Tuca & Bertie

Tuca & Bertie is a 2019 adult animation show, created by Lisa Hanawait of BoJack Horseman fame. It premiered on Netflix on May 3, 2019.

Tuca & Bertie are best friends, polar opposites, and former roommates. They're dealing with Bertie moving in with her loyal boyfriend of five years, an architect named Speckle, as Tuca maintains six months' worth of sobriety. On the outside, Bertie likes being the normal friend with life goals, a passion for baking, and a desire for stability. She does wonder if she should fight for more out of life when a local baker offers her an apprenticeship. Meanwhile, Tuca struggles with her identity as the wacky wild friend, and worries if she'll ever be able to grow up.

Netflix canceled the show after one season. Cartoon Network later renewed Tuca & Bertie, premiering the second season on June 13, 2021. Season three will premiere in summer 2022.


 * Adult Fear: It's easier to find an episode that doesn't contain one of these moments:
 * A coworker named Dirk harasses Bertie at work when she's trying to make small talk. When she goes to HR, the women in charge has a crush on the harasser and suggests that Bertie is being melodramatic. It takes Bertie confronting Dirk at a sexual harassment seminar for other women to reveal that he "goosed" them as well. Their easygoing boss in OOC Is Serious Business mode is so horrified that he suspends Dirk on the spot.
 * Then there's Pastry Pete. The first episode hints that he's pretty reasonable, agreeing to Tuca's ridiculous croissant challenge to get back Speckle's sugar bowl and offering to hire Bertie on the spot after tasting her baking. (It's a long story.) When he agrees to take on Bertie as a part-time apprentice, he proceeds to manhandle her by holding her neck and forcing her to look at a boiling pot. Bertie doesn't know how to respond, blaming it on her "weird crush" on the guy. Another apprentice, Dakota, is better able to handle the situation when Pete tries the same shtick on her: she smacks him and tells him to get away, quitting on the spot. When she yells at Bertie for not warning her, Bertie has a breakdown and drives away from town for a week.
 * Tuca has been six months sober, and constantly struggles with the fact that compared to Bertie, she is a hot mess. She has an existential crisis when Bertie and Speckle look at a potential house, wondering if she is going to be the constant loser friend and Bertie will move on without her. This revelation causes her to lash out at Bertie when the latter helps her get home from the hospital following an emergency surgery, because she overheard Bertie calling her clingy. Bertie doesn't apologize for this because, as she puts it, Tuca is needy.
 * Aesop: Season one has a running theme that being an adult doesn't mean you have all the answers, and Character Development means that you can always change for the better. Sure, Tuca is well-aware that she is immature and disorganized about her life, but as her internal Bertie tells her, she's still a brave person and a loyal friend when people need her. Bertie is forced to confront that she is not as mature and put-together as she thinks she is, and she needs to take charge of her life.
 * Bittersweet Ending: Most episodes of the show end this way:
 * Bertie finally gets that promotion thanks to Tuca helping her expose Dirk as a sexual harasser. Tuca also gives her the final push to ask her boss for the manager job. She gets the office and the plaque...along with longer work hours and higher expectations. The episode ends with Bertie pondering if she made the right decision.
 * When Speckle goes with Tuca to entertain her aunt at the latter's birthday and get some necessary funds, he bonds with her while sloshed and encourages Tuca to stand up for herself when Aunt Tallulah cannot be nice towards her niece. Tuca rips Aunt Tallulah's check when the latter insults her mother but realizes she needs the funds on the drive home. Speckle reassures Tuca that she'll find a way, and he considers her part of his and Bertie's family. Meanwhile, Bertie's day goes mostly fine, until Pastry Pete grabs her neck to make her look at a boiling pot. She proceeds to have a breakdown in the ladies' room.
 * In the season one finale, Speckle and Bertie have made up in time for Molting Day, and their neighbors pitch in to help get Bertie's baking business, Sweet Beak, off the ground, delivering all the holiday pastries despite the rush. Tuca, however, finds out that Aunt Tallulah is in the hospital and her siblings didn't think to call her, meaning they completely forgot the annual call that she hates. Bertie also admits to Speckle and Tuca that one reconciliation isn't going to fix all the problems in her love life, so she needs to be a better girlfriend, and start confronting her trauma.
 * Early Installment Weirdness: The pilot has Speckle as the quirky one in the relationship as Bertie as the Only Sane Woman between him and Tuca. She's weirded out that his family keeps their remains in sugar and spice tins as traditions, and Speckle doesn't understand why she spits out the cookies she just baked when revealing his grandmother's ashes were in the sugar bowl. Later episodes had the roles reverse: Bertie is well-established as the quirky one in the relationship, and Speckle is the "rock" as he puts it bitterly in the season one finale.
 * This Is Reality: A therapist in the season 2 premiere is amused when Bertie tries speed-dating her and other experts to find the perfect person to treat her short-term problems. Bertie asks if she's the best psychologist possible for handling her panic attacks. Said therapist explains that you can be the most famous and well-educated psychologist in the world, but that does squat if the methods and personality don't help the patient. Even if the patient is completely compliant with CBT, psychoanalysis or crystal therapy, not all disciplines work the same way. This discussion in fact makes Bertie realize that this therapist was the one she wanted at the end of the episode, because this woman was the most honest that she may not be the best fit for Bertie but her advice helped regardless.