Originally Bojack Horseman came onto my radar as the titular character is played by Will Arnett, and, at the time, having just watched and loved Arrested Development, I was willing to watch anything with any member of the cast. I saw that it had Aaron Paul in it as well (Jesse from Breaking Bad) and so it looked like we were on to a winner.
The show itself looks completely random at first glance; a hybrid of a horse and a human, along side other hybrid people/animals, as they go about their lives in Hollywood, but the show is actually so much more. Most of the time the fact that the characters are animals is irrelevant. Beside the occasional cat toy in one cat character’s office, or people sometimes mentioning that a character belongs to a random species, it is irrelevant that they are cartoon animals. This is of course ignoring aviary characters who do have the ability to fly, despite the fact that they have arms instead of wings.

Anyway, the main premise of Bojack Horseman (which is explained perfectly in the ending credits tune) is that he used to be a famous actor in a TV sitcom back in the early 90s. It ran for a few seasons and was regarded highly before its end. Since then, Bojack hasn’t done much work, but thanks to the show he was able to live a comfortable life in a condo on the Hollywood Hills, drinking and smoking, and generally just doing whatever he wanted. All of which leading him down a dark path to his own personal destruction.
There is also Todd (Aaron Paul); who is a waster who just lives in Bojack’s house, who is often looking at trying to get ridiculous business ventures up and running, Princess Carolyn; who is a cat and Bojack’s agent, as well as being former girlfriend, who struggles with her own life in the agency business and not having a proper relationship, being too career driven, Mr Peanut Butter; who is a dog and, like Bojack, used to be in a 90s sitcom, but he is very much the opposite to Bojack. Where Bojack is very pessimistic and dislikes almost everything, Mr Peanut Butter is always upbeat and optimistic, and then you finally have Diane, who is a writer, originally trying to make a novel based on Bojack’s life, but she is also a very pessimistic character who greatly connects to him, but she is married to Mr Peanut Butter.

The show follows Bojack as he struggles with his past, his destructive behaviour, his drinking, and trying to find work in a very cut throat industry. At times it forgets that it is suppose to be an amusing cartoon and does venture off into dark territory, and often trying to get its audience to truly feel for these characters. Some times this does get nicely portrayed, but sometimes it falls a little flat and we find ourselves in long winded episodes or plots, desperately trying to make the viewers invested in this wannabe tale of woe.
Thankfully this is only for a few episodes, and when the show tries to be funny, it does hit the nail on the head. It has progressively gotten funnier as the series has gone on, and this season of the show has been by far the most comical of the lot.

So last season, Bojack just left everything behind and disappeared. He went off into the desert and saw a load of horsemen running free, and that is where this season picks up. As for the other characters, the status-quo for them has been reset, other than Princess Carolyn who is still with her mouse boyfriend; Filbert. Todd had made millions at the end of the last season with his latest business venture, but that is quickly swept away to make way for whatever current story he is next going to get involved in.

The first episode, of season 4, has to be by far one of the funniest episodes of the show ever made. Bojack himself was entirely missing from it as it showed how the rest of the cast carried on their lives without him, yet still wondering where he has been the last year since the previous season.
Mr Peanut Butter randomly gets the idea to run for governor, despite the fact he knows nothing of politics, and with the help of a hard arse campaign manager and ex-wife, he begins his conquest to claim the seat of governor of California. The previous governor; Woodchuck Coodchuck-Berkowitz (played by Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Andre Braugher) is clearly the right… woodchuck for the job, yet Mr Peanut Butter is determine to beat him, so much so that he challenges him to a ski race for the title, which is absurd until it attracts the attention of the people who demand such an event takes place, to the point where a bill is passed to change the legislation to allow the seat of governor to instantly be won in a ski race. Of course it turns out Mr Peanut Butter cannot ski and all of this combined together makes for a hilarious first episode, one of which actually made me cry with laughter at some points.


As the season goes on, Bojack returns to his ancestral house, before returning and another young horse girl appears claiming that Bojack is his father. The two of them go on a quest around Hollywoo (previous Hollywood, but Bojack stole the D in season one, and instead of replacing it, they just decided to change the name to Hollywood) in order to find the woman that Bojack knocked up.
Although he is the titlular character, Bojack mainly offers the series most serious moments, as he deals with his mother who has alzheimer’s, his daughter dealing with general teenage issues (weight and appearance, especially in the glamours world of Hollywoo), and how he always ruins everything good in his life, so naturally he is going to ruin his relationship with his newly found daughter.
Sometimes this ventures onto the realm of being far too serious once again (as previously mentioned from past seasons) and it does make the season feel as if it comes to halt for us to digest what we are being subjected to.
The penultimate episode of the season focuses on Bojack’s mother, and it is a rather depressing episode, that left you genuinely feeling bummed afterwards.
Occasionally Bojack’s pessimistic outlook on life does make you laugh from time to time, but the real heroes of this season were Todd and Mr Peanut Butter, both of whom knocked it out of the park this year and had me in stitches at various points throughout.

Mr Peanut Butter’s story of him trying to claim the governor’s seat is brilliant. Diane, who has taken more a back seat this season, compared to others, allowing Mr Peanut Butter himself to come into the spotlight, was mainly there to tell Mr Peanut Butter to stop this silly campaign and get their lives back to how it was. In true Bojack Horseman fashion, this story does come to a dramatic and non-comical note towards the end of the season, leaving us feeling a little depressed.


Princess Carolyn’s story focused on her and Filbert’s relationship. Her not wanting to give up her apartment and worrying that it is affecting her work (which is a cliché storyline for character’s in similar situations who have never had a proper relationship before) and of course carrying on from last year’s storyline where she discovered that she was pregnant.
A scene where she goes to meet Filbert’s family and they are worried about telling them about the baby had me once again crying with laughter. The line “Well what about a nice friendly punch to the stomach to make you feel a live. It’s a rich person thing” when Filbert’s family are offering Princes Carolyn things she clearly cannot have whilst pregnant, absolutely cracked me up.
Of course this plot takes a dramatically dark turn later on in the season and touches on some taboo themes that are rarely seen in a cartoon. Thankfully it is well done, but it naturally goes into the ‘too serious’ moments that the show is infamously known for.

Todd’s storyline was great this year, once it actually got up and running that is. While he is still just a random background character who is not often included into the main plots and just doing something silly on his own, his story did become quite a breath of fresh air in terms of comedy when all the other stories were starting to get too serious.
It started off about him being A-sexual, which did touch on the serious, but thankfully Mr Peanut Butter’s story was in full swing at this point, but as soon as Todd’s ‘Clown-Dentist’ venture got into full swing, the story was fantastic.
“Do we train dentists to be clowns, or train clowns to be dentists?”


One last little thing I would like to point out is that it is really clever this year how the intro adapts to what is currently happening in the show. His daughter arriving, stuff getting broken in his house, his mother and other characters that show up are all featured in the intro scene as the season progresses. It was just a really nice touch.

Overall, someone better call the police department, because this season has been on fire! While some episodes did focus on making it a soap opera, when the show was funny, it was hilarious. I am a little gutted that it is over and will have to wait another year for the next one.
If you have never seen it, then I cannot recommend it enough. It will take a few to get into, but once it finally does sink in, it is good.
As I said before, this season has been the funniest and I hope this is a continuing factor that will take place in future seasons of the show.

 

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