Bojack Horseman

[Totenkindly]

I don't see an actual "show" thread (just the character typing threads elsewhere). Which is kinda shocking. If there is one, just merge this.

But Season 4 is starting very soon.

I don't even know if I can handle another season. Emotionally, this show can just be crushing, and Bojack kills everything he touches. How much more can a heart take? Aside of course from it being genre-defying... it's such an emotionally complex show, while still being crazy-funny and just heartbreaking.

 

[burningranger]

Hey thanks for posting! Never heard of it before...seems like a cool show. I'll have to check it out.

 

[Totenkindly]

Hey thanks for posting! Never heard of it before...seems like a cool show. I'll have to check it out.

Give it a few episodes to get rolling.

Aside from the tone (which can be both serious and funny simultaneously), I like how plot events have continuity. For example, there are things that happen in the world of Bojack in the first few episodes that persist in the background / conversation throughout the rest of the series.

 

[Totenkindly]

Bojack Season 4 is pretty good, though probably not quite as good as earlier seasons. However, it's kind of difficult to tell at times since "negative intensity" which the first three seasons can have in spades is not necessarily equivalent to "good."

Season 4 does have its share of pain (mostly portrayed through the life of Princess Caroline and through flashbacks about Bojack's mom -- Episode 11, Time's Arrow, is particularly good and sheds a lot of light on things), but the season feels a bit more cushioned than prior ones. I felt like the series rolled back to the status quo a bit from the end of Season 3 rather than progressing forward on Bojack's ongoing dissolution, and his through-line is not quite as dark as in the past.

I like Hollyhock. She's obviously got some things in alignment with Bojack, but at the same time she is mostly "normal" rather than bitter and self-destructive in the ways he can be... perhaps Bojack if he had grown up normally versus gone through all the shit he did in childhood.

Diane and Mr. Peanutbutter keep working on their marriage which goes up and down. There's a funny throughline with clowns and woods. The race for CA governor has a lot of laughs involved... as well as the gods of fire and water.

Feel worst for Princess Caroline, but I love her to death. She is such a trooper and just never quits. (Or, as she says, "No matter how far I fall, I always land on my feet.") This isn't the easiest season for her.

 

[EJCC]

I feel obligated to tell people who haven't watched S4 yet that it's a lot easier on the heart than S3. BoJack doesn't hit a new low.

I agree that it isn't as good as other seasons - not as funny, not as deep, not as impactful - but I loved it anyway. Still wise and weirdly full of love.

Also... the "Stupid Piece of Shit" monologues.

Especially this one:

Whoever wrote that episode really knew their way around the inside of a depressed/anxious/self-loathing person's brain. (Been there. Watching it was spookily real.)

 

[Totenkindly]

It's kind of weird there was never much discussion on this forum over this series. I would consider it in my top list of shows that I am glad I watched in my life. Aside from quirky humor, the characters were really nuanced and evocative of the messiness of actual life, especially in terms of personal growth and how progress is really a matter of not giving up regardless of how slow the progress is or how far one backslides.

The final episodes dropped Friday and I finished them today.

 

[Lexicon]

One of the most human shows out there. Glad I gave it a chance.

I can't come back to this thread til I finish the last 4 episodes tomorrow night, though.

 

[Merced]

One of the best shows ever made. I used to hate it but now I will defend it with my heart and soul

 

[Z Buck McFate]

I haven't finished all the episodes yet, but I'm totally dorking out about all the Chicago references in this last season. Like the prominence of Portillo's ("Parmadillo's") - which I'd thought was more of an outlying suburb thing, but I'm guessing started in the suburbs 30+ years ago (when I was growing up) and has since spread into the city itself. Or:

Todd's dad, to security guard: I saw a guy downstairs putting ketchup on a hot dog.

Security guard, running off to catch him: Not in my city!