BoJack Horseman
BoJack Horseman is an adult animated series on Netflix that began its premiere in 2014 and ended in 2020. The show takes a realistic look into depression, heartbreak, and nihilism. This series gives such raw feelings and quotes that hit so close to home if you have ever felt or are familiar with these feelings. The series does not give a quick tip solution to any of these issues, as those do not exist, instead it has you empathize with these characters being put into situations that are familiar to us. The titular character BoJack Horseman is a self-centered, self-loathing alcoholic actor who used to be the star in a 90’s sitcom. In this post, I would like to looks a few quotes that left me speechless in BoJack’s downward spiral into his rock bottom.
“He’s so stupid, he doesn’t realize how miserable he should be” BoJack says to his “friend” Mr. Peanutbutter. From this quote alone, we can realize three things about BoJack. BoJack and Mr. Peanutbutter’s friendship is one-way, BoJack is condescending towards Mr. Peanutbutter, and that BoJack is a defeatist. He sees the life that is something that is to be hated. People who cannot see that are just too stupid to realize that. This is not something that I entirely agree with, and maybe you do not either, but I am sure that this is something that the majority of people have thought. From this perspective, life is just going from one chore to a break, back to another chore. Being aware of that and still doing nothing is what makes BoJack a defeatist. He concedes his life to an external locust of control and is resides as a passenger in his life. There is no easy answer to this kind of existential crisis, but to acknowledge that you are electing to allow yourself to be despaired is a start. Life can be overwhelming, but BoJack does not take responsibility for his inactions and this is shown in this quote.
BoJack Horseman has many run ins with love and spoiler alert, none of them end well. In one of these such instances, Wanda, a girl breaking up with him says “When you look at someone through rose-colored glasses, all the red flags look just like flags.” This statement may have caught my attention because of the fancy use of three different idioms placed seamlessly into this one sentence, but it would be a lie if I were to say that this did not force me to recall my own past. Humans by nature want to love and be loved. Sometimes we are too eager to give and accept that love, that these red flags that Wanda mentions appear to be signs of “fun quirks”, when down the road, they are what they always were, red flags. Love is a choice and obstacles can be overcome, but sometimes it’s easier to not overcome them. Or sometimes the person that you thought you fell in love with had characteristics that, in a state of puppy love infatuation you thought were cute, but in a realistic setting after the honeymoon phase is over and you are not wearing the rose colored glasses anymore, were annoying. BoJack and Wanda clearly rushed into something that was too much too soon and realized that they did not actually love each other.
The last quote I would like to examine looks at one of BoJack Horseman’s central ideologies of nihilism. “I don’t understand how people…live. It’s amazing to me that people wake up every morning and say: ‘Yeah, another day, let’s do it.’ How do people do it? I don’t know how.” As far as dissecting this quote goes, its very straightforward, but it is so important to understand, nonetheless. As mentioned in the first quote, BoJack is not in control of his own life. This is exemplified how BoJack has no interest in taking control of his own life. More or less, he seems surprised that he will wake up tomorrow and that his life tomorrow will be his responsibility. Not only does he not gain control of his life, he actively does not want control. By us having control of our lives, we make the decision of what we eat, what we do during our free time. These are decisions, amongst many others, shape us as people, but by not wanting any of those decisions to make, is like a cop out in life. From my perspective, it is deflecting responsibility. We are defined by our actions, and therefore we take responsibility for them, for better or worse, whether its good or bad.
There is no easy solution to the topics that are explored in BoJack Horseman. Just being a better person does not make you immune to depression, negative thoughts, or heartbreak. I believe that we all react and cope differently to each of these situations given the circumstances. Sometimes its our fault that we feel a certain way and sometimes it is out of our control. I believe that is the reason the series explores such open-ended topics. The only thing that we can control is our own actions, and to yield to the infinite unknown is an injustice to ourselves. It is our obligation to always put our best foot forward and live with the intent to make a better tomorrow.
BoJack Horseman. Created by Raphael Bob-Waksberg, The Tornante Company, LLC, 2014, Netlfix
