At first glance, ‘BoJack Horseman’ looks like a bizarre comedy about a depressed talking horse who used to star in a popular 1990s sitcom. In the show, BoJack is well-known for his role as a lovable dad on Horsin’ Around, but decades later, his career has come to a standstill.
He resides in a huge Hollywood mansion, throws lavish parties, and has celebrities all around him. However, none of it makes him happy. The show doesn’t just display the pretty side of celebrity culture. It explores the reality of what happens when the cameras stop rolling.
‘BoJack Horseman’ Understood Hollywood Better Than Most Hollywood Movies
BoJack is in a hurry to prove his relevance. He pays for Diane Nguyen to write his memoir, hoping that it will revive his career and bring his life story to the forefront, and he’ll finally be taken seriously. However, the memoir experience requires BoJack to confront the past he’s been trying to forget for years. His relationships tell even more about him.
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BoJack’s friendship with Todd starts as a harmless deal, with Todd essentially staying on BoJack’s couch. However, BoJack’s jealous, self-centred nature makes him continually hate and sabotage Todd’s life over time. Their friendship eventually becomes one of the show’s most obvious examples of how BoJack’s behavior is affecting people who are truly concerned about him.
The show becomes darker as BoJack’s misfortunes grow too much to be considered harmless celebrity excess. His relationship with the former child star Sarah Lynn, who starred with him in Horsin’ Around, is especially heart-wrenching. Sarah Lynn is damaged by the entertainment industry and addicted to drugs.
BoJack reconnects with her, and their destructive behavior turns into a tragedy. That narrative is what the show does best: It starts as a silly Hollywood punch line and gradually exposes the real people behind it.
The series also has a chance to explore Hollywood’s love affair with reinvention by looking at BoJack’s career. He accepts more and more bizarre assignments, like Secretariat, in the hope that a big part will change people’s perceptions of him. But even when he gets opportunities to become the person he claims he wants to be, he repeatedly finds ways to sabotage them.
The Show Refuses To Give BoJack an Easy Redemption
What makes BoJack’s tale so compelling is that the show never fully forgives him for his misfortunes. A lot of things can be understood from his childhood. He is raised by his emotionally abusive mother, Beatrice, and has a distant father. All this makes him believe that he is not deserving of love.
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Later seasons give greater insight into the family dysfunction he experienced. But the show never says, “BoJack had a terrible childhood, therefore everything he does is acceptable.” Rather, it questions if it’s possible to understand someone and then forgive them.
That is the question that comes to the fore as BoJack’s career starts to fall apart due to his actions. He eventually has to confront the fact that some relationships cannot simply be repaired with an apology. But even when he finally gets sober, it doesn’t solve all his problems.
That’s what makes ‘BoJack Horseman’ a hard-hitting Hollywood story. Unlike many fictional celebrities, BoJack does not get the good-guy-to-the-end redemption arc. He faces the consequences. Some people leave him behind. The show eventually reveals that Hollywood’s greatest con is that fame doesn’t make you happy or fulfilled.
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