By Connor Devlin
BoJack Horseman: “Life is a series of closing doors, isn’t it?”
Genre: Drama, Comedy, Animation
Length: 13 Episodes (25 Minutes)
Available On: Netflix
In recent times, adult animation has been frequent, and dull. Shows like “Family Guy” and “The Simpsons” have been slowly going downhill, better shows like “Bob’s Burgers” are beautifully progressing, but almost everything else has flopped.
However, in this slew of unoriginality and dull pilots spouts the Netflix original, “BoJack Horseman”. The show takes place in a quirky universe where animals and humans walk and talk alike. The show centers around a horse-man named BoJack Horseman (voiced by Will Arnett), a washed up ex-celebrity. BoJack is an arrogant, self-centered, depressed, alcoholic, narcissistic character, who has a bad attitude about everything, everywhere, all the time. However, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
The show gets off to an almost horrendous start. Using messy and formulaic jokes—the pilot being the biggest offender—the series has a bland first couple episodes. This is a deal-breaker for some. But looking deeper, by the end of the first couple episodes, there seems to be something else there. It seems that when the show started, the writers wanted to make a raunchy comedy show with a continuous plotline. However, this show just doesn’t seem to work like this.
Later in the show, the writers find their voice, creating a drama with some elements of comedy: a dramedy, if you will. With the constantly developing characters and clever plot, the genre of drama works extraordinarily well. The last few episodes of the first season are what made “BoJack Horseman” a star.
The show touches on some serious issues (depression, homophobia, substance abuse, unrequited love, manipulation, maturity, etc.) but doesn’t really attempt to fix any of them within the characters, which makes it interesting.
As the series progresses, the characters develop into real, fully fleshed out characters. For an animated show about a talking horse, there’s something so real about the story that makes it astoundingly beautiful and unique.
Overall, this series starts out slow, predictable, and drawling, but picks up as soon as the writers fully realize where the show has the most potential. The show boasts some extraordinarily powerful moments and interesting, enticing characters.
The first season of “Bojack Horseman” is available exclusively on Netflix to stream, and has been confirmed for a second season. I give this show an 8.5/10.