan in short shorts who was loud and needy.
Bertie’s arc is pretty strong and she deals with a lot of issues modern women face: trauma, sexual harassment, anxiety and feeling unsure about everything even though your life is fairly together. I related to Bertie on a molecular level and the show’s frank talks about intimacy, mental health and the importance of friendship but also the importance of boundaries was refreshing and nice.
I did have a moment or two where I struggled with some internalized woman-hating with Tuca but in hindsight, I think a lot of that was her character in a lot of ways reminding me of myself but I can get the criticisms lobbed her way.
The episode I loved the most deals with Bertie playing hookie from work so she can be anxious and the way the writers handle how irrational anxiety is was refreshing and honest. As someone who has anxiety, that’s the part I always wish folks got. I know my fear is irrational but that doesn’t make it any less valid.
The show covers pretty heavy topics: sobriety, sexual concerns, fear of committing and the future, sexism and sexual harassment as well as trauma and assault. It follows in BoJack’s footsteps in that regard and by centering the show around two women, it feels all very timely and thoughtful.
I did find Tuca’s voice grating at times but I’m also not a Tiffany Haddish stan and sometimes her choices were less about liberation and freedom than her just being downright an idiot and as someone who likes strong storytelling, that did wear on me. But otherwise, this first season was a success to me and it really did shine when they focused on the importance of friendship. Tuca and Bertie’s friendship brought me to tears especially when you factor in that I not long ago had to give up my best friend due to some destructive tendencies and I never in our time apart have wanted to message my former bestie more.
Tuca & Bertie gets a solid 3.5/4 out of 5 stars from me.
If you’ve seen the show or want to talk about it, let me know in the comments!
Thanks for reading!
