My Two Favorite Bojack Horseman Episodes

Bojack Horseman is a hard show to summarize mostly due to the variety of topics and themes it tackles and how unexplainable some scenes from the show are, especially without context.

I highly recommend this show. If I were given the opportunity to write on any finished/inactive TV show, due to a reboot or time travel, Bojack Horseman would be my second choice. The first would be Community which is my favorite show of all time and I cannot recommend enough.

I do not necessarily think these two episodes are the best or most impactful episodes but they are currently my favorites. Should I at some point rewatch the entire show that may change but I’m short on time and long on other blog and comic book ideas so here we are.

Unlike the last TV episode highlight I wrote, “Harley’s Holiday”, these episodes assume, reasonably so, that viewers have watched the previous seasons and episodes and as such these episodes will not work if these are the first episodes of the show you watch.

Bojack Kills (S3 E3)

In this episode, Bojack and Diane stumble onto a mysterious death and decide to investigate. Meanwhile, Todd and Mr. Peantbutter have been sprayed by a skunk and call Princess Carolyn for help.

Already I think this is one of the strengths of this episode, the way characters have been paired up. There is Mr. Peanutbutter and Todd for the comedic element and Princess Carolyn serves as the comedic foil to them. Bojack is ostensibly the comedic element in the episode, mostly in how he doesn’t take anything serious outside of the Oscar voters, and Diane as the comedic foil. Narrative terms aside, I think these groupings of characters tend to have the most interesting interactions generally and this episode is no exception.

At the start of the episode, Bojack, Diane, and Ana are attending a “Non-Denominational Winter Day” pageant from which several good jokes were extracted. What stands out to me in this episode and about the show in general, upon rewatching this episode, is how the show manages to have good jokes, solid writing, and snappy dialogue without being too quippy which is a problem that many modern pieces of media struggle with.

Early on in the episode, Mr. Peanutbutter reaches out to Princess Carolyn for help. I like how much people trust Princess Carolyn and look to her for help. In this episode, Mr. Peanutbutter simply states “you’re Princess Carolyn and you can fix anything.” It was nice to see her getting some “me” time before interruption as she often has workaholic tendencies. Later on, it was nice to see Princess Carolyn in her element, crushing it as a problem solver, as she often does.

There were several character moments in this episode. Despite it being the weekend and, if memory serves, Mr. Peanutbutter not being one of Princess Carolyn’s primary clients, she drops everything to help him which is very typical of her. Mr. Peanutbutter later in the episode, when updating Princess Carolyn on his marital problems, comes across as optimistic but not naïve. He’s trying to do what he can but he also has a frank and realistic view of how tenuous his marriage is currently. I’d have to go back to previous seasons to confirm this suspicion, but this does seem like character growth from Mr. Peantbutter. Whether his changed view of the world is borne of cynicism and nihilism due to failed marriages or from a simply more realistic neutral mindset when approaching problems and life itself. There are hints of Mr. Peanutbutter’s nihilistic life philosophy in early seasons, a notable example being Season 1 Episode 12 where he says “The universe is a cruel, uncaring void. The key to being happy isn't a search for meaning. It's to just keep yourself busy with unimportant nonsense, and eventually, you'll be dead.” In typical Mr. Peanutbutter fashion, he says this entire arguably depressing statement with a smile on his face and is literally cheerfully whistling moments after. Despite this outer appearance, it seems like the “happy” mask or attitude gets thinner and taken off faster as the seasons progress. Alright, let’s get back to the episode before this becomes the script for a Mr. Peanutbutter video essay.

Later in the episode, there is a very funny jump cut from a zoomed in Bojack saying “murder” in a serious tone to him dancing at a bat mitzvah. If nothing else, it is just nice to see Bojack happy. In unfortunately typical Bojack fashion, him not taking things seriously only applies to things unrelated to him, including the potential murder of someone, while he is still only focused on getting Oscar votes. Diane’s early on established passion for truth, justice, and avoidant tendencies are all strongly shown in her behavior in this episode as well. How much of her interest in the dead whale case is due to a genuine desire for the truth versus serving as a convenient excuse to avoid her marital problems is a bit unclear, although it’s likely a bit of both.

I also like how the episode takes a moment to have Diane drop one of the show’s many hard truths, saying that those happy, perky all the time people you see on TV are not real. This is a good message to give to the audience but the show doesn’t beat the viewer over the head with it either, which I appreciated.

Does it hold up?

Yeah, I would say so, I think this is still a very good episode although I would have liked to see the Todd, Mr. Peanutbutter, and Princess Carolyn side-plot resolved as well as some resolution to Mr. Peanutbutter and Diane’s fight.  

Stop the Presses (S3 E7)

This episode also starts fairly normal as Bojack simply sets out to cancel his newspaper subscription to the “LA Gazette”. The one customer representative at the LA Gazette frantically escalates the situation in a scene which contains some funny visual gags. The call eventually gets escalated to the “Closer” who begins to talk to Bojack. What starts as a basic newspaper cancellation request quickly turns into essentially a therapy session for Bojack.

One thing I like, which is another testament to the voice acting in this episode, especially Candice Bergen who voices the Closer, is in instances where the Closer calls Bojack out on his poor decisions, she genuinely seems to care about Bojack and his friends. Despite only being on the phone for six minutes thus far early in the episode, the Closer already appears invested in Bojack’s life and wants better for him. One moment in particular, the Closer says “What? Why?” while conveying a variety of emotions including confusion and frustration, with just those words and Candice Bergen’s delivery of the lines. The Closer arguably is a viewer surrogate who gets frustrated and confused when Bojack continues his self-destructive behaviors. The Closer as a therapist creates an interesting dynamic and serves as a solid foundation for the story to build upon.

Any TV episode with “Character Actress and Fugitive from the Law” Margo Martindale is immediately elevated in quality and this episode is no exception as she is a recurring character and always fun to see.

This is a fairly minor thing but this episode puts in the leg work to have what would otherwise be non-sequiturs, such as the giant paper mâché Todd head and stolen food, by establishing them beforehand and weaving them into the narrative of the episode, which I appreciated. 

Does it hold up?

This is another solidly written episode. What could easily be a mundane story manages to be quite captivating with jokes, interesting visuals, and an ever-evolving storyline that interweaves well.

Conclusion:

The comedy of both episodes is pleasantly varied, the episodes include several recurring jokes such as self-aware/meta jokes, visual gags, puns, and crazy rhyming sentences.

Both of these episodes punctuate a serious moment with a well-timed joke which is a difficult thing to pull off without undercutting the moment.

These episodes in some senses seem like a highlights / greatest hits episode without resorting to being a “clips” episode. They both serve to showcase the strengths of the show: superb writing, excellent voice acting, and likeable and flawed characters. I highly recommend both these episodes and the show Bojack Horseman in general.