Let me introduce him to you by sharing a few words, before I explain how he helped me change the way I think and function. Before you judge him, know where he comes from. He was raised in a toxic household without any non fictional role models to look up to. He grew up listening to vile words and was neglected for the most part. But yes, he is not only an ex-alcoholic, but is also an ex-drug addict. He is the reason for the death of a person who looked up to him. For most of his adult life, he misused his power and wealth to get out of all the damage he inflicted on every single person he ever knew. He also happens to be a horse. I’m sorry for the click-baity title. I was referring to Bojack Horseman, the titular character of the popular Netflix show. Do I get redemption for apologizing? Does Bojack get redemption for being, and I quote, a “dick weasel”? Does anyone ever get redemption for a bad deed?
I finished the last episode of the series today and immediately felt like telling the world what I thought about it. I’ll get to addressing this self importance later. And the purpose of starting my YouTube channel was to express these feelings I had about movies and various series. But I felt I didn’t quite have the serious and introspective composure to pull this off on video. It’s the best series I have ever watched. Ever, without exaggerations. But I would not recommend it for people who have not yet watched it. Much like a therapist would, the show opened a lot of my wounds wide open before it told me I had the ability to now heal them myself. So you have been warned if you ever do decide to start watching it. And a further warning is that this post contains spoilers. Here is what I felt:
Good Damage
The most relatable episode, for me, came in the final season when one of the main characters Diane Nguyen struggles to write a part memoir-part essays book. She stops taking anti depressants because she identifies as a depressed individual and anything other than depression feels unnatural. And she feels she HAS to write the story of her life because.. because the struggles she underwent during her childhood and adolescence made her special. It means she could wear her struggles like a war wound. This was perhaps her coping mechanism. When she was bullied, she might have thought “I know I’m all alone now, but when I grow up, I will convert all this hatred that is thrown towards me and make something meaningful out of it. I will be an example of how one can survive harsh environments and still be functional”. The last sentence is my interpretation of her thoughts because I too have felt this. This is where I feel I should address the ‘self importance’ I mentioned earlier. When we go through something we think was difficult or life-changing, to derive even more meaning out of it and to immortalize it, we try to tell the world. There is a very fine line between healing ourselves because we need to, and healing ourselves because the world would say that it is the most meaningful thing to do.
The Protagonist
No, not Bojack. Bojack was just the more popular anti hero who the show focused on. I mean his agent and ex-girlfriend, Princess Carolyn (P.C). She was always the flip side of the coin compared to Diane, when it came to the two closest people in Bojack’s life. She never felt the need to write or share her past difficult experiences. But the way she coped with them was EQUALLY VALID. This isn’t to invalidate Diane’s coping mechanisms. P.C has her own flaws. She was so intent on supporting herself that she often forgot that knowing when to get help and who to get it from is an important life skill. And the show’s realism with how it dealt with other characters gives me hope because P.C got the best and happiest endings of them all. Not hope that I could end up like P.C. Maybe I can, but I mean hope that happy endings CAN exist. She was Ruthless (up until Season 5 if you know what I mean) and she did all the work so she deserved what she got. And as Rutabaga said,
“Okay. Carolyn, you are the star of a movie. This is the part of the movie where you get your heart broken. Where the world tests you, and people treat you like shit. But it has to happen this way. Otherwise, the end of the movie, when you get everything you want, won’t feel as rewarding. There are assholes out there, but in the end, they don’t matter. Because this movie’s not about them. It’s never been about them.”
Zoës and Zeldas
The show explains that there are two types of people in the world. The Zoes, who see the glass half empty, and you know the rest. Todd and Mr Peanutbutter are two of the most prominent Zeldas on the show. While Todd is no mere comic relief and comes with his own character arc, Mr Peanutbutter is who I saw myself in. Or maybe we can all see our younger selves in him, when we assumed that the sole intent (and not action) of doing right by someone and loving them, is enough to sustain a relationship, be it romantic or otherwise. And much like the character, we had to ‘grow up’ and take responsibility for how much hurt that must have caused someone who felt unheard.
The Redemption Fallacy
What I hate about most sitcoms or even movies, is how the main character gets a beautiful redemption arc. He/she does a bad deed X, and doing a good deed Y is seen as a mathematical equivalent and both sides cancel each other off. There is no branch of consequences sprouting off of bad deed X. A branch that keeps growing and keeps getting more tangled than ever. Enters Bojack, with a redemption he seeks for 6 whole seasons, and still doesn’t really get! (Oops mega spoiler!). It was a good ending, and it was good because it was real. Occurrences in life are irreversible. Bandages really don’t fix bullet holes (cross pop culture reference yo!). We do have to become better people and the only way to do that is to forgive ourselves for our mistakes of the past. So here is a thin line again between forgiving ourselves and letting ourselves off the hook. The former demands that we push through the experience and confront our bad deed. The latter just means we forget about it.
Apart from being a good therapist, Bojack Horseman was an extraordinarily written show, with multiple character arcs all falling into place organically and beautifully. And it even managed to pack a legitimately suspenseful sub show within its plot (Philbert). Who knew Philbert was the murderer and not the victim all along?
With this I conclude. If you have already watched the show and would like to talk about in more detail, DM me! If you have not watched the show, save it for days when you think you need to take yourself through your own character arc and trust me, it all ends well. :)
