In my opinion, Bojack Horseman is one of the best Netflix productions ever: You follow around the protagonist Bojack Horseman, famous “Hollywoo” actor in his early 50s who tries to cope with his life and struggles with depression and drug addiction, and his friends that constantly seem to annoy him. Sounds depressing, and this sharp satire of Hollywood indeed has its very serious moments, but besides that, it also has many funny and profound moments and dialogues. Here are four reasons why you should watch it.
1. Everyone is unique and nobody bothers talking about differences.
Everyone in a society is unique – and Bojack Horseman takes it to the extreme. The people in this series are either completely human or human-animal hybrids: the body usually resembles that of a human and the head looks like that of an animal. The “animal” characteristics often show through. The cool thing is that this is completely normal for everyone and no one addresses these differences or regards them as a basis for discrimination. So it is quite normal that Bojack, portrayed as a horse neighing while sleeping, has a relationship with the cat Princess Carolyn. Or there is Mr. Peanutbutter, probably the happiest and most annoying Labrador in Hollywoo, who jumps up when the doorbell rings and becomes quite restless when the postman comes. The special characteristics of the individual characters create extremely amusing dialogues and relationships.
Photo: Netflix, Bojack Horseman S03E08. Mr. Peanutbutter and his brother Captain Peanutbutter sticking out their tongues while on their way to the Labrador Peninsula, where „nothing bad ever happens“. Yes, the producers of the series often play around with stereotypes: of course, nothing bad could ever happen in Canada, which is referred to here as the Labrador Peninsula (pun intended.)
Photo: Netflix, Bojack Horseman S04E10. Just two seagulls flocking around the table as soon as this man gets his food.
2. There are plenty of scenes that will make you question love, family, and life.
One of the major strengths of this series, in my opinion, can be found in the many scenes in which Bojack and his friends have deep conversations about topics such as love, family life, relationships, and their struggles in general. Particularly Diane Nguyen, Mr. Peanutbutter’s girlfriend who is one of the more politically interested and intelligent characters of the series, or Wanda Pierce, owl and short-term girlfriend of Bojack Horseman who fell into a coma in the 80s and just recently woke up so that everything is entirely new and exciting to her, as well as Bojack himself, have very thought-provoking and disquieting quotes. Bojack Horseman is definitely not a shallow series.
Photo: Netflix, Bojack Horseman S02E10. Bojack and Wanda questioning their relationship, which started out so well and quite quickly turned out to be bad for both of them.
3. The real-life references are just priceless.
What is also extremely entertaining about this series is that there are so many real-life references in it. I think the producers did a really good job including celebrity and pop culture cameos and making fun of many real Hollywood celebrities, such as “Bread Poot”, “Lernernerner DiCapricorn”, and “Jurj Clooners”.
Photo: Netflix, Bojack Horseman S03E06. The Oscar nominees for best actor kind of all look alike… except for Bojack.
Photo: Netflix, Bojack Horseman S01E11. Truman Capote (at the right-hand end of the table) at the Ghost Writer Convention panel. He has been famously rumored to be the author of Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird. Oh, and Pinky Penguin is the former owner of the Penguin Publishing house – I guess that goes without saying.
4. Many important topics such as feminism and the depiction of events in media and news are addressed.
There are many instances in Bojack Horseman in which highly relevant social topics are addressed, for example when Diane asks herself if she is ready to have a baby even if she is married and in a financially stable situation, or when Princess Carolyn decides to adopt a baby and raise it as a single woman. Furthermore, problems in society such as substance abuse, gun violence, and media bias are also very much criticized.
Photo: Netflix, Bojack Horseman S03E06. Here, news anchor Tom Jumbo-Grumbo at MSNBSea wants to talk about abortion with this extremely diverse panel of white men. The criticism is pretty obvious.
All in all, I can say that Bojack Horseman is one of the most entertaining and thought-provoking adult animated series on the Internet. Give it a try, you will not be disappointed!
