#bjhm analysis

[dongslinger--420]

You were born to two people who never wanted to have you, who never should've had you. You grew up around alcohol, and your only role model was on television. People tried to make friends with you, but you just pushed them away. You made your first friend at 21. You love your friend more than anything, but you cannot escape the fact that he was indirectly responsible for your downfall. You try so hard to go back to the era where you thought you were happy that you end up making two of the biggest mistakes of your life. You surround yourself with people who remind you either of him, of yourself, or both. Your lack of true, authentic experience means that you believe yourself to be both unworthy and incapable of love. You have 4 best friends and you take them all for granted until it's too late. Millions love you, and you feel so alone.

You were born into a family of 7. Everyone in that family hates you. You were bullied in school, and your only role model was on television. You survive your 20s on sheer unbridled optimism and a barista's salary. You meet two people who are just like you, who are passionate and cynical and bright minded. One day, you fall in love with an older man who is nothing like you, but he's kind and extraverted, and it's something you have no frame of reference for. You meet your idol. He's not who you thought he'd be. He's the furthest from it that you could possibly imagine. But you love him. Because he's you. He reminds you of the girl you were growing up. Sometimes he's compassionate towards you. Sometimes your now husband is compassionate towards you. You don't know how to respond in either situation. You try to look for reasons to push them away. Your closest friends love you, and you feel so alone.

You were born the youngest of 12. Your mother loves you, but she needs you a little too much. You grow up obsessed with a film about a girl who flies away, a girl who (for better or for worse) comes of age. So then you decide to fly away. You get a job as a strongly independent intern. But then you meet a man. He's deeply flawed, and the way you take care of him reminds you too much of the girl you were growing up. But you see so much good in him, and you spend your time telling yourself that the good outweighs the bad. He has single handedly got you out of the worst situations you have ever found yourself in. And for all your independence, you crave companionship, in any form. The love that anyone feels for you is forever fleeting. You feel so alone.

You were born into a loving family. You meet a beautiful wife in your 20s, and get the best job ever solely by accident. There is no reality other than this. And why would anyone want one? This is perfect. You try so hard to go back to that first era where you were happy, by surrounding yourself with people who agree with you. Your first wife starts to disagree. You don't understand her decision to go into politics, because there is no reality other than this, and why would anyone want one? You break up with her. You have to keep the illusion going, fill that space asap. Your second wife disagrees with you. You meet your third wife on the day your second wife leaves you. Your third wife cares more about the world outside the bubble you've cultivated than your first wife did. But status quo is god. It worked in your dream job, and it's going to work now. Your third wife leaves you. You feel so alone.

You were born of a man you don't even remember. You were forcibly given the name of the man your mother married. He's extremely hard on you and you don't understand why. You love music and games and new experiences, and he loves anger and being boring and getting a job. You get kicked out at 18. You find someone new, and you feel almost as reliant on them. You don't know when your new situation will end, but it's easy. This is what you wanted, right? But all your new friends have proper lives. They have some sense of knowledge for what they were doing. And maybe your stepfather was right. Maybe BoJack was right. Maybe you need to get your act together before you amount to anything. Because for all your independence, you still crave approval and acknowledgement, in any form. You have no idea if anyone loves you, and you feel so alone.

[dongslinger--420]

I've been listening to the Gravity Falls commentaries a lot recently and one thing that keeps coming up that I really appreciated is how important it is that change be possible in that show; Dipper gets a new hat at the end of Tourist Trapped and he keeps that hat for the rest of the show, Mabel gets a pig in The Time Traveller's Pig and she continues having that pig, Dipper apologizes to Toby Determined about framing him for murder the episode after Headhunters, etc.

I think this is also a very important element of BoJack Horseman and especially the earlier episodes of the show that people don't really acknowledge as often.

As we all know, BoJack sees life as a sitcom. As a result of this, the show is a deconstruction of the type of show that BoJack loves, and one of the most important rules of a classic sitcom is the idea that Status Quo Is God; no matter what happens in an episode, there will always be a return to equilibrium at the end. As this show isn't a sitcom, however, BoJack has to actively make this happen, instead of it Just Happening as it were.

The first proper example we get of this is in Zoes and Zeldas, where BoJack is faced with the realisation that Todd might actually leave him forever, and he has to do everything in his power including literally hiring an actress to make the status quo remain. The interesting thing about this is that in the episode itself, we (the spectators) are tricked into thinking this works! Because we know what happens in a sitcom, we know what Status Quo Is God is, even on the most implicit level! When I watched this episode with my mum, halfway through she turned to me and said "this episode is sad" because she knew what was coming. Of course she did. Of course Todd wouldn't actually leave BoJack and follow his dreams. Why would he?

It doesn't work, of course. Todd spends the rest of the season becoming more and more emotionally distant with BoJack as soon as he finds out that BoJack betrayed him. Because this isn't a sitcom, and change is possible. Before this happens, however, the show has to first establish that this show has continuity unlike the average sitcom. How does it do this? In Our A Story Is A D Story, there's a one off bit that suddenly establishes the lengths this show will go to for its continuity:

Just like Gravity Falls, this show uses subtle bits in the dialogue like this to show us that change is possible! Side note: me and my mum both thought this bit was SO funny.

Like Gravity Falls, BoJack Horseman is designed specifically to subvert your expectations of a sitcom by trusting you to pay attention, that this isn't your average show you can tune in and out of. Unlike Gravity Falls, BoJack Horseman does this in a much more meta way; by using a sitcom backdrop, the spectator is drawn into a false sense of security within the status quo, before having the rug snatched under them at the last minute.

[dongslinger--420]

One of the BEST things about this godforsaken show is how it completely deconstructs the naive, sunshine friend trope both times it happens.

First, we see it with Mr Peanutbutter. From the very first episode, BoJack is shown to despise this man. He thinks his entire existence is irritating, he sees him as an overbearing presence, and the only thing PB has actually done to warrant this in any capacity is by being Diane's boyfriend, and even that's a dynamic that manifests itself later on.* Mr Peanutbutter spends season 1 and much of season 2 ignoring this behaviour at best and being completely naive towards it at worst, always treating BoJack with the excited behaviour that you would expect to see from a dog who loves you. And, if you actually think about this, it's completely unrealistic! Because why would he just not care? Even if he did love him unconditionally (which he does, but that deserves to be spoken about separately), SURELY it would get to him? And then Let's Find Out happens, and we see truly and properly for the first time that it Does. It does get to him. He is truly hurt by BoJack's constant berating. Of course he notices. Why wouldn't he take this new opportunity to humiliate him. Doesn't he deserve it? After all these years???

Then, we see it with Todd. BoJack's relationship with Todd at the start of the show is a much more complicated situation, because the show hints at the relationship being toxic straight from episode 4, but essentially, BoJack's view of being a dad is extremely fucking warped based on 1) his parents (unhealthy) and 2) horsin around (unhealthy but in the other direction). In the case of the latter, he also believes that as long as he just uproots everything and rides his boat to the middle of the sea, he can savour their relationship. The grand gesture means more than the day to day. But it doesn't. And unlike with Mr Peanutbutter, Todd is shown as this really getting to him very early on. In Downer Ending, Todd explicitly says to him that, after 5 years of literally LIVING with him, he's officially given up on BoJack being a good person. Lest we forget, this man's first line in the ENTIRE SHOW is "morning, sunshine!" Now, I understand why this might be difficult to recognise, because even though he's much less tolerant at this point in the story, he's still living with him. He still takes it. But then we see more and more Todd pov episodes. BoJack doesn't come to Todd's improv show. BoJack sleeps with Todd's kind of girlfriend. And THAT'S when Todd finally properly flips out. That's when Todd says "fuck". And you can say it was unexpected all you like but it wasn't. It was inevitable.

Both "Let's Find Out" and "It's You" show turning points in both of these relationships, and both of these are for the better. BoJack's relationship with Mr Peanutbutter becomes much more open after this episode, although they still have their bumps in the road. And BoJack and Todd's relationship has taken so many bumps up to this point that they basically have to start an entirely new relationship from scratch, eventually cumulating in Nice While It Lasted, as they have their first genuinely friendly conversation they have in the entire show.

And the thing about both of these relationships is that they stop being sitcom tropes and start being real.

Let me explain. In situations such as this one, it's extremely easy to relate to BoJack. BoJack is introduced to us as a very usual, grouchy, mean sitcom protagonist. That's what we Know coming into it. That's what He knows as we watch him. That's the only thing he knows. He genuinely believes this is charming behaviour. Hell, that's why grumpy x sunshine ships exist in the first place! And this is why it's useful to put ourselves in the shoes of the other parties. So I'm going to leave you all with a few questions to ponder in your own time. How would you feel if your closest friend kept berating you simply for existing? How would you feel if your kind of father kept betraying you and failing to make it up in the small actions he does every day? And finally, when was the last time you shipped a grumpy x sunshine ship and related to the sunshine?

*The Halloween party is obviously its own kettle of fish but I'm 100% sure not one person on the writing team knew it existed yet and therefore it does Not count.

[dongslinger--420]

The thing that makes Int. Sub such a genius episode is that although it is absolutely hysterical it's also one of the episodes that best portrays who BoJack ACTUALLY is, and there are a couple of reasons for this:

The struggles he goes through throughout this episode are relatively simple. When it comes down to it, he lost his mum recently, and he wants more than anything to talk about it, but he fundamentally doesn't know how. He's so traumatised that he doesn't know how to healthily reach out to people, and this trauma manifests itself in a way that is low stakes enough to be digestible. Sure, this later becomes something much bigger with his conflict with Diane, but fundamentally it represents both how layered he is as a character (he has terrible problems with communication that we largely saw unpacked one episode prior) and how far he still has to go: he doesn't want to improve enough that he can actually tackle this head on.

This episode isn't from Bojack's perspective! It's texturally from Dr Indira's, but on a deeper level this is Diane's journey!!! Diane is the one who has to deal with the consequences of this. Diane is the one who wants to talk to BoJack more than anything, but his trauma is preventing her from doing so. And it's brilliant, because this is exactly where Diane's ideologies lie. At the end of S1, Diane makes a point about how people are fundamentally their actions, and that the deep down doesn't matter.

To portray BoJack from Diane's perspective, showing how his trauma damages their relationship, is a genius move, and is one of the best portrayals of BoJack this show gives us.

[dongslinger--420]

No I'm not done actually. Morally grey characters in BoJack Horseman are one of the main themes and as a result I don't believe anyone is 100% bad or good. But I think this especially applies to Joseph. I see a lot of videos with him where people comment that they used to kind of like him and see him as sympathetic until they watched Times Arrow or until they finished The Old Sugarman Place or something, but the fact of the matter is that if Joseph were evil, he wouldn't have been happily married. If Joseph were evil, he would've lobotomized his wife at the first chance he got, but the thing that people keep forgetting is that he very specifically lobotomized Honey because she was PROVING TO BE AN ACTIVE DANGER TO THE LIFE OF HIS DAUGHTER. Sure, he only had one solution to this problem, but he waited until the last possible moment to use said solution.

Also, just think about it. A man who tortures the women he's close to, just because he's horrible and never bothered to think how they would feel? We already have a character like that in the show, who is portrayed as a parodic caricature. But a man who is 100% a product of his upbringing, never thinking of trying to be anything else? A man who, despite this upbringing, still loves his wife and daughter? A man who has such a misguided view on how to support said wife and daughter that he believes that destroying his daughter's possessions and lobotomizing his wife is as thoughtful and helpful as teaching his daughter to stand up for herself against her bullies, and standing up for his daughter against his wife?

Spine-chilling.

[dongslinger--420]

Escape From LA: How BoJack Horseman deconstructs the sitcom

A LOT of BoJack's characterisation is based on the fact that he sees life as a sitcom. You can't separate BoJack the show nor BoJack the character from sitcoms. So much of the show is based on deconstructing sitcom tropes, and that BoJack thinks that the sitcom solution will work in his life. Take that episode in season 1 where Diane and PB are getting married: BoJack keeps trying to create increasingly complicated situations to sabotage their marriage because he has a crush on Diane, because that's what would happen in a sitcom. But none of them actually work. Diane and PB get married anyway because, why wouldn't they? And the episode ends with Todd telling BoJack that he should just give up.

The sitcom thing is played for laughs to varying degrees throughout the show, with Escape From LA being one example that is exclusively played for drama. The entire episode is set up like an episode of a 90s sitcom: BoJack is extremely close with Penny and involved in her life, there are characters with quirks and catchphrases, BoJack does his stupid BoJack dance at the dance, BoJack acts as the "cool grown up friend" to all of Penny's friends, the New Mexico leitmotif plays throughout the episode as a scene transition, the bjhm theme song is replaced by an 80s sitcom parody of a theme called "Kyle And The Kids".

But the thing about all of this is that the show isn't a sitcom, and everything I just listed has a real life consequence.

Much like bjhm itself does, at the start of the episode the show plays this sitcom subversion for laughs. Pete Repeat has an extremely stupid character quirk both in and out of the context of the story, and he never fucking says anything twice! Because that's stupid! BoJack's stupid dance gets him boo'd off the dance floor because realistically why would a group of teenagers do a 51yo man dance. Kyle And The Kids is immediately followed by a joke about Penny's younger brother Trip having an unprompted erection, which would crucially never happen in an 80s sitcom because, although normal, is not family friendly by any stretch of the imagination.

The rest of my points, however, are subverted in a darker way. BoJack's closeness with Penny means that he knows a lot about her life, and the scene where they go through their plan on what to do also has Charlotte in the room, who has no idea what they're talking about, showing us that this is not a normal level of what an adult knows (there's more to say about this one but I'll get to it later). BoJack acting as the "cool grown up friend" involves giving teenagers bourbon (bearing in mind these kids have only ever drunk beer), and eventually one of them gets alcohol poisoning and ends up going to the hospital. And every time the New Mexico leitmotif is used in the following seasons (i.e. every time New Mexico is mentioned), it is used as something to haunt BoJack. It's the equivalent of having an extremely dirty and terrible association with the Hannah Montana music.

It's difficult to decipher exactly what stereotypical role BoJack is supposed to be taking in this hypothetical episode of Kyle And The Kids, or whatever you want to call it. I think he's supposed to be taking the role of "father". "Father" is the role that he played on Horsin Around. "Father" is what he (at least originally) wanted to be in relation to Penny. "Father" is something that he has one frame of reference for: The Horse.

There is a line in Sabrina's Christmas Wish where Olivia is complaining about the boy she's talking to, and The Horse offers to take her to the dance. The funny thing about this line is that it's not at all out of place in Horsin Around, because it's normal for sitcom parents to have that level of involvement with their children. In fact, they have to, in a narrative context, because it's a dom com, and you have to have the characters interact with each other because that's just how stories work. However, it is out of place in Escape From LA, purely because we have Charlotte as a frame of reference. Charlotte and Penny are very close, and are shown to be very close throughout all of their appearances. But Charlotte is reacting to the conversation with comments like "who are these people?" because she's still Penny's mother at the end of the day. I would say I'm close with my mum and I've never given her that much information about my crushes (it took me half of my one relationship to even tell her that I was in a relationship). And because of this distinction, Penny doesn't see BoJack as a parental figure. She sees him as a friend, which is why she falls in love with him later on.

The interesting thing about this episode is that because it's so sitcommy by design, it's extremely easy to root for BoJack on your first watch. Because the "father" or the "cool adult/uncle/whatever" role in a sitcom is one that's known, and the father in the sitcom would never do anything wrong. Especially considering the background information we have that Charlotte is the one who got away. We, at least to a degree, expect BoJack to actually end up with Charlotte at the end of the episode. When BoJack says things like "you look just like your mother", on our first watch of the episode we connect that to his want to be Penny's father, because that's also BoJack's intention. But then everything gets shattered, both in and out of universe, when Charlotte rejects BoJack. Because suddenly, both we and BoJack are supposed to deal with the fact that, actually, why would she have an affair with Kyle? What information do we have that she and Kyle are not happily married?* This is not a sitcom. So then, BoJack starts to panic. He starts to think irrationally, as this illusion he has been creating for himself for 3 months and/or 29 years starts to crumble. He starts to see Penny, not as a daughter, but as the next best option to being with Charlotte, the next best option to keep living this lie he keeps telling himself.

Sure, it seems like shock value the first time you watch it. Because it's a subversion. It's not what you expect by definition. But then after you rewatch the episode, you can't unsee it. Everything is recontextualised. It's no longer a sitcom.

Escape From LA is my second favourite penultimate episode in the entire show. Other than being one of the biggest parts of the show that wasn't spoilt for me, it's so beautifully constructed and subtle and genius that it remains gripping every time, and I love noticing a new thing about it every time.

*For this very reason, Kyle's lack of appearances and an active role in this episode is genius.

[dongslinger--420]

Diane is so fascinating and nobody even cares. You mean to tell me that NOBODY likes to think about her Brady Bunch line at the start of the show? About how when she says "most people don't even get to do the Brady Bunch version of their lives", she's trying to convince Herself that a steady job as a ghostwriter trumps following her dream? When she says "you're in a really good position right now", it's because she Can't do whatever she wants as a writer? That she never can???

[dongslinger--420]

Ok but. The scene in s2e09 "The Shot" fucking breaks me and here's why. BoJack sees Kelsey as a merge between his parents and Herb, what with her being older than him and jaded but also she's a boss figure. And for this reason, BoJack spends a lot of time (shown most in "Chickens" but also a lot of the season tbh) trying to win her approval because she's not giving it to him willingly. He keeps going about it in the wrong way, as we see in Chickens when he is trying to turn her actual literal daughter being in danger into a fun day out, but I think the biggest issue with this is actually that he doesn't really have anything to prove. Kelsey purposefully sought him out for the job because she genuinely believed him to be the best actor there, and although she shows frustration at him not being able to do his job properly, she does still keep this image of him in mind. Which is why the thing that actually does lead him to win her approval is him delivering a genuinely good performance, and said approval just comes in a simple recognition of his skill. BoJack has been in desperate of simple appreciation from his parents (reflected in stuff like the "I see you" theme from Free Churro) and he has been missing the attention and extremely intimate love of his performance that Herb gave him while he was directing him, and Kelsey's "no, I knew" quote manages, in three words, to deliver both to him perfectly. And THAT'S what breaks him. Between the sheer emotional connection he feels towards this woman, and the lack of this connection that he received from the people he wanted it from the most, it just becomes too much for him, and THAT'S what leads him to start crying. It is one of the most layered, emotionally intimate moments of the entire show, and it breaks me every time I watch it.