Review: BoJack Horseman Season One

Spoilers Below

Netflix’s viewing model has two effects due to the company’s ”stream everything at once” model especially in the world of animated comedy. One, because an entire show’s season is streamed you have a chance to see a show all the way through. How many times have you guys gotten into an animated series on FOX only for the network to shit all over it by canceling it after three episodes, or airing the rest on like Saturdays at 2 am (see CMT’s Bounty Hunters as the most recent example of this)? The other effect of this model is that the producers can play with arcs and do a lot of cool shit that you simply can’t do on prime-time television. Hulu’s The Awesomes does this well, but with a model that allows the producers to stream one episode a week as opposed to all at once.

BoJack Horseman takes full advantage of that last point by employing not only a huge over-arching story to get you wrapped in the show but a bunch of smaller ones. It’s almost like the writers got together and mapped out BoJack like a twelve round boxing match where during the course of the rounds small jabs become the recipe to set up a HUGE blow at the end. And what makes a great boxing match? The fighters! And let me tell you, THIS show has fighters…in its cast.

As mentioned, BoJack has a pretty good cast, but potentially the more impressive feat is the number of guest stars this series employed. Seriously, if you don’t know who Lisa Lomantagne is, you should. She’s best known as the casting director for Family Guy, American Dad, Robot Chicken, and yes you will know her for BoJack. She put together a top-notch cast lead off by Will Arnett of whom is a regular in the voice-over game with a number of different films and TV shows to his credit, but BoJack is the first time that he plays a character that’s FOR HIM. When BJ’s scenes are looking for an uppity if not snotty son of a bitch, Will exhumes character that maybe only Jon Benjamin’s ‘Sterling Archer’ can truly top. When the titular character’s scenes are seeking someone who is damaged and somewhat belittled? Will again shows that he’s got the chops to match anyone in the industry. Speaking of the industry, the main premise of BoJack is the titular character’s attempt at making a big comeback after the cancellation of his sitcom a bunch of years earlier. He plans to do just that by hiring a ghost-writer named Diane (played by Alison Brie) that follows him around so as to get enough material to put in a book that will hopefully resuscitate BoJack’s career. BJ’s career is managed by a former flame played by Amy Sedaris, a sultry feline that calls herself ‘Princess’. Princess Carolyn’s job is to get BoJack work in Hollywoo (yes, Hollywoo). This sees BoJack show up for commercial shoots, convince movie execs to bring on her clients for movie roles, and constantly work to find new clients that usually never pan out. She also manages ‘Todd'(played by Aaron Paul), aka BoJack’s roommate, and when he’s not playing video games or eating toaster strudels, he’s coming up with wacky money-making schemes which 9 times out of 10, really don’t work, but he’s lovable personality makes him difficult to say no to.   Last, but certainly not least, is Mr. Peanut Butter (Paul F. Tompkins), a more modern-take on BoJack’s archetype who dates Diane and does whatever he can to rub it in BJ’s face.

BoJack not only gives us a strong ensemble cast but jeez louise the guest and recurring stars are ridiculously impressive. Emmy winner Stanley Tucci (Kick-Ass) arguably steals a few episodes in his role as BoJack’s former best friend. Kristen Schaal dazzles as a child-star turned drug addict which is ironic because typically Kristen is best known as voicing children like Mabel from Gravity Falls or Louise from Bob’s Burgers, so she’s perfect to play someone completely different and as a result, this go ’round she plays a hysterical drug addict. Patton Oswalt voices a couple of different characters, none probably more memorable than the head of Penguin publishing, but with my personal favorite being the Navy Seal. Guest stars? You’ve got ’em! Stephen Colbert, Naomi Watts, John Krasinski, I mean the list goes on and on. There are guest stars in almost every episode of BoJack, and each time they show up I keep thinking, ”How the fuck did they land THAT person?”

From the start of the series, BoJack is THE main focal point of the show, and this continues throughout the 12-episode trek. We do the thing where we learn about his habits, what he’s looking to do, all that jazz. But, midway through the series you definitely start to identify a damaged character as we see him try to retrace some of his footsteps for the purposes of his upcoming memoir. This could include meeting his aforementioned business partner or BoJack taking a bunch of drugs to imagine what it would be like if his life didn’t go the route it did. Along the way, Mr. Peanut Butter acts as an affable albeit serviceable antagonist, and Tompkins is outright hysterical whilst playing him. Todd, unfortunately, is the one usually stuck with a lot of cliched B-plots, typically revolving around him starting some sort of business venture or company that never really goes anywhere. Seriously, if they even took Todd out of the entire series, it wouldn’t have affected the show one way or another.

On the other hand, Amy Sedaris’ character Princess is HYSTERICAL. But then again, I had a good time with every one of the animal characters. Yep, that’s right, animal-humanoids walk side-by-side with people and it’s the best. The reason why it’s the best is that the animals take on characteristics of not only people but the animals that they portray. So in Amy’s case, Princess is a cat, so when she goes to the gym she not only runs a treadmill, but she works a scratching post. When the golden retriever ‘Mr. Peanut Butter’ sees a mailman, he FREAKS. And Hollywoo is FILLED with these characters, and Shadow Machine does a fantastic job in the character design department here being really creative which whom they use from the animal kingdom, and more importantly, trying to make them as funny as possible. Seriously, if TripTank doesn’t convince you that Shadow Machine does a great job in 2D-animation, BoJack will.

That said, our overall premise of the series…falls short. BoJack is a damaged character…he has had a fucked-up life. But, BoJack has done rather well for himself, he lives in a HUGE house in the hills, drives fancy cars, and owns a fucking restaurant. No matter WHAT happens to BoJack during the course of the show, he still leads a cushy life. Our choice is to follow a character’s rise back to the top or don’t. For my investment, I wanna see someone crash and burn if they don’t get somewhere, BoJack has a net…and it’s called money.

Even with a rather frayed premise, BoJack Horseman is still an enjoyable show. Watching BoJack’s trials and tribulations on his way to the top are comically aided by the fact that Netflix lets you cuss. HEAR THAT, HULU? Netflix can say fuck, shit, asshole, whatever they want! No beeps, nothing. There’s a lot of sex humor in the show to go along with that which is still a void that most of the animated comedy has steered clear from over the years, but is just recently becoming trendy. In any case, I very seldom found myself experiencing any sort of gut-busting laughter with really most episodes just getting a chuckle or two from me. The strength of the series is the heart. In that, because you invest a lot of time with the BoJack character, you want to see EVERYTHING that goes with him right up until the end. The book thing? That is not the device that keeps you in this one…nope. What keeps you in the show is a love story…one that doesn’t actually fully reveal itself until maybe the last two episodes. Without giving anything away, it’s not the obvious one either…it’s another one entirely. And THAT right there, kind of makes me want a season two of BoJack, because the season ends on a decent cliffhanger and leaves questions that certainly need to be answered.

In closing, the cast is certainly here. The production is top-notch. The network is definitely in it.  But the dialogue, premise, and plot lines are all lacking, and while the music director does his best to try and mask these issues with an Alt Nation playlist, BoJack Horseman certainly doesn’t do for animated comedy the same as Orange Is the New Black or House of Cards does for drama.