LogFAQs > #942055596

Even after getting hooked on the show for a while, I don't know how I felt about it.

I think the writing hit its peak in season 4. Season 1 scratched the surface of the emotional heart of the episode, season 2 had some of the show's most iconic moments but I don't know how I feel about the Secretariat payoff, season 3 had a weak first half with Jill Pill and Cuddlywhiskers... but the second half of season 3 is where the show started to really climb, and season 4 carried on that momentum imo.

The last half of season 3 and the entirety of season 4 had my favorite moments in it. Sara Lynn's death is one of the darkest moments of the show, I love how Todd was revealed to be asexual, Princess Caroline and Ralph's relationship was one of my favorite parts of the show, the second episode of season 4 might be the best episode of the show, and while I'm divided on Hollyhock's involvement in the show, the twist about her lineage was pretty hype. I also thought that Mr Peanutbutter and Diane's divorce was well deserved, and I think the head it built up to was one of the better notes for the season to go out on.

Season 4 also had some moments that I didn't like. Mr Peanutbutter's ex-wives were some of my least favourite characters in the show, and even for Bojack Horseman the ski race for the governorship of California was silly and over the top. The whole governorship arc felt pointless, and then it just resolves with no fanfare or stakes. I think it was the start of the show's writing going south.

I respect the point of season 5, in that it's trying to portray a nuanced picture of celebrity abuse stories, and I respect the show making a point about the normalisation of shitty behavior through popular media. But I feel like this is where I started to not like the show as much. I didn't think the Henry Fondle subplot was funny, I wasn't big on the drug addiction storyline and the violence that Bojack enacts near the end of the season felt like a bit too much, even with the shitty things he's done. Bojack and Diane's fight about Sara Lynn feels kind of wrong all round, with Bojack's specific type of nastiness and Diane going as hard as she did on Sara Lynn's death - it just didn't sit well. And I think Flip is the worst character that the show ever had, hands down.

Season 6 had some of the show's beat episodes. The first episode, with the stars in a bottle, was an excellent start to the season, and as the first half went on I thought that maybe Bojack could turn it all around and be a better person.

But the second half was rough to watch. I almost feel like the characters should have been more disgusted after he tells them about what he did to Sara Lynn, but maybe it was his reluctance to elaborate and the restrained disgust that Diane and Princess Caroline show towards him that make that episode as effective as it was.

But it's the circumstances leading up to Bojack's second interview, and everything with Sara Lynn's mother, and the investigative journalists who have the most annoying gimmick ever - that kind of torpedo the show for me.

Season 5 and 6 lean heavily on season 2 and 3 for their stories - they rely so heavily on moments that made the show iconic in the first place. Bojack never took responsibility for what happened with Penny, and Sara Lynn's death was his lowest moment. But Sara Lynn's mother is shown as a self-absorbed nutjob who exploited her daughter since childhood, pursuing Bojack for a payday, and Bojack being blindsided by the New Mexico stuff in an interview doesn't feel like him taking responsibility and being held accountable either - it feels like a footnote to worsen the severity of a larger accusation. It doesn't help that we don't see Penny and/or Charlotte at all after the interview, so we don't know if Bojack being taken to task gave them closure in the end.

At the end of the day, Bojack did exploit his power. It's important to see him take responsibility, and maybe seeing how flippantly he regards his accountability for another 30 minutes of attention should have clued me in that in the end, as long as he can get off scot free and get some good press out of it, it doesn't affect him that much.

Maybe that was the point of S6, part two. Bojack can put all that behind him, because he was the person who did bad thig to others, as opposed to someone who had bad things happen to him at the hands of another person. That doesn't mean he was never a victim, and it's hard to recover from childhood abuse, but that doesn't excuse horrible things you do as an adult.

I dunno. I think the show got really heady at the end there, and I don't know what to think of it. Like, Bojack is an abuser to multiple people, implicitly or explicitly, but the show does focus on Bojack and his emotional peaks and dips. When the other shoe drops regarding Penny in season 6, the focus is still on Bojack and how it hurts him to be confronted by it as someone who perpetuated it, rather than on depicting its effect on Penny as a victim. We've seen Bojack get sober, we've seen him reform - the show has specifically focused on that. And while it does cut back to Penny and Charlotte, it doesn't tell us how they feel in the wake of the allegation coming to light. I don't know how I feel about that. And I don't know how I feel about the later season stuff about Sara Lynn's death.

Bojack Horseman was a good show, and while I respect that its latter seasons tried to make a more hardline stance about people like Bojack in response to people using him as an enabler for their own toxicity, I don't know if I can reconcile the show's ethics with its narrative. I'm happy Bojack lived, for what it's worth, and I'm glad the core cast all seem like they're going to be okay - with or without each other. But I don't know if my time with the show was ultimately worthwhile.

Like even when I was fully invested in the show, there were episodes that would totally sour my mood. I would be trying to put a positive spring in my step some days, and after an episode or two of the show, I would feel emotionally drained. I think my time with the show might have even been a net negative. I don't know. It was a wild ride.

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