In 5 To Watch, writers from The A.V. Club look at the latest streaming TV arrivals, each making the case for a favored episode. Alternately, they can offer up recommendations inspired by a theme. In this installment: With BoJack Horseman ending this week, The A.V. Club digs into the episodes that gave each of the main characters their own spotlight, and paved the way for the finale.
First, a disclaimer: We are not attempting to single out the five best episodes of BoJack Horseman, nor even rank all of the episodes. We’d be here all week, and there are still eight episodes in season six left to watch. Instead, to prepare ourselves for heartbreak (or a hooray!), The A.V. Club’s resident BoJack fans have selected spotlight episodes for each of the show’s five main characters. These are the episodes we feel capture a pivotal moment in their development, as well as set them up for the denouement.
BoJack Horseman: “Escape From L.A.,” season two, episode 11
The most brutal episodes of BoJack Horseman play almost like horror movies, as we wait for its title character’s perpetual self-sabotaging to finally kick in and wreck everything good around him yet again. The monster-movie metaphor gets very literal in the closing moments of “Escape From L.A.”: In a hesitant POV shot, Olivia Wilde’s Charlotte approaches the door to her old friend BoJack Horseman’s bedroom, strings on the soundtrack keening as she gets closer to seeing exactly what she dreads she’ll find inside: The latest betrayal since the last one, and a confirmation that BoJack Horseman is always exactly who we (and he) worried that he was. BoJack’s decision to have sex with Charlotte’s 17-year-old daughter, Penny—whether out of spite for her mother’s romantic rejection of him just a few minutes earlier, nihilistic pleasure seeking, or just his lifelong inability to untangle affection from love or lust—is the moment when BoJack Horseman finally and fully drops the façade that this is a show about an essentially good person working his way through his problems. No matter how much self-acceptance and healing BoJack Horseman does years after the fact, he will still also have done this: infiltrated a family, accepted their love and friendship with false pretenses and open arms, then, when that wasn’t enough to fill the void inside him, begun the steady and insidious process of betraying their trust in him in pursuit of more. When circling around this moment in later seasons, Will Arnett’s BoJack will have plenty of words, justifications, regrets. But in the moment, he’s very nearly silent: Arnett instead makes way for Wilde to give one of the series’ all-time-great line readings. “If you ever try to contact me, or my family again, I will fucking kill you” is terrifying precisely because it’s not a threat—it’s a calm statement of fact, one more bridge to BoJack Horseman being burnt for the safety and health of everyone still surviving on the other side. [William Hughes]
Diane Nguyen: “Hank After Dark,” season two, episode seven
The most affecting Diane-centric episode of BoJack Horseman is obviously “The Dog Days Are Over” from season five, but “Hank After Dark” is possibly more pivotal to the character’s overall arc. Audiences and most of the characters have long seen Diane as the moral compass for the show, and she spends the first half of season two trying her damnedest to point true north. In “Hank After Dark,” Diane and BoJack set out on a book tour for One Trick Pony, the memoir/compromise to come out of all their time spent together in season one. Princess Carolyn lays out their strategy: Stick to talking about the book, lest BoJack offend anyone. Miraculously, he manages to avoid putting a hoof in his mouth; Diane, however, ends up wading into choppy waters. When asked if she worried the candidness of the memoir would derail BoJack’s career, Diane responds with a list of powerful men (real and fictional) in the entertainment industry who keep finding work despite allegations of abuse. Among them is Hank Hippopopalous (Philip Baker Hall), a beloved entertainer and Mr. Peanutbutter’s (Paul F. Tompkins) idol. Diane ends up on the news, where she takes everyone, including journalists who euphemize allegations when they’re not just ignoring them, to task for their part in enabling abusers. Spurred on by Princess Carolyn, she tries to write an exposé on “Uncle Hanky,” only to be thwarted by business interests and Hank himself, who tricks her into meeting with him. What makes this such a wrenching and crucial episode for Diane is the parallels we can draw from Hank to BoJack; the hippopotamus’ insistence that he’s “not a bad guy” echoes BoJack’s own protestations. In her attempts to effect change from within it, Diane became more compromised, more entangled in that culture of inequity. But as the show nears its end, we can also see how she tried to find her way back out of the quagmire. [Danette Chavez]
Princess Carolyn: “Ruthie,” season four, episode nine
The women of BoJack Horseman work much harder than the men as a rule, and Princess Carolyn (Amy Sedaris) is a prime example. She is indefatigable as she knocks herself out for clients like BoJack and Mr. Peanutbutter, trying to carve out a career for herself in the fierce jungle of Hollywoo, usually receiving very little in return. And Princess Carolyn also has dreams that go past her career, toward becoming a mother someday. In season four’s “Ruthie,” we learn just how much Princess Carolyn wants that future, as her great-great-great-granddaughter Ruthie (Kristin Bell at her perkiest) gives a presentation to her grade-school class about her ancestor Princess Carolyn’s worst day ever. She dumps coffee on her outfit, breaks her favorite necklace, learns it is not a priceless heirloom but a piece of costume jewelry, and fires her beloved assistant, Judah. Worst of all, Princess Carolyn learns that she’s miscarried. Again. Her dinner with boyfriend Ralph as a string of “Miss Carrie”s stroll in (Underwood; Mulligan; Mariah, last name Carey) is straight-up brutal. As devastating as it is to watch one of BoJack Horseman’s strongest characters seemingly get destroyed, the spunky Ruthie assures her confused teacher and class (and audience) that we’re headed toward a happy ending. But that ending in fact turns out to be a total gut punch: Princess Carolyn ends her horrible day by telling BoJack that Ruthie is an invention of her own design, to assure herself that everything eventually is going to be okay. Even the constantly self-delusional BoJack calls that out as “not real,” and we are crushed because we totally bought into it as well. Princess Carolyn’s eventual happy ending is nothing but a fantasy, but it’s one that keeps her going through imaginably tough times. We end up having more respect for the steely Princess Carolyn than we even did before, and Sedaris’ performance is, as always, absolutely flawless. [Gwen Ihnat]
Todd Chavez: “Hooray! Todd Episode!,” season four, episode three
“I never know if I can handle anything! That’s what makes my life so exciting.” Todd Chavez has grown up quite a bit on BoJack—he started off a couch-surfing slacker, then drifted from one improbably prestigious job to the next (R.I.P. WhatTimeIsItRightNow.com). But in the midst of all those “silly Todd adventures,” he became more nurturing than anyone else, even stepping in to help Princess Carolyn with Ruthie, née Untitled Princess Carolyn Project, early in season six. This caring side first shone through in “Hooray! Todd Episode!,” which is full of the usual Todd-dos, but gradually builds to a moving revelation about his asexuality. Todd dashes all over Los Angeles to help his friends, including new addition Hollyhock (Aparna Nancherla); he even agrees to pose as the boyfriend-turned-fiancé of one of Princess Carolyn’s clients. The dynamics in these relationships shift throughout, as he grows closer to Diane—commending her on her journalistic integrity—and works through his feelings with BoJack. Todd is angry at his old horse pal for sleeping with his friend Emily (Abbi Jacobson), and he tells him so, refusing to let BoJack deflect by spiraling into self-pity. Todd’s selflessness throughout and recognition of BoJack’s patterns point to his own maturation, which gets another boost when he confirms aloud that he’s asexual. It’s a sweet and significant moment, both for the character and the show. “Hooray! Todd Episode!” speaks to the different kinds of relationships in Todd’s life, and how fulfilling he finds them. The episode also sets him on a path to making a life for himself, one he learns to be proud of even in the face of his exacting stepfather Jorge Chavez (Jaime Camil), who showed up at the beginning of season six. Todd’s pursuit of happiness doesn’t resemble anyone else’s, but it’s just as valid. [Danette Chavez]
Mr. Peanutbutter: “Mr. Peanutbutter’s Boos,” season five, episode eight
Mr. Peanutbutter is certainly clueless—a perfect BoJack example of how men tend to fall upward—but he’s also one of the rare BoJack characters focused on affection over ambition. Like the rest of his species, Mr. Peanutbutter just wants to be loved, but as his string of ex-wives proves, he has a hard time achieving that particular goal. The season-five episode “Mr. Peanutbutter’s Boos” perfectly outlines Mr. PB’s romance troubles, flashing back to four separate Halloween parties, one for each wife as well as his current relationship, Pickles. Each time, Mr. Peanutbutter is certain that he and his date are headed out for the best party ever, and each time, the party ends in disaster. Some, granted, are not Mr. Peanutbutter’s fault: How could he have known that BoJack was going to craft a last-minute mummy costume, leading to trauma for his then-wife Jessica Biel? But PB’s tendency to rock the party, leaving his date to fend for herself, unfailingly leads to a public spat and a damaged relationship. Pointedly, it’s not a lesson he ever learns even over 25 years, as the episode deftly travels from 1993 to 2018, using varying palettes, as well as costumes and hairstyles (like Princess Caroline’s spot-on 1990s Friends cut, or squeaky-voiced 13-year-old Todd) to help differentiate between shindigs. By 2018, it finally dawns on even the big-hearted but thick-headed Mr. Peanutbutter that the common denominator in all of this relationship failure is himself. But it takes the specific insight of third wife Diane to point out that the real trouble may be his tendency to date much younger women, who eventually grow up while he stays the same (cue sneakily brilliant Dazed And Confused reference). Whether Mr. Peanutbutter will actually learn this lesson to make his relationship with Pickles work remains to be seen, but at least now he knows what the problem is. [Gwen Ihnat]
Les Chappell’s binge recaps of the final eight episodes of BoJack Horseman will begin Friday, January 31.
51 Comments
Between this and the Good Place, going to shed a lot of tears this weekend.
No matter how much self-acceptance and healing BoJack Horseman does years after the fact, he will still also have done this: infiltrated a family, accepted their love and friendship with false pretenses and open arms, then, when that wasn’t enough to fill the void inside him, begun the steady and insidious process of betraying their trust in him in pursuit of more. Re-watched this last night. Never gets less effective.
I’m going to miss this show so much, and I can already tell because I’m up bingeing my favourite episodes when I should goddamn be asleepI gotta say, speaking of The Dog Days Are Over, I wasn’t a fan of that episode much when it first aired but it’s grown into my clear favourite from the somewhat choppy and messy Season 5. It has both the peak variation of a longtime recurring joke in the show – “ERICA, WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE WITH A CHILD-SIZED COFFIN?” – and one of its most haunting, utterly gutting moments in that final image where Diane stands still while the background around her changes
My favorite bit from that episode is the brick “joke” of Princess Carolyn wearing the same increasingly ragged Amelia Earhart costume every year.
No faulting these choices, but an alternate list:“The Amelia Earhart Story” for PC – although the structure is more generic than “Ruthie”, I still feel like it does a great job of elucidating a character we know well without anything coming out of left field.
“Feel-Good Story” for Diane – a good examination of how Diane’s own brand of self-destruction both does and doesn’t parallel Bojack’s.“It’s You” as a kind of stealth Todd episode, recognizing that he is maybe actually the real moral center of this show.“Surprise!” for Mr. Peanutbutter, a sort of extension of “Mr. Peanutbutter’s Boos” but with the added bonus of being really really funny.Obviously a lot to choose from with Bojack himself, I’ll go with “That Went Well”.
Surprise! was goddamn excellent. maybe one of my favourite episodes of the show, I love how each main character got their due and a chance to evolve within such a slapstick-y premise. so good
Gosh it’s so hard to choose with this show. The writers clearly care about their characters, and it shows when each main character has several excellent episodes centered on them.I think my Mr. Peanutbutter episode has to be “Let’s Find Out.” Maybe the first episode where we see the cracks in Mr. Peanutbutter’s lovable doofus personality and realize there’s a lot more going on with him? Of the five main characters, he’s the last one most viewers expect to cause dramatic tension, but this episode upends that.
Oh yeah, that’s a good one.
Oh, God. RuthieI don’t need to ever watch that episode again because I remember every fucking, heart-punching moment of it.
And yes, Amy Sedaris just killed it.
PC and Amy are the heart of the show. She’s the only character I’m rooting for to escape unscathed.
I’m not gonna deny, while I’ve peeked at it from the outside from time to time, I haven’t actually watched any of the show since season 4 because “Ruthie” just hurt too much. Not even clips. That one just crushed me.
Not saying you’re wrong, but Bojack’s defining character moment being the time he commits statutory rape is… woof. Does not reflect well on the guy.
I don’t think anyone can ever forgive BoJack for that moment but if Hollyhock does, indeed, find out about it in the coming episodes, that’s too much, man.
Yeah kinda feels like they maybe went all-in too quickly? All subsequent episode 11 nadirs have kinda felt a little blunted because there’s not much lower he could go from here. It’s easier to forgive the shitty things Bojack has done in seasons 3+ because we already moved past him doing this thing that even the writers acknowledge is his true moral low point.
I don’t know, I’d say the episode where he urges the in-recovery Sarah Lynne to go on a bender with him that ends with her overdosing and dying is a pretty huge one.
I think the difference, for me, is intent. Bojack is responsible for Sarah-Lynn’s death, but he didn’t kill her, at least not literally. The bad things that happened to Sarah-Lynn (and Gina) are unforeseen consequences of Bojack’s drug use, not because he actively wanted to hurt them. Penny’s trauma was his choice.
He doesn’t commit rape and legal age of consent in NM is 17. Just sayin’ I think it’s really important because it that grey area that allows Bojack to forgive himself when we all know those are details of marginal import. He doesn’t get that not all ethics are reflected in law.
A crushing part of the episode that does not get talked about enough is the brilliant use of the theme music in Escape From LA. That is the only episode I remember that does not open with the regular theme song. The absence of that seems to hint that this could be a new, positive change for Bojack. It is evidence that emotionally he is in an entirely new place.Then, after Charlotte slams that door and Bojack is again left alone, that discordant opening music slowly creeps in, underscoring that because of his own actions Bojack is in the same place he always was: isolated and miserable. That opening music always sets a heartbreaking tone, playing while Bojack’s eyes pop open with a look of despair at having to deal with the day ahead. The absence of that until the end of Escape is pretty brutal-like there was a shot at redemption until Bojack’s horrible actions threw it away. The return of the music at the conclusion really emphasizes his horrific failure.I do not say this to remove the focus from Penny and her family, who are the real victims here (like so many others that Bojack has hurt with his actions). But, to the extent we viewers are invested in Bojack’s journey to try to be a better person, the slow creep of that same old music was a pretty big gut punch. Bojack Horseman is a really great show.
Never thought of that — great point.
That’s the idea. For all his ups and downs, Bojack is not, “deep down”, a good person. As we’ve gotten to know him better over the course of the show, this has become clearer. It’s one of the reasons why the scene where he begs Diane to tell him he’s a good person is so heartbreaking. Diane can’t tell him what he wants to hear, even though she’s his friend, because she knows as well as we do that it’s not true.
A lot of bad stuff happens on this show, but Hank After Dark is downright painful to watch, I have to hold onto the Todd subplot for dear life to make it through.
It is a brutal episode… and in a way even more brutal than episodes like “Escape from LA,” because it was about something that was playing out at that very moment in the real world… and got far, far worse. It’s a powerful episode that sadly has remained powerful.
“Escape from L.A.” at least has a character realise they’ve done something horrible and try to accept that. Hank is a monster who has absolutely no qualms about what he’s done.
I agree with you about the Todd subplot, but that’s a funny thing to say given what actually happens there. Which of course is part of the commentary on how shit the media is.
Guys, earlier, some general asked me if it was “a go” on “that thing that we talked about”? And I said, “Yes.” And he said, “God help us all” and left the room. Now I’m not sure that was the right answer.
Is it too on the nose to say this is a real Trojan Horse of a show? Yes? Ok. But I know more than one person who had to stop watching at some point because the emotional toll was too high. We’re talking about a comedic cartoon about a talking horse who is sad. It just so happens to be an emotional tour de force.
You’re right, but it sadly works against the show, at least as far as people actually watching it. It’s still kind of hard to get any of my friends to stick with this show in spite of its near universal acclaim. It’s just those first 6 episodes. I actually like those episodes, but they are so wildly different in tone, more like an Adult Swim animated show or something.
I had to take a break after Free Churro. Not because I’ve lost a parent, but the way he reckons with his own past was brutal given some of the times I’ve struggled with my own family.
If you wanted a definitive episode for BoJack that doesn’t centre on him almost raping a girl, “Free Churro” would be my pick. You get to hear about BoJack’s trauma in his own words, and get a sense of how he’s just resigned to a lot of it. It’s also an episode-long testament to Will Arnett’s talent, not just as BoJack but also as Butterscotch.
I get there’s a certain… tumblr/twitter segment that preaches this show like the second coming of rick sanchez…. but I just have little to no interest in it.I don’t know why, it just does nothing for me.It does less than family guy and family guy is basically background pointlessness to help me fold laundry.
This list makes me want to re-watch the whole series from scratch ahead of tomorrow’s finale dropping, but that’s, what, 34 hours of BoJack? And I don’t know if I’d be in the right mental state to brave new emotionally distressing territory after watching all the 11th episodes and Free Churro and the S6E8 summary of BoJack’s greatest moral failings. And this must be a day-one watch, because the only thing that could wreck my shit more than 38 hours of BoJack in one weekend is the last 4 hours being spoiled for me.
After putting it off for… well, its entire run, I started binge-watching it because I wasn’t aware only HALF of the last season had dropped. This show is not an appropriate show for binge watching, and comes built-in with some roadblocks that punch you so hard there’s no way you’re moving on to the next episode until you’ve had some recovery time and ice cream.
Yeah, I joined the ride like two weeks before season 4 released, and even with half as many episodes to get through, I had to pump the brakes quite a bit to get through. If I’d really planned my month around slowly working through the show’s entire run, I could’ve paced myself to be just the right amount of refreshed and depressed for today, but at this point, I guess jumping into episode 9 cold is the right play.
Such a great show.
“Mr. Peanutbutter’s Boos” is probably my favorite episode of the show, because it did something remarkable; it made me hate Mr. Peanutbutter.
That’s not to say I dislike him as a character, think he’s badly written, or badly acted. I actually find him fascinating. But that episode and everything he’s done since then made me find him really loathsome, possibly more-so than Bojack, since Peanutbutter won’t even admit he has a problem. And what’s interesting is that you can’t call it character derailment like with other shows. Mr. Peanutbutter is the same as he’s always been. I’m just seeing it in a different light now.
Mr. Peanutbutter is nice, but that does not equate good.
His gubernatorial race didn’t do that for you? But I agree with your general assessment.
It recontextualises a lot of what we’ve seen of Mr Peanutbutter before. I remember some people in the comments here defending him when he gave Diane the library of her dreams, saying he’d done a really nice thing. But I think by the time of “Mr Peanutbutter’s Boos” you can really see how thoughtless he is, even in the moments when he does something “nice”. He wants everything to be happy and romantic, but doesn’t engage with what his partners actually want.
Oh my god the comment section to that episode made me realise how many clueless Mr. Peanutbutters there are out there.
I think Mr. Peanutbutter is the personification of something Diane says in the Hank episode, about how nobody believes he’s capable of bad things because he acts like such a nice guy. (It’s telling that Mr. Peanutbutter was a huge Hank fan before the episode.)Despite being a cartoon show about talking animals, Bojack Horseman is one of the most realistic TV shows I’ve ever seen from a character perspective. Nobody is perfect, nobody is universally good (least of all our “protagonist”) and nothing gets a neat and tidy ending. Even those with the purest of intentions get themselves into trouble sometimes (who knows how many people have gotten severe concussions at “Halloween In January” by this point).
Yeah, you come out of it thinking “Who’s that dog?”
Mr Peanutbutter is the embodiment of the Into the Woods line “You’re not good, your not bad, you’re just nice” and highlights why that’s a problem. If all you are is nice, then you aren’t really engaging with people or the world, you’re just behaving how you want and ignoring any damage it causes, because you were “nice” while you did it.
i have tried so many times to get into this show and i just can’t. it seems like everything i should enjoy smushed together into one thing but i can barely finish an episode.i can’t even really put my finger on what it is that turns me off from this show. i dig cartoons that blend comedy and drama. i love stupid animal puns. and amy sedaris and will arnett and aaron paul. maybe it’s the way the scenes are made? that static, side scrolling display…the show feels very flat? i think maybe i wasn’t a fan of ugly americans for a similar reason, but even that show did some forced perspective on occasion. bojack is just so devoid of aesthetic hooks. there’s just a lot of downtime and a lot of misery and a lot of bright, ugly art.
I don’t think the animation is a draw in and of itself – for the most part, I find it a functional medium to get across both a lot of humor and a lot of plot and character development. I’m not sure what you mean by “a lot of downtime”, unless you’re still on the first few episodes.If the art puts you off it, fair enough – but if not, I might suggest trying the season 3 episode Fish Out Of Water, which has only mild spoilers, as a one-off.
the conversations drag on. i would call that downtime. and a lot of the big wide shots are so cluttered that i just don’t pay attention to them. lots of depression horse, anxious cat, dumb dog….repetitive. not enough todd.also some of the interstitial gags – the whale TV anchor, the jabs at hollywood, the ‘cameos’, they really don’t work for me. and when things do pick up momentum, it’s still like…a horse girl talking to a horse man about drug abuse, and they barely move the whole time cause it’s all done in flash. lots of nervous arm rubbing.the show just wears on me. i feel like it’s trying to punish me for wanting to watch a cartoon full of goofy animals and stupid puns by making the back story relentlessly annoying and depressing. it reminds me of watching the where the wild things are movie. like is this tv show trying some ‘tough love’ shit right now? is it trolling me?
I think you may just not be the target audience, which is perfectly fine. Bojack certainly isn’t for everyone. It’s very much based around the idea of ultra-realistic, complex, flawed human characters who evolve over time, rather than the usual TV format of returning to the same happy, normal life at the end of every episode or season (with one of the most meta elements being that some of the most human characters on TV are cartoon animals). It’s a TV show that tries to avoid feeling like one, and I think it mostly succeeds, but it’s not a feel-good show by any stretch of the imagination. The animals, puns and Todd all help soften the blow of the big emotional gut punches, but if you just want to laugh, Bojack may not be the show you’re looking for.
i don’t think that’s it. i like realistic flawed characters who change over time and i like when they’re in cartoons. i like rick and morty, futurama, tuca and bertie, avatar, daria, mission hill. but those shows have different tones. they’re confident about their capacity to tell funny stories in the larger context of an indifferent or cruel universe. they have characters with spines, who tell jokes that land and preserve their spirit. it takes risk to make things like that funny. it’s easy to just be depressing. bojack is the opposite of those cartoons – it lures you in with this colorful, absurd, lighthearted cartoon world and then tells these fucking depressing stories where the characters’ narcissism is the only perspective. it feels like a ‘serious and gritty’ fanfiction companion piece of a better show we never got to actually see.
Maybe if what you’re looking for is a goofy show with animal puns, then BoJack is just not for you, because while it is that, its secondary, the reality of the characters’ emotional lives are the show’s focus.
maybe they should blend those elements better. or idk maybe you’re right and the wire would have been better if jimmy was a talking chicken cop named McMolty
This is a great selection, though I might have gone with “Stupid Piece of Sh*t” for BoJack’s episode. What I love about the show is that they take the time to dig into other characters and make them real as well. “That’s Too Much Man” gives us a lot of depth for Sarah Lynne, and “Time’s Arrow” is a devastating but amazing episode for Beatrice Horseman.
Excellent choice of Princess Carolyn episodes, though Say Anything (Season 1 ep 7) marks the exact moment the show crystallized as something really worth watching for me
She’s not a main character but the episode from season 4 “The Old Sugarman Place” a character study of Beatrice Horseman is my favorite of the series. It’s an incredibly crafted episode of television.
The real question at the end is how many of Bojack’s friends and family will he completely drive away before Margo Martindale kills him.