The show was created by first time show-runner Raphael Bob-Waksberg.(Photo courtesy of Netflix)
Liam Elliot
Connector Contributor
Who knew an anthropomorphic horse could hit the nail on the head on how all us humans feel at one point or another in our lives. At one point in our lives we can all say that we were down, depressed, and anxious. For some, it’s a constant struggle to live with such an incessant need to feel good, to feel loved, and to feel as if people like them. BoJack Horseman is the TV show for those people—the ones who don’t understand why they feel this way.
For a little backstory, BoJack Horseman follows the life and times of the titular Mr. Horseman, a washed up, drug addled former sitcom star who is trying to reach his way back up to the peak. We have constant flashbacks to his days as the main character on the sitcom “Horsin’ Around”, the story of a horse who adopts 3 human children and raises them as his own. Through these flashbacks we come to find that this TV show is what BoJack considers to be the greatest achievement of his life and that the past 20 years have been a haze of booze, drugs, and countless women.
When you first start BoJack, the first two episodes feel as if it’s some cheap Family Guy knockoff, with worse jokes and a plotline that is sort of, not really, linear. But soon, that façade drops and we see the true BoJack Horseman, the self-loathing drunk who just wants to be well liked and loved. He wants friends and people to clamor around him and make him feel less lonely. But when he can’t find these people, he inevitably turns to drugs and alcohol to make himself feel normal.
To get back on top of the “Hollywoo” world, BoJack decides to write a memoir based on his life and his times as the main character of “Horsin’ Around”. Only problem is that his deadline for publishing is in a week and he hasn’t started a single page, forcing him to have to hire a ghostwriter, Diane Nguyen. What he doesn’t know is that Diane’s memoir will not be pretty, in fact it will be downright terrifying for the ever ignorant Horseman. She isn’t writing the story that BoJack wants, she’s writing the truth, the truth about how his parents treated him like dirt, the fact he’s an alcoholic and an addict, the fact that he’s basically destroyed himself and the ones he loved whenever he feels even slightly threatened by them.
This show isn’t for the faint of heart or people just looking for some quick yuk yuks to kill time. This is an emotional rollercoaster of a show and if you watch this without examining how you treat the people around you and more importantly, how you treat yourself then you are doing yourself a disservice. To watch BoJack self-destruct as you’re rooting for him to do good is one of the biggest gut punches in current television.
If you want to feel connected to a show, watch BoJack Horseman. If you’re in the mood to examine yourself and understand your inner workings, this show is for you. If you just need to make sure it will all be okay in the long run, watch BoJack Horseman. You will not be disappointed in the show. Maybe in BoJack’s antics, but never in the show.
