What TV show do you think we live in? Consequence Fans, every time a media conglomerate buys a smaller, popular company and lays off half the workforce, it’s another day for a shitshow at the fuck factory. Or maybe you see the mainstreaming of Christian evangelism and it’s The Righteous Gems that reminds me. I know, every time a streaming service launches a reality show with an absurd premise, my X-timeline (formerly Twitter) is littered with references to 30 rocks. For me, the world we live in today is that of a hybrid, half human, half horse. BoJack Horseman.
When the show first aired in August 2014, it received critical acclaim. In the first season alone BoJack dealt with depression, alcoholism, drug abuse, generational trauma and the high price of regret, as well as fame and celebrity in a way that would become a cornerstone of the show. Although BoJack (the show, not the character) handled all these issues with impressive sensitivity, I don’t think anyone was prepared for it BoJack to explore increasingly darker themes over the course of its six seasons, as BoJack (the character this time) took one step forward and two steps back in his recovery, alienating those who love him, the creature of his fame swinging a long tail that allowed him to make mistakes again and again. When it comes to showing the damage BoJack’s actions caused, the series doesn’t flinch; it offers a clear look at how trauma stays with victims even when the perpetrators have long since moved on. The rest of the show’s main characters (Diane, Todd, Princess Carolyn, and Mr. Peanutbutter) also have to grapple with BoJack’s role in their lives and the ways he affected them, for better or for worse.
But believe it or not, the show has managed all of this and is still funny, with endless scenes like Hollywood Stars and Celebrities – What Do They Know? Do They Know Things? Let’s Find Outthe most ruthless performance by character actress Margo Martindale (who is as good at crime dramas as she is at acting), the extensively described but never seen Erica, and about a million other completely silly and irreverent bits that I highly recommend.
In the sixth episode of BoJackIn the first season of , BoJack steals the “D” from the Hollywood sign, cementing his world as a higher world separate from our own (although, OK, yes, the talking animals help with that too). It’s the kind of place where producers take full-body scans of actors and allow them to use their likenesses forever; where all of Hollywood’s assistants stand up together on one day to demand fair treatment; where a celebrity’s decision to have an abortion is litigated on cable TV; where J.D. Salinger is revealed to have gone into hiding as the owner of a tandem bike shop. Considering how the last decade has gone, it’s clear that our world today is more like Hollywood than the two are two separate universes. (If you told me at this point that J.D. Salinger was still alive and owning a tandem bike shop, I’d shrug and say, Sure, why not?) In the final season of , BoJack HorsemanCongress legalizes the murder of poor people by the rich; just this week, Disney tried to Wrongful death lawsuit because the plaintiff was bound to arbitration in fine print when he signed up for a one-month free trial of Disney+.
Whatever show you think best reflects our times, it is an extension of your worldview: There is a reason why you rarely hear anyone claim that we live in the universe of Parks and Recreation or The good place. This kind of sugary sweetness belongs firmly to the pre-2020 world in which it was created. We live in BoJack‘s world, because our capitalist hellscape is so out of control that anything other than biting satire would seem completely toothless.
But perhaps just as important as the fact that we live in BoJackThe world of is the roadmap that the show gives us for life in it. The world is crazy, BoJack tells us, but still we have no choice but to carry on. In the final – and perhaps most defining – lines of the show, BoJack tells Diane, “Life is a bitch and then you die,” to which Diane replies, “Sometimes. Sometimes life is a bitch and then you carry on living.” Life isn’t just about what happened to you; it’s about surviving, it’s about what you’re going to do next. And if there’s one thing we’ve all had to spend the last few years doing, it’s surviving, trying to wring as much joy as possible from a world that feels increasingly fraught and bleak. As long as you’re here, that means there’s still time. Time to make the world a better place, time to heal, time to forgive.
Since I watch BoJack HorsemanI always had the feeling that the show was not particularly sad, per se, but honestly. Terrible things happen, but we still have to make the effort to get back up, to heal, instead of hurting each other, simply because we can. Maybe we can’t change our world from BoJack Horseman‘s Hollywood in 2024, but the message of BoJack is that we can at least help each other.
