BoJack is sponsored but not content as things get worse on BoJack Horseman
TV Reviews BoJack Horseman
“They will see you as a rude dude saying all the things polite society is too limp-dicked to say. This is your way back in. This is how you get your love back.”
Looking back over the life of BoJack Horseman, it’s clear that one of the greatest keys to its success was how it allowed itself to grow into a true ensemble show. Starting ostensibly as a show about this egotistical former TV star and a wacky cast of supporting friends and co-workers, it shed the “supporting” label as time went on, grown into being a show about five distinct individuals trying to make their way in the heartless and nonsensical world of Hollywoo. BoJack, Diane, Princess Carolyn, Todd, and Mr. Peanutbutter could go on their own adventures and not need more than one other person to join them—and as time went on, not even that one. And more importantly, it never contrived excuses to keep its cast together, allowing relationships to change, grow, and even conclude.
That commitment is even more apparent in the final season, chiefly because it’s clear that there’s not much reason for the rest of the cast to be around BoJack anymore. After weathering one too many vengeful schemes, narcissistic outbursts, and just plain awful actions, they have their own lives to lead now and can’t put things on hold for BoJack. And it couldn’t come at a worse time. Even after plenty of times being alone, “The Horny Unicorn” is where it feels truly lonely to be BoJack Horseman, everyone else’s life going up while his is heading to another rock bottom. When your life takes you to a point that bad boy/Forgivee recipient/all-around piece of shit Vance Waggoner is the only one willing to take your phone calls, things are clearly not heading in the right direction.
“The Horny Unicorn” gives us one of BoJack Horseman’s occasional time jumps, picking up a few months since BoJack gave his disastrous second interview and appeared to the whole world as an uncaring creep. It’s a smart narrative move to get us past the explosion and to the lingering fallout, and it has truly lingered. Sarah Lynn’s parents hit him with a $5 million wrongful death settlement and Xerox is suing him for $100 million for using their name in the interview, so his house gets sold from right under him to cover legal fees. The dean’s offer to return to Wesleyan was obviously withdrawn and Hollyhock’s not returning his voicemails. The best job he can get is as Corpse #4 on Birthday Dad, and the most media exposure he gets is a punchline on Full Frontal with Samantha Bee. (If I ever established an Achievement in Real-World Animal Celebrities category, this would be a no-contest win.) Even his AA meetings aren’t safe spaces, as outing a fellow attendee as a drunk by name on national television isn’t going to win you any friends.
BoJack’s not entirely without resources in this instance, though those resources are coming without any feeling of long-term support. Princess Carolyn, while willing to point BoJack toward a job and a place to live, can’t even work up an optimistic tone for his long-term prospects and spends more time working with productive clients like Diane and Mr. Peanutbutter. And as thrilled as Mr. Peanutbutter is to have a roommate, he’s taking his work on Birthday Dad even more seriously than when he asked what Hollywoo celebrities knew and if they knew things, rushing through breakfast to get to set and passing up dinner with BoJack to shoot his additional scenes. (More damningly, he can’t even work up a crossover episode joke in what feels like the perfect opening for one.) Neither of them seem to feel obligated, but taking care of BoJack is now just one of twenty things to do in the day, and consequently that’s all the time that they can spare.
And while BoJack has fallen, his former roommate and best friend has risen. Speaking of going back to the beginning, it’s almost jarring to look back at the first season and see where Todd was, and where he’s gotten to now. At this point in BoJack Horseman Todd’s managed to complete almost every step in his personal journey, and all of them are taken to another level in this episode. He’s taken caring for Ruthie to running a daycare at VIM. He’s comfortable in his sexuality, and has now has a partner who’s eager to participate in his trademark “Has this ever happened to you?” pitches. And most significantly, after living on the couch of every other main character, he’s finally moved into his own apartment.
But Todd hasn’t fully cleared up every point in his life, with the first half of the season finally exploring the reasons why Todd had to move onto BoJack’s couch in the first place: a mother who threw him out and can’t bring herself to face him again. Parental issues and damage are an important part of the BoJack mosaic, so adding this to Todd’s character is a late development but one that feels of a piece with his development and its arrested nature. Trying to solve it gives us something that’s been missing in this last batch of episodes, a good old-fashioned elaborate Todd scheme—so old-fashioned in fact that Judah can put the whole thing together without batting an eye. It remains a charming sign that despite coming a long way Todd hasn’t grown up entirely, his ideas of responsible adult small talk including “Sir, you cannot remove your shoes inside this Applebee’s.”
While it’s all fun and games putting the party together, that levity cracks once BoJack tries to invite himself over, and it becomes clear how much Todd has outgrown his old friend. Amy Schwartz’s script and Aaron Paul’s performance pack so much history in their delivery, the fact that Todd knows—and really, has always known—that letting BoJack into your life carries a price. It’s a price he’s no longer willing to pay with this much on the line, the clearest sign of his relative maturity in an episode filled with it. Even though his mother still doesn’t make an appearance, it feels like a more important bridge was crossed—even if paradoxically it came from burning one.
Diane’s also keeping herself at a remove from BoJack, albeit one that’s easier to retain with half a country between the two of them. The time jump of “The Horny Unicorn” means we’re to the point that Ivy Tran: Food Court Detective is complete and to the proofreading stage, and Princess Carolyn’s already pushing for the follow-up. Here’s where things drag a bit, as Diane continues to remain stubbornly reticent to being a YA author and suggests she’d rather follow it up with a book about Eleanor Roosevelt. (Princess Carolyn, when hearing the pitch: “Interesting!” Diane: “I didn’t even tell you the thing.” Princess Carolyn: “I know, I was interested in you not telling me.”) Even though having second thoughts is in keeping with the character, seeing her drag her feet feels antithetical to what seems to have been three months of feeling good about herself.
Those second thoughts do pay off in the episode’s second-best interaction, when after scenes of being a jerk last episode and this, Sonny admits that he’s read her book. and beyond having a few general pointers—you can’t call Schaumburg officially part of Chicago, god, Diane—he manages to get across that she’s written a good book. It’s a sweet interaction to witness, an encouraging sign that she’s both found a way to strengthen her connections to Guy and that Ivy Tran might be more of a valuable method for getting her message across than she first thought. A children’s book that manages to be a delivery system for pro-feminist messages that penetrate the thick skull of a high school lacrosse jock? Eleanor Roosevelt wishes she had a weapon that effective.
So with all his support systems busy supporting themselves, who’s the one person willing to stand beside BoJack? Surprise (and it is a surprise), it’s none other than Vance Waggoner, making his non-triumphant return from “BoJack The Feminist.” Once again, he’s the perfect avatar for your average monster in Hollywoo, his crimes against basic decency so over the top as to be funny but still containing an uncomfortable kernel of truth. (“That guy’s got more domestic assault convictions than Sean Penn! Now you’re thinking, did Sean Penn get convicted of domestic assault or was it just alleged? I gotta look that up later!”) It’s a true indictment of how far BoJack has fallen that Vance sees him as a peer in need of support, and a sign of how far away everyone else has drifted that he takes him up on the offer.
With everyone drifting away from him, BoJack finds himself drifting to an ever darker place. A bullshitting session that’s the antithesis of Ivy Tran’s positive messages—and that drives away everyone in the adjacent booths—leads Vance to excitedly pitch BoJack a comeback film that shows him being an unapologetic jackass, leaning into his toxic persona even more than The BoJack Horseman Show did. And when a supposed mission of mercy turns into a father-daughter screaming match over an Instagram like, BoJack finds support for his plight amongst an audience for that film, college bros who are sick of PC culture. After so long trying to do the right thing, he’s being pulled back into the tar pits of wrongness, validation for all the wrong reasons.
“The Horny Unicorn” doesn’t even leave BoJack’s one hypothetical lifeline, and yanking it away is the hardest thing to see in a season that’s had no shortage of competition for the title. All episode BoJack’s in possession of a letter from Hollyhock, his only contact save a series of unanswered voicemails, and his hands shake even harder holding it than they did Jamison’s water bottle of vodka. He finally opens it at his lowest point, possibly thinking things can’t get worse—and in Schwartz’s cruelest joke of the episode, doesn’t give you any clue what she says to him. Only that after reading it the letter and his face fall at the same time, he walks right back into the house—a house whose couch and stairway framing feel a hell of a lot like the Horsin’ Around set—and time blurs around him.
An awful thing to witness, even when someone puts a beer in BoJack’s hand in the episode’s final beat. Given everything we’ve seen this episode, it’s hard to imagine a circumstance that doesn’t end with him taking one long pull from the bottle. It’s a devastating coda to a devastating episode, more proof that as much time as the first half of the season spent building BoJack up, the second half is tearing him down.
Stray observations:
- Achievement in Voice Acting: It’s our second repeat in a row, as Bobby Cannavale gets more material as Vance Waggoner on his second go-around and makes a meal of the character’s inherent awfulness. Winning line: “My daughter sucks, which is a surprise because I did such a good job of raising her.”
- We get a glimpse of Courtney Portnoy walking in the background at the studio, clad in blue and white Spandex with an ice theme to it. But wasn’t she under consideration for playing FireFlame when Kelsey was brainstorming the project, a role that would imply a much different color palette? Interesting…
- Judah reaching down to let one of Todd’s daycare kids take his finger is adorable. Also adorable, his housewarming party gifts: a sourdough starter and a haiku written on a grain of rice and suspended in a bottle.
- The “real friends” Todd invites to his housewarming party include Emily and her latest fireman boyfriend, and the couch gentleman from the What Time Is It Right Now? days. Good to see that Todd’s managed to keep some of his friends close.
- “His tie is all loosened up, which is like the universal sign for having a shitty day.”
- “I don’t think it’s smart to be burning Bridges at this juncture.” “I’m sorry, I just don’t like Beau.”
- “And I said: but Doctor, I am Sad Dog.”
- “It’s the stock photo that came with the frame. My wife kept asking me to put in a picture of our family, but I was always too drunk.”
- “Usually at this stage I hate everything I’ve ever written and I feel like a worthless hack.” Me too, Diane. Me too.
- “Maybe I’m just a crazy old birthday person, but I think war is bad.”
- “Your last spon-con post for L’Oreal? It came off as disingenuous!”
- “I’m not here to be your cool story later.”
- Today in Hollywoo signs:
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Even though we never see what’s written in the Hollyhock letter, we can assume it’s brutal, it has two goddamn pages probably saying all the reasons of why she want him out of her life for at least some long time. She was probably his strongest support system besides Dyane…In the interview episode, I was kinda satisfied to see Bojack suffer the consequences of his actions, in this one I feel devasted to watch all his progress goes to shit.
I was thinking about it, narratively what was the point of Hollyhock learning about the Penny episode in the mid-season finale? It was a bit contrived to have her run into Pete at that party in New York and have him bring it up. (He didn’t know they were related right?) It may have been more impactful if she and Bojack had a better relationship in the mid-season premier and then she found out with the rest of the world and sent the letter.
I believe the reason behind the early revelation and the reason this is the last time we saw Hollyhock until the end of it would be about the phrase “closings is something invented to sell movie tickets” that Bojack said before.
During that last season, all of Bojack’s longtime friends have grown tired of putting up with the shit he does. And that’s why Hollyhock left.
When you see the ugly truth behind someone you love, it leaves a scar that will never be completely healed. That’s life.
This is probably the weakest episode of the season to me – not to say it’s bad, but it’s a bit too broad where every other episode really nails in something specific. (It does give us two of the best moments of the season – Mr. Peanutbutter’s Watchmen Sad Dog joke, and the absolutely devastating work by Aaron Paul in that scene when he doesn’t let Bojack into the party).To rehash what seems to be a common complaint: the way Hollyhock is handled is kind of a bummer. I’m not saying Bojack earned a further relationship with her or that he deserved anything other than the letter, but the fact that we don’t see any of this decision from Hollyhock’s perspective when it’s one of the hardest things she’s ever wrestled with is a letdown. She’s such a fantastic character, one of the most vibrant and lovable parts of the show, but here she’s basically a plot device moving Bojack to a place where he might take a drink of alcohol again than a real character. idk, it’s a rare fumble from these fantastic character writers.
but here she’s basically a plot device moving Bojack to a place where he might take a drink of alcohol again than a real character.I think that’s perfect because that’s precisely how BoJack treats his close ones. He often forgets they are people, and trying to get out of his rut only exacerbated that problem: they are monoliths and morality pets to him. I think her removing herself from the conversation with a letter and not letting us into her thought processes (although that has happened in the first ep, what with her avoidance of BoJack and choice in literature) is a perfect cap on the relationship: it was rarely anything more than utilitarian.
The joke about someone being told by a doctor that the cure for depression is to see person X and responding “But doctor, I’m X!” is way older than Watchmen, though — it dates back to an anecdote about the 19th century entertainer Joseph Grimaldi.
“I am Pagliaci.”
Changing the name to “Pagliacci” has always been a weird move considering “Pagliacci” means “clowns”. “I am Clowns”?
That’s English for you.
Similarly, few things bother me as much during the Christmas season as hearing people refer to Santa Claus, as if his first and last names name were “Santa” and “Claus”. The name, of course, means Saint Nicholas as in, “Santa Nikolaus”.
This whole half-season is incredibly bleak (for good reason). So it makes me happy that Birthday Dad is such a great running joke. “In this episode I teach two soldiers from opposite warring countries that they have the same birthday! That birthday is also Christmas!”The lack of any attempt to explain exactly what Birthday Dad is as a show (as well as the gags that idiots like Kyle love it) just adds to the much needed absurdity.
I also love dialogue like “Birthday dad is stuck in a leap year! How’s he gonna get out of this one?!?” Like…how does a leap year affect him? Why would it matter? Much like horror, the best comedy isn’t so much the depiction of a joke as the implication there’s a joke and you have to fill it in yourself.
“Don’t cross the international date line! It won’t be your birthday anymore!”
In my head canon Birthday Dad is like Quantum Leap in that he leaps from birthday to birthday and something awful happens to him if it’s no longer his birthday: he crosses the dateline, his birthday is on February 29th, etc. etc.
The costume is a tad Dr Who-vian. Perhaps he’s a Time Lord but restricted to birthdays as some form of probation.
I love that Chris Ware style graphic of Judah’s version of Todd’s plan.
It really seemed like they’d set up a reversal of how Todd came into BoJack’s life – turning up to a party uninvited, crashing on the couch because he has nowhere to go – and we’d have BoJack living with Todd. But he doesn’t even get in the door. It’s absolutely the right thing for Todd to do, but it’s still gutting.On a lighter note, let’s hear it for Vance Waggoner, a man Charlie Sheen described as “a bit much”.
Todd also doesn’t need Bojack any more. He’s got his own meal ticket and doesn’t need to mooch off him for another five years. And Princess Carolyn’s career is no longer dependent on her one big client, and Diane’s writing her own book and doesn’t need to be writing Bojack’s.Mr. Peanutbutter is the only one who never needed anything from Bojack, and he’s the one that’s sticking around.
aside from “Best Thing That Ever Happened,” PC has never “needed” Bojack as a client. in fact, the show pointed out many times (albeit more so at the beginning of the series) that Bojack consumed a lot of her time, but rarely worked. When the series began, he hadn’t worked since Horsin’ Around (and, later, we discovered “The Bojack Horseman Show” – but even that was a only for a few months in 2007).
I haven’t been laughing very much so far, as this back half has been very heavy, but the cat stuck in a tree gag was great.
I read an article elsewhere that also talked about us not knowing what Hollyhock’s letter said, but it doesn’t seem like such a mystery to me, we don’t have to have it spelled out for us. (The fact that she changed her phone number is a helpful clue.)
“And I said: but Doctor, I am Sad Dog.” The Pagliacci bit killed me.
I actually really liked the Diane plot this episode. The scene where she and Sonny talk about her novel was hilarious and sweet. Diane is someone who has demonstrated time and again that she doesn’t trust the good things she has accomplished, and this little scene served to reassure her that she actually is helping people. Her YA novel may not be “high art” or whatever, but she’s still doing good. The way Sonny kept wording his questions “Was that real?” was so cute.
I admit I take a little pleasure in seeing Vance Waggoner’s circle of nazis-in-training being pictured as the absolute lowest, rockiest bottoms of the long, long series of increasingly low rock bottoms BoJack hits. Hey, maybe it’s just me, but if you showed me a guy who acted as a father substitute to his TV daughter and introduced her to alcohol and then took her on a bender so bad she went to rehab and sobered up and then he took her on another bender and got her killed and tried to cover it up (and let’t not forget sleeping with her too), and one guy who uses the word “cuck” in conversation, I’d rather talk to the first one.
“BoJack is sponsored but not content”Okay Les, you just earned a time-out in the Bad Pun Corner.
I grew up in Schaumburg and we are PART. OF. CHICAGO.Same winters. Same Portillo’s. Same hatred of the Cubs/Sox depending on your intelligence. Pretty sure a Second City vet is on the writing staff; because I got the ‘Not a real Chicagoan’ line in every class and workshop. Don’t listen, Diane! We all know Woodfield Mall is a great place for your mystery series!
I question how much of the moral high ground those AA people have considering that they were eager to talk about him to reporters in order to bask in the reflected fame.
I mean as far as I can tell the only person who talked to the reporters about BoJack was Dr. Champ, who is ABSOLUTELY in the moral wrong there
It was the AA members blabbing that put the reporters on the trail. Remember the line, “One of those A’s stands for Anonymous. The other one I simply cannot fathom. ” Or something like that.