If you’ve read my column here then you know how much I love BoJack Horseman. You also know how much I love strong storytelling. So when it was announced last year that the series following an animated horse man and his anthropomorphized as well as human friends in modern Hollywood was ending: I was on pins and needles. No series has regularly made me cry like BoJack and I fell in love with the cast, characters and narrative over the years. Well, all things must end. So here’s your SPOILER WARNING: let’s talk about it.
The final season does something I hate: it was broken up into two chunks. I went through the first 6 or so episodes of the season which seems our titular BoJack teaching an acting class and finally having what seemed like a good life. Diane was in Chicago with her boyfriend. Princess Carolyn was adjusting to motherhood and Todd was being weird and I don’t like Todd. I haven’t forgotten about Mr. Peanut Butter but I wish I could.
Like with Avengers: Endgame we’re going to go point-counterpoint because this is my post and thus, my way goes.
A point I liked a lot was the strong exploration of what cancel culture and #MeToo culture looks like. BoJack is an awful person who uses and abuses women and he needs to be held accountable for that. And the narrative holds him accountable for that. I do like that they were able to find balance between telling a story of a garbage male character who is garbage and hurts women but also is not entirely a monster. I appreciated that nuance. I appreciate that care. I appreciate how journalists are lauded and lampooned at the same time with Paget Brewster in the best role ever as a Southern belle pig reporter.
I didn’t like Todd’s characterization in the last season. As mentioned, Todd is already a character I am not one I’m crazy about. I’m not fond of the manic pixie dream boy who seems too cartoony for a literal cartoon and in this season; I was confronted with the issue I’ve had with Todd since the beginning. There is no balance between him being a dim doofus and being a super serious and thoughtful character so much so that his super powerful line at the end of the series didn’t inspire me but made me groan non-sexually. I am glad that his asexuality was address and that he got himself an asexual girlfriend and is doing better but I found myself looking at him being mean to BoJack and while sure BoJack deserved that ire, it just felt super out of nowhere from a characterization standpoint.
Let’s get back on the things I like which is that female characters in a narrative got what they deserved. God dammit it was so empowering to see Princess Carolyn finally get her man in a super sweet scene that made my cold dead heart feel something and that Diane was finally able to find a man who supports her and loves her and is willing to substantially challenge her mental health. Which brings me to a neg: I don’t like the characterization of Diane’s boyfriend: Guy. Guy is a lovable blanket. He doesn’t challenge Diane, he doesn’t have much of a personality and we don’t spend enough time with him to care. We just know he’s “good” for Diane and we have to accept that. I just think it’s weak characterization and could be done better because we saw that better in Judah. We learn so much about him in plot moments so when he finally confesses to Princess Carolyn, it made me swoon.
The last thing I’ll touch on we’ll do in the reverse: first the neg. So…Mr. Peanut Butter’s arc with Pickles drove me up the way. The whole idea of having to have Pickles cheat because Mr. Peanut Butter did was dumb and went on for way too long only for Mr. Peanut Butter to just accept it and it’s fine. I could have lost Pickles literally a season ago but sure, she’s off with not Justin Bieber now.
But now that we’re here; let’s talk about that second to last episode. Want to have a full existential crisis about death, the afterlife and suicide? Well BoJack has you covered. I didn’t cry but good lord did my heart race during the View from Halfway Down monologue which I have to give a content warning for due to its frank talk of suicide. As a serious thantaphile and a person who has battled the evils of mental illness for years: that scene sent chills down my spine and had a beautiful homage to an anime I love quite a bit. It’s powerful about what it means to be alive, what it means to die and makes us confront what will happen after we die.
That second to last episode is such a terrifying spiral that I think if I had binged the entire series in one setting: which I have done; I would have absolutely lost it. But I did lose some of that ramp up when it comes to emotional climax with the series being in two parts. If you’ve read my very long blog post about Devilman Crybaby then you know that I had an overwhelming reaction to it because I did just binge it and while the storytelling is strong and emotional; I think if I had taken a break I wouldn’t have ended up a sobbing mess babbling in Japanese (mostly profanities and the word uso which means lie).
I want to close up by talking about consequences. It’s amazing to me that characters in fiction get to have consequences now and for BoJack’s stunt where he broke into his old house, got drunk, took a metric shit-ton of pills and almost died after he nearly drowned to death in his former pool ends up in jail for it. That’s fantastic. It would have been so easy to think “he’s suffered enough” but no, he was wrong and did something bad and thus should face legal consequences. To again, allude to my blog where I complain about anime Sarazanmai did something very similar when my son: Kuji Toi ends up in jail after murdering his brother and a blonde murder cop who is also my son. Holding characters accountable is one of my favorites things and I’m so glad that I got to be on this journey with BoJack, Princess Carolyn, Diane, Mr. Peanut Butter and yes, even Todd.
It was one hell of a ride and it was good while it lasted. We got exactly what we deserved. An optimistic ending that felt earned. Everyone ended where they needed to. Everyone got what they deserved.
And I’m happy to have spent the better part of the last few years watching stars be famous, battle their demons and try their best to be better in a world that seldom prizes those who try to improve.
