Princess Carolyn tries to have it all in a tongue-twisting, plate-spinning BoJack Horseman
TV Reviews BoJack Horseman
BoJack Horseman is one of the busiest shows on television. Between the level of effort that goes into designing the world, the sheer number of background sight gags, the narrative developments that often don’t pay off until three or four episodes later, and the fact that there are five main characters who all have their own season-long arcs, there’s a lot packed into each half-hour of television. It’s a grand achievement in plate-spinning, where whenever one of the plates cracks the impression it’s almost always intentional, the writers deciding to break them over the viewer for their emotional investment.
Fittingly for an episode where one of those main characters is being pushed to their breaking point, “The New Client” is one of the busiest installments of BoJack Horseman in recent memory. Last season saw Princess Carolyn achieve her long-held dream of having a child, and now it’s time for her to wake up from that dream and seemingly never sleep again. Along the way there’s shade thrown at society’s impossible standards for career women, digs at flailing network television, and possibly one of the most brilliantly tasteless jokes ever seen on this show. It’s an episode about trying to have it all that almost manages to have it all itself.
“Having it all” is a long-standing cliché goal for career women in television, from Mary Richards to Liz Lemon, and Princess Carolyn has long been a proud member of that sorority. Adopting a baby was obtaining the last piece of that puzzle, and she’s brought her porcupine daughter Untitled Princess Carolyn Project home—only to be so overwhelmed with new parenthood that she can’t even remove that placeholder. The haze of exhausted multitasking is one that’s familiar to anyone dealing with an infant, and director Amy Winfrey and the animation team frame it brilliantly by splitting Princess Carolyn into mirror images of herself to take on task after task. Series composer Jesse Novak further heightens it by looping the sound effects of Princess Carolyn’s tasks and building it as they multiply, a beat that only gets catchier as she’s further beaten down by her obligations.
And it’s a beatdown that’s not getting support from where you’d expect. Manatee Fair’s editor Amanda Hannity is putting together a photo shoot of ultra-successful women, a photo shoot Princess Carolyn tries to put off—and then jumps back on when it includes longtime rival Vanessa Gekko. Christine Baranski and Kristen Chenoweth are welcome returns to BoJack, both gifted with the perfect voices to sound outwardly supportive but with a cutting undercurrent of judgment. It’s the acknowledgment of society’s implicit bias against women who are outwardly successful, that even amongst their peers they can get chewed up for not checking every single box. Princess Carolyn can’t just produce a movie, it needs to be empowering to women. She can’t just host a get-together for working moms, it needs to be a Fugees reunion gala. And as she does so, there’s more and more photocopies being produced to multitask, somehow making the original even more faded.
Princess Carolyn is obviously taking on more than she can handle, and the way that writer Nick Adams showcases that is as vivid as the visual choices. BoJack writers have been open that challenging Amy Sedaris in the recording booth with various tongue-twisters is one of their favorite pastimes, to the point that I’ve chided them for occasionally making it feel self-indulgent. Here though, they’re expertly deployed as a sign of Princess Carolyn’s increasing mental breakdown, a word salad of celebrity names and dietary restrictions that tax an already overtaxed mind. Sedaris puts a great frenzy into every last one of them, and you can hear Chenoweth relish the option to join the fun. (Personal favorite: “Also, it turns out Marion is pescatarian and Meagan is no longer vegan.”)
Something’s eventually got to give, which it does when Princess Carolyn falling back on the one task that she’s most familiar with: trying to help BoJack out of a situation that’s annoying him. Going back to the idea of BoJack Horseman introducing details and then paying them off later, this is a great execution of that. Princess Carolyn’s alliteration and assonance has now made its way to incoherence, and raising a baby porcupine is covering her with needle pricks up and down her arms, all of which are the things the staff at Pastiches keep an eye out for. (Also keeping an eye out for her debit card, another pointed dig against the idea of for-profit rehab.) It’s sadly appropriate for her to wind up in this situation, especially given how BoJack walked back in after his misadventure in “A Horse Walks Into ARehab.” At least he was self-aware enough to know he needed a break.
When she wakes up, things get interesting, as “The New Client” turns into a completely different episode of BoJack Horseman. Flea Daniels’ complaint about mixing flashbacks together with the present-day scenes becomes meta foreshadowing, as we go all the way back to the cold open and Mr. Peanutbutter in the Birthday Dad editing bay. If an overtaxed Princess Carolyn is well-worn ground, a guilt-wracked Mr. Peanutbutter is something new, still weighed down by sleeping with Diane and asking Pickles to marry him so he didn’t have to admit the truth. Paul F. Tompkins takes a few points from Sedaris here, a new edge to his voice as he assails his on-screen presence for the things he did off it and psychoanalyzes the distracted boyfriend meme.
You can tell he’s nearing rock bottom when he decides a source of stability would be BoJack Horseman in rehab, darting off for a visit faster than you can say “What is this, a crossover episode?” As with Princess Carolyn, it’s another character in rehab who can’t recognize they need at least some of what it provides. Mr. Peanutbutter swiftly repeats his trick from “INT: SUB” and makes rehab all about him, pillorying poor Doug as much as he did Birthday Dad. (Two episodes in, Doug’s turning into the Jerry Gergich of Palisades.) It leads to a role reversal, BoJack now the one trying to talk Mr. Peanutbutter off a self-destructive course—one that he can clearly see, which doesn’t bode well for Mr. Peanutbutter’s efforts to keep this from Pickles.
And if that plot wasn’t enough, then we have to loop back to fill in the blanks of Todd-day, where Todd’s walked away unscathed in the wake of the Henry Fondle debacle. (Winner for best interaction this episode: “Have fun failing upwards!” “I always do!”) There’s no new ground covered here as Todd bounces from meeting to meeting, somehow talking up Untitled Princess Carolyn Project into an untitled Princess Carolyn project that long-suffering Pinky Penguin—always a welcome sight—decides can fill the holes of their Milwaukee-set Dick Wolf franchise. And in the way that only Todd can, he finds a way to coax success from failure. Princess Carolyn pulls a reverse Mulholland Drive and turns the re-edited Birthday Dad into a television pilot directed by Lee Daniels, its open-ended questions exactly the sort of thing networks think their audiences want. (Or not. Honestly, they’ll take anything.)
It’s a neat balancing act—almost a little too neat, which is the main qualm that I have with “The New Client.” After going from frantic point to frantic point, everything is tied off without qualms. Nothing bad happened to Untitled Princess Carolyn Project under Todd’s watch, Mr. Peanutbutter’s onto the next step of his career, and Princess Carolyn’s breakdown didn’t do anything to stop the gala from succeeding off-screen. The inherent goofiness of switching to Mr. Peanutbutter and Todd after so much time on Princess Carolyn’s disintegration undoes some of the effectiveness of that first half of the episode, shifting without as firm of a grip on the clutch. Similarly, as fantastic as the last phone call between BoJack and Princess Carolyn is, it’s a tonal shift that doesn’t feel like it comes organically from what we saw out of BoJack or Princess Carolyn in prior scenes. It comes because viewers (like me) love those conversations where only a few words show the decades of history between the two.
Then again, that might be the point. Princess Carolyn has worked herself into such a frenzy, convinced that doing it all and having it all are the same thing, that she lost sight of the fact that not everything needs to be the most important thing. Things don’t need to be perfect, they just need to be done, and sometimes you need other people to make that happen. And somehow it takes Vanessa Gekko, her worst enemy—at least to Princess Carolyn, a twist that feels perfect for her hyper-competitive mind—to remind her of it.
And it reminds her of one other thing, in the most magnificent payoff of the entire episode. Vanessa’s encouragement that Princess Carolyn needs to be “ruthless” in dealing with motherhood is an excellent callback to season four’s “Ruthie,” closing the loop on what was arguably the best Princess Carolyn episode of the last few seasons. She’s finally connected the dots that she no longer needs to imagine a future great-great-great granddaughter talking about how everything worked out in the end, and there’s a “Ruthie” right in front of her that she can tell about all the things that didn’t work out. It’s a beautiful realization to reach, and a moment of grace to an episode where it seemed that was the last thing on anyone’s mind.
Stray observations:
- Achievement in Voice Acting: Baranski and Chenoweth are welcome returns, but director Lee Daniels takes the gold as Flea Daniels. From his rage at Mr. Peanutbutter to his commitment to The Diary Of Anne Frankenstein—whose bad taste he confronts more quickly than he did on Lee Daniels’ The Butler—every delivery is great. And given this is a show that featured Quentin Tarantulino, Cameron Crowe (actually a raven), and David Pincher, it’s surprising he’s the first director to voice his Hollywoo equivalent.
- How about those new opening titles, huh? I’ve never resented Netflix’s “Skip Intro” option more than when I’m marveling at watching the film of BoJack’s life flash and burn before our eyes, reminding us of the series’ greatest hits.
- Further praise to Jesse Novak for his latest version of the BoJack Horseman theme with the nursery take playing over the closing credits. If you play that for your own children, I take my hat off to you.
- Mr. Peanutbutter thinks that he can get more movies out of roaming the greeting card aisles, with heroes like Detective John Getwellsoon and Officer Mike Condolences on the table. I’d love to see those meetings with Ralph Stilton.
- BoJack once shouted an assistant out of the business for bringing him a room temperature Capri Sun. Harsh, but arguably justified. Those don’t taste good even when they’re cold.
- BoJack, hearing Untitled Princess Carolyn Project crying in the background of a call: “Sorry, I can tell I’m interrupting your meeting with David O. Russell, so I’ll make this quick.”
- “The photo shoot is for women who do it all. The kids are part of the ‘all.’ Otherwise we’re just women who do.”
- “Less man, more Leslie Mann! Cut out what you need to. If it makes sense, that’s a bonus.”
- “How could this man who claims to love her betray so flagrantly? That is a very sad meme.”
- “Let’s get some good seats!” “We’re sitting in a circle. They’re all good seats!”
- “I’m in! Name your price.” “Uh… Jonathan?”
- “Turns out audiences are not interested in a whole night of Milwaukee.”
- “Are you okay? You’re not your usual medium-clever self.”
- Today in Hollywoo signs:
50 Comments
I don’t think the dynamic between the main five has ever been used as well as it was in this episode.
The relationship between Carolyn and Bojack is also one of my favorite aspects of this show and it seems to get less attention every season, but imo this episode almost 100% delivered on that end. Their convos are always so short and sweet but there’s always a sense of mutual, unspoken understanding between the two that really doesn’t come out with any of the others. I agree with the review that the final phone call sort of felt a bit out of left-field compared to what happened prior — but I think that sort of works well with the on-and-off history between the two. EDIT: the new intro is CHILLING
I think this might be the episode that I use to get people into this show. It’s been a real struggle trying to get people to join me in watching it. Nobody makes it through the first half of the first season and all of the episodes that I would show to make a better example of how great it gets is too spoilery and/or plot dependant. This one is a bit spoilery too, but it’s got every element of the show working really well all at the same time.
I got my best friend into the show with Downer Ending and he’s never looked back since. But yes, I could see The New Client’s careful full-cast balancing act serving as a solid introduction to what makes the show great.
I’ve thought about using that one before but worried that it was too spoilery and also just didn’t want to divest it of all the payoff, but maybe that one is ideal for showing people. The main problem has always been that it’s difficult to communicate the intense emotional beats and thorough character work that improbably thrives in this bright horse cartoon. I try to tell people, but even if they watch the first episode or two, they just don’t seem to believe me. Maybe the short sharp shock of Downer Ending would be a more expedient way to communicate that.
I agree that that’s probably the best relationship on the show, and Princess Carolyn has been my favourite character since around “Best Thing That Ever Happened” (a top 3 episode of the whole run for my money). the fact that she has such a clear path to happiness but won’t allow herself to go on it is often sadder than any of the journeys the other characters are on.
Personally, I love the “skip intro” option on Netflix. I find Netflix to have the best of the interfaces when it comes to watching shows. Hulu is the worst.
I’ll say this: I may not like the animation on Bojack, but the way they employ creative visuals should be recognized.
-I don’t want my daughter to resent me for the rest of her life because I named her something stupid like …Light Socket.
– Aw…
– Don’t listen to her, Light Socket. She’s just jealous.
[Bart is looking at souvenir license plates with names and can’t find one with his name, but finds a “Bort” plate]“Bort? Oh, come on!”[excited child runs up.]“Mommy! Mommy! Buy me a license plate!”“No, come along Bort”
[Man looks up]“Are you talking to me?”“No, my son is also named Bort.”
Wow, I felt Princess Carolyn’s stress the whole episode. I think I’ll need to be very, very relaxed to watch this particular episode again.
yeah, it was really good at conveying the idea of close to burn out multitasking. specially with the whole fugees loving fiji apples schtik. at one point PC even goes so far as to microwave her baby; which was horrifying.
i really was worried they were about to go there with killing the baby or having her return her like an unwanted pet.
I still feel incredibly uneasy about PC having a kid. She is the world champion of taking on more responsibilities than she can handle and letting some of those juggling pins hit the floor.
yeah, even if it was for humor almost microwaving a baby in the first place (or actually doing it for 1 second) doesn’t bode well
This was the first episode of this show that has ever pulled in my roommate. She always kind of mocks it, but this time, she stopped halfway through the room and just sat down and watched it. When the microwave thing happened, she screamed “NO!” at the tv (so did I). When it was over, she was like, “you know, that was actually a really brilliant way to show an overencumbered modern working mother”. I’m like, yeah, the whole thing is brilliant. That’s what I’ve been saying. You should watch it. We’re starting the rewatch tomorrow. Victory is mine.
I certainly found my anxiety building as I watched. I think the accumulating noises that form the soundtrack to PC’s day really help to ratchet up the tension.
For some reason the episode 3 link goes to an email.
I didn’t catch the significance of the name “Ruthie” until reading this review, but I did notice that Princess Caroline’s frequent tongue twisters turn out to be the little device she can use to get her daughter to laugh/stop crying. I thought that was neat.
Which is a great little metaphorical encapsulation of the lesson she learned this episode – the skills she’s developed in other areas of her life are cross-applicable to raising Ruthie. She’s not starting from scratch, which is a benefit here.
I wonder if the name Ruthie will stick. I was getting rather fond of calling her Untitled Princess Carolyn Project
Untitled Princess Carolyn Project “UPCP” “Ruthie” Carolyn
The mirror images of Princess Carolyn remind me soo much of Satoshi Kon’s one-minute animated film, Ohayo!! Although admittedly in his version, it’s about the sleepy, lazy pace of having just woken up, not the harried, frantic nightmare that is P.C.’s life.
You now I always thought there was a harried element to Ohayo!! Like that first go through is a visualization of mental planning what you’re going/need to do but won’t till you can finally get out of bed.
Dammit now I crave a Capri Sun.
Not sure why it took me this long to notice this, given the well established background art history jokes (especially the Der Blaue Reiter ones) and all, but either Lisa Hanawalt or another animator really enjoys their background color scheme jokes/refs.
and of course this, that I’m seeing from reddit a few years ago.
Here’s the input to the color scheme builder. I noticed it because it seemed so close to Ethan Schoonover’s solarized theme. I used his cyan to start and then grabbed the tetrad color scheme based on the next lighter shade of said cyan’s monochromatic palette. 2aa198 -> 4AB8B0
Damn, the last line of this episode just made me burst into tears. And this was one of the happier episodes!The last season of this show is going to be devasting. So much payoff to five seasons of emotional buildup. Even if it’s sweet or bittersweet, I feel like I’m gonna be wrecked by it.
What was it?
I appreciate what it was trying to do, and I suppose what it did, but I found the mirror splitting and repetitive sounds to be *incredibly* grating here. Similarly, the wordplay, while demonstrative of deteriorating mental state over the arc of the episode, just seemed a little too much on a moment to moment basis. I’ve become less and less a fan of the “and now this characters episode!” structure of BoJack as the show has gone on, and I especially never really like the PC ones, so this was probably one of my least favorite episodes of the series after the first half of season 1. It didn’t help that there no longer seems to be a collective arc for everyone to be a part of, which makes this seem a little too scattered for me. What was the tasteless joke?
Anne Frankenstein, I expect.
It sounds like the short version is you just don’t like this show.
Considering I hold the first 5 seasons up as some of the best TV I’ve ever seen, I’m gunna say no to that hypothesis.
That was a really drastic overreaction to the first two episodes of the new season, then.
No, not especially. Being of the opinion that certain writing, audio, or visual aspects weren’t great isn’t particularly over the top at all.
Jesus, I heart THE RHYTHM whenever I feel that stress. I mean, literally, when I’m stressed it feels like this episode, as if there was a beat driving you. It was realistic almost.
I’m glad you enjoyed it. I didn’t.
I was not talking about enjoyment. I was talking about how that felt real, as real as the rest of the rest of mental health topics this series is very well known for.
Alright, well, I was talking about enjoyment, but I’m glad you found it especially grounded.
I think it was specifically “In spite of everything, me still believe people good, fire bad.” The original, most heartbreaking line ever, from the diary:“In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever approaching thunder, which will destroy us too, I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again.”
Well that episode kicked the Having Kids Can down the road for a few more years
You don’t have to have kids at all. I’m very much enjoying being childfree.
Yeah, it’s something I’d like to do, but only when it’s the right time, and if it’s never the right time, I can live with that.
I love the revelation that Vanessa Gecko doesn’t hate Princess Carolyn at all. That nailed their dynamic perfectly, I think.
And it really nails the fact that we’ve seen the relationship strictly from the POV of Princess Carolyn, and a version of “unreliable narrator”.
‘BoJack Horseman’ is now two for two on highly tasteless but still hilarious Anne Frank jokes.
Vincent van Goat.
‘We still believe people good, fire bad!’- Anne Frankenstein
It took me this long to realize that Amy Winfrey directs Bojack and also made Muffin Films. “You don’t like muffins!?” Existential and adorable, dark and cutesy wootsey and cannibalistic. Also, Making Fiends was always nice. But anyway, hooray.
Wow, I haven’t thought about Muffin Films in about 16 years. Nice to know the creator made a career out of it.