#letterstobojack

[letterstobojack]

Thank You

This show has helped me more than most people in my life, it helped me take notice of my own mental illnesses, and reflect upon my mistakes. As a kid who is in a very isolated place in the world (Iqaluit, Nunavut [Canada])watching this has made me feel less alone and finally feel  understood in a way that no one has understood me.

This has to be the most honest show I’ve seen; I got to watch this character go through so much and in a very personal way. It showed the raw emotions everyone has felt but no one talks about, it showed mistakes/regrets that are so bad that you can never forget. It shows the guilt, hurt, and shame from trauma that’s constantly in your mind. How all these feelings and memories can make you do even more bad things when you just want to be good.

I’ve also made a better connection with my Dad because of this show. We sometimes watch it together, then we talk afterwards. And it means so much to me because I never felt like I can talk to him about anything, I never thought I would be able to finally be honest to him and vice versa. But now we finally understand eachother a little more, we both know how hurt we’ve been and how much we love eachother and want to help eachother. I’ve also been able to create boundaries with my mom, after seeing Bojack’s mother I saw how similar she is to my own mother, and I felt like I needed to step back from her and not let her have such an effect on me.

This show made me reflect on my whole life and realize how much I’ve gone through and that I’ve been drowning, and that I need to breathe. I’m slowly but surely accepting what I’ve been pushing down inside me for the past 18 years of my life. And just like the show said ‘It gets easier, but you got to do it everyday. That’s hard part’, but for the first time in my life I feel like I’ve had a nice big deep breath.

Thank you for reminding me that I need to breathe, for being the bubbles that helped me back up for air.

Thank you to every single helping member of Bojack Horseman.

[letterstobojack]

Dear Todd.

hey bud.  Everybody is telling BJ how much they love him (natch, he’s a star and all that).  I wanted to say thank you to You (and all the people who helped you be you).  You were always trying to see the bright side and never letting the bad stuff crush you. Not everybody has been down-on-their-luck like you were, but we got to see how you were able to still make a go of it.  I have Been There.  I had more than one career crash down around me.  One day I found myself with all my possessions crammed into my car, trying to find a roof to put over my head.  I drove from state to state to visit some of the only people i knew, some who I barely knew at all, to couch-surf.  If I’d known your story back then maybe i wouldn’t have felt so alone.  Spoiler: everything turned out okay in the end for me, but plenty aren’t so lucky, eh?  So here’s to Todd. (And to BJ too: I mean it was his Roof and his Couch, right?) All the best to you and yours, Miami Pony.

[letterstobojack]

[letterstobojack]

To the writers,

This show has helped me grow in so many ways that I really could have never expected. I may have only been introduced to it two years ago, but when my friend turned it on, I couldn’t bare to turn it off. When I first met BoJack and the gang I was in the lowest period of my life, I had just be absolutely destroyed by someone I really loved and cared about. That person turned out to actually be a lot like BoJack, which is one of the first things that hooked me. Shortly into my addiction my friend told me that he thought I was a lot like Diane, and that whenever he watches her, he thinks of me, and once I opened my eyes to that reality, everything changed. The way that Diane turned her life around, she took risks, she moved around, she lived independently, she supported herself, she chased her dreams, and she just fought for herself, all of that, inspired me so much. I realized how brave the character was, how beautifully yet messily she handled life, and how I wish I had the courage to be more like her. I followed my own dreams and managed to fall in love in the process and honestly I never felt more connected to Diane. Her ending was poetic and (in my opinion) perfect. She realized she couldn’t hold onto BoJack in her life when he was such a danger to everything she had worked so hard for. She finally had a man who loved and supported her even in her darkest moments, she was engaged, she was writing, and traveling, and was thriving. BoJack calling her and basically blaming the possibility of his death on her completely knocked her off her feet, but instead of staying down and crawling back to help him and save him over herself, she stood up and moved on. Diane is an inspiration of a character, and as much as I still love and care for my ex and I know that he could probably manipulate me into coming back, Diane showed me how important it is to stay the path and stay strong. 

Overall, thank you for a wonderful show with amazing representation of lgbtqia+, race, gender, and so much more. Life just wont feel quite the same without it, but I cant wait to see where we go from here.

Cheers,

IRL Diane 

United States

[letterstobojack]

B,

I’ve never been one for long-winded essays (which is funny, because writing long-winded essays is like 90% of what I do for a living), so I hope the relative brevity of this letter won’t detract from the weight of the intended message.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t that into you at first. I was following a recommendation from a friend who said I’m just like you. She still calls me BoJack. I don’t think she means it as a compliment. No offence.

But even though we didn’t click, I stuck with it. There was something to your story that just resonated with me. Over time, I began to relate more and more with who you were as a person. In many ways, it was terrifying. But there was always that glimmer of hope. That tiny bit of potential that things don’t need to be the way they are. That I, too, could be better.

It was more than 12 years ago now that I was diagnosed with depression. Of course, I was depressed long before that. Long as I can remember. But there it was, all official. I tried a single antidepressant for a month, half-assed some therapy, and then stopped trying. For 12 goddamn years, I just accepted it as part of life. That I would always go through ‘cycles’. That weeks of not being able to function was just who I was. Can you imagine how fucked up you have to be to consider something like this to be normal? I guess you can, huh.

I can’t credit you wholly with my recovery. In truth, it was a mere freak coincidence that I stumbled upon something that helped. But you were there for the journey. And I am good now. Actually good. There is colour in my life again, and I cannot possibly put into words how that feels after so long. I’m not sure if I will ever be a good person, but I know I will keep trying. Every day.

I thank you for this journey, but I think I am ready to go alone now.

Farewell,

K

[letterstobojack]

Dear BoJack,

I remember when I first found you. It was like you were deliberately sent into my life at the time when I needed you most. I had no expectations when I started you and no idea that a tv show could ever have such an impact on me. I wonder where I’d be without you. Even though the show is ending I’ve come to terms with the fact it’s not goodbye, I don’t have to let you go and no matter what you’ll always be there. In saying that my heart aches every time I think there’s only 8 episodes left, ever. No more new content after that. When I found out season 6 was the final season I felt sick, I almost threw up, which is odd because I’m not a dramatic person. I don’t know how to write this letter, to accurately capture how you’ve impacted me, how every time I speak your quotes are imbedded in my speech, how I relate every situation to a specific scene in your show or why I know all the lyrics to and am constantly singing a song called ‘Get Dat Fetus Kill Dat Fetus’ (you too ‘Kyle and the Kids’). I’ll never understand how a television show can be so extremely ‘woke’, soul crushing, genius, hilarious and genius again, all while people ride it off as a cartoon. To everyone involved with BoJack I hope you know you’ve changed the lives of countless individuals and undoubtably have saved many lives. I don’t know what else to say other than thank you. With every ounce of my soul, thank you.

Your deer friend, Molly

[letterstobojack]

Dear Bojack,

I’ve only recently discovered your show as of last September and let me just say it has never let me down. I completely relate to all of the characters, it’s like sometimes I’m Bojack but I can also be Mr.Peanutbutter. Either way they’re all unique in there own way just like me. I get that life can be hard sometimes and you just want to make the pain go away but it’s a life we have to live so we might as well live how we want. That’s why I love the show, the characters live for themselves and that’s how I want to be.

This show makes me laugh and feel just a little less alone when I watch it so thank you for that. It might only be a show and not the real world but it’s good enough for me. 

[letterstobojack]

Dear Bojack,

Let's get one thing straight: I don't relate to your show.

I'm not depressed like Diane, and I'm not sadness-repulsive like Mr. Peanutbutter. I'm not carefree like Todd, or as hard working as Princess Carolyn, or, and pardon me for saying this, feel as much of a fuckup as you.

I can't find anything reletable for me in your show which, initially, made me watch it with a certain distance - I appreciated the enormous artistic talent that went into it. I loved the plotlines, I adored the depth all of this marvelous piece of art has. But it was that: an incredible work of art I had no part in. I was a mere spectator.

Then I started thinking, thinking hard. This show has many people I know in it. This show has every type of person. This show has probably me in it.

I just don't see it.

Maybe I DO put other people on a pedestal or expect from them some impossible thing. Maybe I hurt people. Maybe I overwork myself. Maybe I AM a fuckup. I watched these characters each with a real life problem and couldn't relate.

And then I understood that my problem was precisely that: I am a mere spectator. I don't go on the stage, I just watch. That's a bad thing to discover, let me tell you, because all your life you've been encouraging the direct approach, you know, living life being active, not passive. And then you understand you did just that. You got so hurt, you decided to just watch.

Bojack, this letter doesn't have a point. You don't even exist, Bojack, but in me, you might as well.

Because you changed me: when I was done having an existential crisis, asking myself what I might have done wrong, who I might have been, I realized I'm me. And I realized these people, these characters I love, they're all real people. They're all around me.

I felt empathy, hate, adoration, pity, compassion for them.

I realized more than ever that everyone - EVERYONE fights his own battle: just because you're always happy and cheerful doesn't mean you weren't raised in a place where you literally COULD NOT be sad and don't have an ill brother. And I was just watching that, trying so hard to change something, when I couldn't, but always keeping my distance from the stage.

You've been terrible, Bojack. You've been an horrible person. And I've seen you change, and I can't even begin to express the feeling that came over me when I saw that.

The power of change: the power of understanding what you did wrong, learn from it, and become a better person.

I decided I don't want to just watch anymore: maybe I'll get off my comfy seat and show all of my metaphorical red scars.

Maybe I'll try to get on stage.

Thanks to you, I'm more empathic, and I was VERY empathic, and I have seen terrible people do terrible things, and I can't forgive them. But I forgave you, and I think that might be a start.

I don't relate to your show, but I wish I did, because this feeling of being able to better yourself... but maybe I'm doing it too. I actually wouldn't know.

We'll have to find out and that's okay.

Thank you, thanks to this incredible thing, because it has changed my view on life and it will change many, many people's.

And it better do.

-A deeply affected Adriana