"BoJack Horseman"

Hey check it out, I'm reviewing Tee-Vee!

I love that Netflix releases a whole season to us binge watching asswipes. I don’t have internet nor Netflix, so I make the trek to a friend’s house and watch this series. That must mean it’s pretty good. Or I'm a cheap mother-effer...

BoJack (voiced brilliantly by Will Arnett) is about a horse living in Hollywood that had a sitcom career with a show called “Horsin’ Around.” It’s clearly a hit since he lives in a massive stilted house in the Hollywood Hills. His best friend is a stoner burn-out (voiced by Aaron Paul), his other movie star friend is golden retriever named Mister Peanutbutter (voice by Paul F. Tompkins) and he is managed off and on by a cat, named Princess Carolyn (voice by Amy Sedaris). The rest of the voice cast are pretty famous, in the…inside entertainment sort of way. In the third season they have Angela Bassett, Fred Savage, Constance Zimmer, etc…

This has a lot of the tropes of life after success that we’ve seen before. After success, BoJack becomes this boozing, womanizing, cocaine addict who does terrible things to people but then finds a way to have a small taste of forgiveness, only to fall back into bad behavior. In the third season, all that comes to roost, when he reaches the end of his line, a tragedy and backs are turned on him. What seems immeasurably terrible is actually interesting contemplative fodder for anyone who’s seen the ass-end of Hollywood and lived to feel the residual effects. Good or bad, BoJack seems to be seeking purpose in life in the wake of people he’s disappointed. What I love about this show, is the cruelty to one another we find comical in this town. There is such an ingenuity to the animation that has transcended what I’ve seen. Like a 90’s show with similar Gen-X themes named “Mission Hill” it tackles a LOT of internal sadness. It’s not that deep. There is a lot of shit-humor, but it satisfies enough that the frailty of fame bounces around. Some check out, such as BoJack’s sitcom son, who has opened a hardware store somewhere in Oregon. Or Bojack’s sitcom daughter who has become a massive superstar in music and is in constant rehabilitation. It’s ruthless in painting his life as anything but enviable. Though really sad, I’m certain, some people would gladly sacrifice it to obtain.

Yes, we get that success, money and fame get you no further in happiness. This show doesn’t require you get that message. Let’s be honest, his life has a pop-step to it, that draws you in. Everyone loves an unrepentant junkie. The way they show his life is remarkable in terms of understanding right away the pain someone who has so many people who care and can’t care about themselves in return can propagate. They’ve already been picked up for a 4^th season, and for once in television history, I gotta say…it’s really well earned.