BoJack Horseman: The Hero You’d Never Expect
On August 22nd, 2014, Netflix released a show about an anthropomorphic horse named, you guessed it, BoJack Horseman created by Raphael Bob-Waksberg. BoJack is a has-been from the 90's who was the star of his own sitcom “Horsin’ Around” in which he adopts 3 orphan children. The '90s have come and gone and BoJack is living off of royalties from the show. Even so, he wants to get back into show business and prove he’s not a has-been anymore. Despite this, BoJack constantly sabotages himself and the efforts of everyone around him who are trying to help him. In essence, he is a self-absorbed, self-hating, and overall miserable horseman.
BoJack is a very unlikely hero for several reasons, one of them being he’s not an actual human. Two, he’s a grumpy alcoholic. Three, he’s selfish. Four, he’s self-absorbed and five, he’s miserable. He is, essentially, the epitome of all that is bad about a person in their crudest form. However, BoJack might be the most relatable and interesting character this side of cartoon shows.
Within the first season of BoJack Horseman, the audience doesn’t get to see a whole lot of who BoJack is or what exactly makes him tick. Instead, we see a washed-up celebrity with nothing much to offer the world. However, little bits and pieces of Bojack’s past are weaved within the storyline to provide some background. BoJack grows up as an only child in the ‘50s with his parents Butterscotch and Beatrice Horseman. Their marriage is in constant turmoil causing BoJack’s home life to be unhealthy and troubling. This, of course, leads to a difficult adult life for BoJack, but eventually, he and his best friend, Herb Kazzaz, form the show that would launch BoJack’s career and also a chance for BoJack to achieve something his mother could be proud of.
This would be one of the many disappointments in BoJack’s life. After a betrayal to Herb, a career that went from rapid to a screeching halt, and the loss of all his “friends,” BoJack would find himself living alone watching “Horsin’ Around” longing for the glory days when he was someone or when he was happy, so he says. Several times throughout the series, BoJack struggles to capture the ever elusive concept of happiness. He is given the lead role in a major movie production which he screws up; he falls in love and, much to his disappointment, it is not what he expected; and he makes an impulsive decision to leave the set to live in New Mexico with an old friend, Charlotte, in an attempt to be happy. Without any real thought into the process, he attempts to settle down with her even though she is already married with two kids. When an inappropriate relationship almost develops between BoJack and Charlotte’s daughter, he’s promptly kicked out and is forced to go back to LA and back to his life.
As I watched this show, I was captivated by the depth to which Bob-Waksberg went to get to somewhere most shows do not usually go — a dark and honest place. Every person has an abyss within them where there is nothing or no one else except the ugly truth about themselves. For BoJack, that ugly truth is “I just wanna be happy” and “I am not lovable.” Words like these are both incredibly damaging, ugly, and, ultimately, honest. As much as no one would be willing to admit this and as much as we would all rather watch something that would distract us from this ugly truth, Raphael goes there. He goes to that place within us all and we see ourselves in BoJack. It’s not a pretty sight, but by BoJack paradoxically trying to run from himself and inadvertently facing himself, the audience does the same.
It is because of this and a myriad of other things that BoJack Horseman is the hero we all truly are in some form or another. Raphael Bob-Waksberg made a character that we both pity and relate to. Gone is the shiny, pristine hero of old Greek legends and myths. Here is one of the heroes that is the most difficult to love, like, or even tolerate and yet he is the most like us.
