BoJack Horseman

"''Back in the '90s, I was on a famous TV show. I'm BoJack (BoJack the horse), don't act like you don't know..."

BoJack Horseman is a 2016 Netflix animated adult cartoon created by Raphael Bob Waksberg. It ran for six seasons, ending in January 2020. Will Arnett plays the title character, while Aaron Paul plays Todd Chavez, Allison Brie is Diane Nguyen, and Amy Sedaris is Princess Carolyn.

Once upon a time, back in the 1990s, BoJack Horseman was on top of his game. He was the lead in a sitcom Horsin' Around, playing a foster dad called The Horse to three adorable orphans. Oh it wasn't Ibsen, as his mother Beatrice told him, but it paid the bills and made him famous.

It is now the 2010s, twenty years later. BoJack hasn't done anything huge since Horsin' Around though the revenue has earned him a fancy Malibu house. He spends his days drinking, yelling at his roommate Todd to pick up his shit, and cheating on his on-off girlfriend and agent, Princess Carolyn. Then he realizes he's overdue on a deadline for his memoirs, and the publisher Pinky Penguin is so desperate that Pinky hires a ghostwriter, Diane Nguyen. Diane surprises BoJack by asking for his real story, rather than the Blatant Lies that he had a happy childhood. Maybe he can be a good person, by opening up to her.

Of course, the show is not all about BoJack, though he would like it to be. We follow the rest of the cast's quests to find their place in the world, and make something of their life. Diane balances a shallow romance with the cheerful celebrity Mr. Peanutbutter, who wants to make her happy but does not understand her, with her desire to correct injustices. Princess Carolyn has to manage BoJack and keep a steady array of clients as a shark in the agency business, while desiring true love, and kids. Todd wants to prove that he is more than a daydreaming slacker, but he needs to find a Zany Scheme that actually has some legs and can earn him a steady living. And Mr. Peanutbutter? He wishes to enjoy life with the woman he loves, and win BoJack's friendship. Surely he will never find out that BoJack is developing feelings for Diane, despite the fact that she doesn't reciprocate the horse's infatuation.


 * Abusive Mom: Beatrice Horseman turned BoJack into the cynic he is, as much as her husband Butterscotch did. She constantly blamed her son for ruining her figure and her life, when it was her choice to not get an abortion or divorce her husband after realizing they weren't working out. It's also because of Beatrice that BoJack learned to never cry in front of people.
 * Adam Westing: If a real celebrity appears to voice their cameo, expect this to happen. This montage shows that:
 * "Character actress Margo Martindale" is chafed by the fact that no one respects her acting abilities now that she's turned fifty. She agrees to help BoJack whenever he has a criminal scheme..
 * Daniel Radcliffe happened to become a big fan on the show's first season, so he gets a role in a season two episode, "Let's Find Out." Naturally, he has a lot of fun playing a dickish Former Child Star. He's Bojack's competitor on a game show for charity, and trolls him by pretending not to know his name, calling him "Bojangles" and "Chadwick Boseman".
 * Jessica Biel is revealed to have a phobia about mummies in "Mr. Peanutbutter's Boos" and becomes a cultist.
 * Laura Linney is Diane's seatmate on a plane, because she's going to a location on set to film a riff on Eat, Pray, Love, the story of a divorced woman that travels to another country to find herself. Diane, , asks Laura how her movie goes. Laura cheerfully says that in the movie, she fights with and makes out with her clone.
 * The Alcoholic:
 * BoJack, BoJack, BoJack is this. Princess Carolyn rarely finds him sober when he wants to talk business. In "Escape From LA" he is so experienced with alcohol that he chides Penny's friends for bringing vodka and Red Bull to prom; he orders her to stop at a liquor store and pick up bourbon cut with water so they don't dehydrate.
 * Princess Carolyn briefly becomes this in season four following . Todd snaps her out of it by giving her one of her many Rousing Speeches to her, telling Princess Carolyn that she needs to "get [her] shit" together, using an analogy about the woods to explain things may be dark now but there is always a pathway to the light.
 * Artistic Licence: Both BoJack and are late delivering their memoirs on deadline. BoJack's inability to write even a coherent sentence motivates Pinky to hire him a ghostwriter. Most nonfiction books require a proposal submitted to an agent, including memoirs.
 * Byronic Hero: BoJack Horseman, and Mr. Peanutbutter calls him out for it in "Let's Find Out". He does have everything that a person would want -- a lifetime of royalties that allow him to live comfortably, a group of friends who have his back, and at times, true love. The problem is that BoJack never allows himself to be happy, and he has to sabotage himself and others. If on the rare occasion that BoJack doesn't do himself in, someone else does, and he allows it to sink him.
 * Deconstruction: The show takes a potshot at many tropes that occur in fiction:
 * Aesop Amnesia: In sitcoms, you can forget the lesson you learned and everyone will forgive you. Not-so-much in real life: your mistakes that have hurt people will traumatize them, and even your best friends aren't that forgiving.
 * Deliberate Values Dissonance:
 * "Escape to L.A." has Penny try to invoke this when hitting on BoJack. She points out that in most states she'd be a minor but New Mexico law considers her an adult. Everyone else, including BoJack himself, points out that's a messed-up way of thinking. Penny is still a child emotionally, and a teen to boot. When.
 * By the standards of the 1950s, Joseph Sugarman, Beatrice's father and BoJack's paternal grandfather, was a loving father. He worked hard to provide for his family, tried to secure what might have been a Perfectly Arranged Marriage for his daughter, and arranged for fun family vacations. But by modern standards? Joseph was physically and emotionally abusive. He gets his wife lobotomized after the trauma of losing their older son in World War II nearly causes her to kill Beatrice via car crash, and shakes her when due to said lobotomy, she didn't realize Beatrice had scarlet fever. Joseph burned Beatrice's things, including her doll, without explaining that they may have germs and that if she got emotional, she might end up like her mother. His only decent moment when Beatrice became an adult was grudgingly accepting her elopement with Butterscotch Horseman when Beatrice begged him to give her husband a job that would give them an upper-middle class lifestyle again, as raising a baby on a blue collar novelist income was harder than she thought.
 * Reality Ensues
 * BoJack often assumes that life will work out like a sitcom. It does not, and reality smacks him in the face:
 * During "Prickly Muffin," when he takes in Sarah Lynn, who played his fictional daughter Sabrina on Horsin' Around, he finds out that she's become a raging drug addict who stabs herself with a rusty bayonet after Andrew Garfield breaks up with her. Sarah Lynn also refuses to go to rehab. Remembering that he didn't take her to an amusement park when she asked if she could while they were filming, BoJack as an apology takes Sarah Lynn to the local amusement park, flies kites with her, and gifts her with the TV award that he said he would always want to give to his daughter. He then points at the sunset and shouts to roll the credits on this ending. Only problem: Sarah Lynn is now thirty, no longer three. She sells his TV award the next day for drug money; when BoJack confronts her about this, she has to point out that while she appreciated the gesture, she's no longer a child, he's not her father, and one day of fun can't solve her problems.
 * Horsin Around creator Herb got fired and blacklisted after being outed as a gay man, and BoJack was convinced by the show's executive producer Angela to not speak up in Herb's defense. When Sarah Lynn reveals that Herb has terminal cancer twenty years later, BoJack drums up the courage to call Herb, who gruffly invites him to his home for a day trip. Even though there's tension, they manage to have a civil visit, and Diane encourages BoJack to say anything he would regret not telling Herb. BoJack goes back inside and apologizes to Herb for not standing up for him, saying he feels bad. Herb shocks BoJack by telling him, "I don't forgive you." He says he had a good life, and doesn't regret being outed; what hurt more than BoJack standing by was that BoJack didn't even talk to him for twenty years. He needed a friend who wasn't there, and BoJack's apology is just to assuage guilt on the horse's part.
 * "The Shot" shows what happens when you try to defy Executive Meddling. BoJack has been cast in his dream role as Secretariat, disgraced runner who died by suicide after being blacklisted from racing. Producer Lenny Turtletaub opts to remove a scene BoJack finds important, of Secretariat making a Deal with the Devil with President Richard Nixon, to avoid going to Vietnam. Director Kelsey isn't happy about this, but she says it's not hers or BoJack's decision to show Secreteriat's Warts and All. BoJack convinces her if they film the scene and do it for the art, Turtletaub will be impressed by their dedication, and they break into the Nixon museum to get the titular shot. . While later Kelsey averts this trope in Season Six by, for a long time her reputation is tarnished because she listened to BoJack.
 * BoJack nursed a crush on Herb's ex Charlotte, who decided to leave for Maine to find a simple life when Horsin' Around got the greenlight. She expressed to BoJack that he was cowardly for not saying what he wanted. Later, at Herb's funeral, she reveals she moved to New Mexico and invites BoJack to visit, giving him a business card. When BoJack in "Yes And," he gets inspired to drive to New Mexico and profess his feelings for Charlotte. Then "Escape to L.A." starts; he shows up, and learns she has married, with two kids and a loving husband. As Charlotte lampshades at the end of "Escape to L.A.," after BoJack confesses he still has feelings for her, he actually thought she wouldn't change and find her own happiness, rather than pursue someone who was her ex's best friend?
 * There is also what happens with Charlotte's daughter Penny, who is a dead ringer for a younger Charlotte. She's thrilled that BoJack becomes her confidante and inadvertent driving teacher, even offering to take her to prom when her crush rejects her. BoJack humors Penny, up to the point where she kisses him. He breaks away, tells her she's seventeen so this is wrong, and he's too old for her so she doesn't know what she wants if she's hitting on him. . Several years later, Penny has realized how foolish her crush was, but also that . She develops bad PTSD and panic attacks on seeing him again because he tracked her down at Oberlin College to apologize, and still has mixed feelings about her prom night in season six when.
 * BoJack has sabotaged Todd's rock opera, dismissed his improv theater group, and been unsupportive. He then seems to redeem himself when rescuing Todd from the improv group after the latter learns his is in a cult. They mend their friendship. And then in season three, . Todd hits his Rage Breaking Point when he finds out, yelling at BoJack that he can't keep doing terrible things and thinking that an apology fixes that. He moves out that same day, and for the rest of the series doesn't exactly mend his friendship with BoJack. While he later admits that, Todd also says bluntly that BoJack violated his trust and doesn't know how to be a good person. BoJack himself monologues during "Free Churro" that saving Todd's life once and then betraying him later doesn't mean BoJack's grown as a person. Friendship requires putting in the work consistently.
 * Season five has BoJack start a relationship with his costar Gina on Philbert. When at first he teases her on learning she has a dream to star in a musical, he convinces her to do an impromptu singing audition for show creator Flip and producer Princess Carolyn. BoJack gives her a Rousing Speech that she needs to do this for her dream. Gina opens her mouth, takes. a deep breath... and rather than a showstopper, an off-key, okay rendition of one of her favorite musical songs comes out instead. She didn't practice for the audition after all. Flip and Princess Carolyn stare in shock, and Gina runs off apologizing. Princess Carolyn then admonishes BoJack for giving his new flame false hope.
 * The biggest one has to be in "Xerox of a Xerox". When a new story comes out with allegations that BoJack, BoJack and Princess Carolyn figure out that if they come ahead of the game and he apologizes on television, they can circumvent the scandal. It helps that BoJack is genuinely sorry, if a bit too concerned about how well his performed apology is rather than about the fact that , and he seems to be Easily Forgiven by Hollywoo when the interview airs. Then he does a second interview out of a foolish sense of egotism, and Biscuits Braxby.
 * Diane is a Wide-Eyed Idealist, which gets her in trouble:
 * Rather than ghostwrite BoJack's memoirs, she writes a biography called One Trick Pony and expects BoJack will love it because of how good it is. BoJack instead is hurt and embarrassed; she put in many embarrassing anecdotes and included the "warts" without the "and all" that she promised. When he demands her to fix it, she leaks two chapters on BuzzFeed instead; because she violated the terms of her ghostwriting contract by doing that, he fires her. Pinky in the next episode admits that Diane should be in legal trouble for that set of shenanigans. Diane takes a while to understand that in addition to breaking her contract, she violated a friend's trust.
 * Todd ropes her into a Zany Scheme to rescue a sapient chicken he names "Becca" from Chicken4Dayz. Diane eventually realizes this is cool and righteous, allowing her to stick it to corporate cruelty. Right? Wrong; the cops arrest her, Todd, and their "crony" Kelsey's daughter Irving for trespassing and robbery once catching them with Becca in tow.
 * "Hank after Dark" has this Played for Drama. Diane gets involved in a crusade to bring down a talk show host named Hank, after there are allegations that he was abusing his secretaries. There's no proof, however, and none of his victims are willing to speak up because Hank can ruin them further. A news editor interested in the story says that it's one thing if they had proof, but without any, the allegations just become hearsay; most publications refuse to run the accusations for that reason, and because Hank's employer companies have connections to the news. BoJack realizes This Is Gonna Suck, which shows how serious it is that the most Wrong Genre Savvy character can see the writing on the wall; he tells Diane This Is Reality, not a biopic, and she should let it go before this campaign ruins her. Her husband Mr. Peanutbutter says the same thing because Hank praised the new show he's on, and she's been getting death threats in the mail. Diane persists, convinced that if one person stands up to Hank, she can bring up to justice. Nope; Hank lures her to a parking lot using one of his secretaries as bait, and gives her The Reason You Suck Speech, asserting he is too valuable to be discredited. Diane has to fly to another country to let the heat die down. It's for this reason that
 * "The Dog Days Are Over": Diane writes for GirlCroosh about traveling to Vietnam, . She thinks that doing this will make her feel whole again after Unfortunately, real life is not a movie;.
 * "Good Damage" has Diane attempt to go off.
 * Sarah Lynn's arc tragically ends this way. She's been a raging drug addict and alcoholic for years to cope with the pressures of being a Former Child Star, able to consume a large amount of hallucinogens and stimulants; most are supplied by her pediatrician Dr. Hu, whom BoJack is surprised to learn actually has that name. Season three has to go into rehab to regain the buzz, since they're starting to ebb with the amount that she takes. She manages nine months but tells BoJack to call her when he's ready to party. . Season five has Dr. Hu reveal that offscreen he went My God, What Have I Done? because.
 * Season five has Todd, as part of a Zany Scheme courtesy of BoJack trying to influence Philbert, apply to be a janitor at whattimeisitrightnow.com. Owing to his impressive resume, he's given the title "head of marketing" instead. While at first it's Played for Laughs, the season looks into the ramifications of Todd becoming a boss to BoJack, Princess Carolyn, and Diane who joins Philbert as producer and writer at BoJack's request. He's forced to become a Reasonable Authority Figure following a Jerkass Realization accusations about Princess Carolyn taking his string cheese cause a feud between them since she needs an office, especially when she points out he's living rent-free in her apartment.
 * This Is Reality:
 * "The Stopped Show" has Gina say this rather bitterly. She's mad at BoJack for . While he is prepared to confess on live camera, she tells him she doesn't want that.
 * In "Good Damage," Charlotte tells Penny this when Penny considers.