— Sharanya Kannan
The article contains spoilers!
BoJack Horseman, in its six-season run, explored an absurdist, fictionalised version of Los Angeles filled with anthropomorphic talking animals. BoJack is one of the wittiest shows to be made, that is full of clever dialogue, hilarious guest performances, animal puns and innumerable background gags. At the same time it manages to be one of the most depressing and impactful pieces of media I’ve ever consumed.
BoJack Horseman is a show laden with heavy themes. From depression, alcoholism and cycles of abuse, to more topical issues like MeToo, abortion and gun control, there are very few issues the show does not explore. It’s a testament to the skill of the show’s writers that they explored so many subjects with their signature wit and satirical humor while still being sincere. However, there’s one theme that I often find myself pondering over when I think of the show is how it explores growth, accountability and forgiveness.
BoJack Horseman is one among many complicated, morally questionable male leads on TV. He is a self-absorbed anthropomorphic horse trying to relive his glory days as a 90’s sitcom star, with a side of alcoholism. What sets the show apart, is that it does not shy away from depicting the dark depths of BoJack’s actions and the consequences that people around him suffer as a result.
In the first season, we are shown, through flashbacks, one of BoJack’s worst acts. He outs his former best friend, Herb Kazzaz, also created the sitcom that made him famous, as gay. The network executives end up firing Herb, who is left alone and friendless. One of the most significant moments of the first season is BoJack’s apology to Herb with inherent assumption that Herb will fully forgive him. Without missing a beat, Herb says, “I don’t forgive you.” Herb tells a shocked BoJack that he has to live with the horrible thing that he did, and that he’s not going to forgive him simply to make him feel better about himself. BoJack being the main character of the show, does not absolve him from consequences: he must live with all the terrible things he has done to people.
The devastating penultimate episode of the season, Downer Ending, ends with BoJack asking his friend and biography author Diane Nguyen if, deep down, he is a good person. His question is met with deafening silence as the credits start to roll. In the next episode, Diane explains that she doesn’t believe in “deep down”. She believes all you are is just the things that you do. This forms one of the show’s core moral beliefs — you can’t constantly be a terrible person and claim forgiveness because you feel like you deserve it. You can’t just say you’re a good person — it has to reflect in your actions. Who you are is ultimately the sum of your actions.
Over the course of the show, we see many flashbacks of BoJack’s childhood, and instances that shaped him. Through insights into his childhood, and his mother’s childhood, a tragic story takes shape. Within these is a story of repetitive cycles of abuse and generational trauma.The emotional abuse that BoJack’s mother suffered led her to treat her son the same way. He passed on the same self-destructive lessons he had learned to Sarah Lynn, the young actress who played his daughter on the sitcom, effectively ruining the life of a young girl who looked up to him as a father figure.
While other shows might use tragic backstories to justify or excuse the actions of a morally questionable character, BoJack’s past serves as an explanation rather than a justification. It also explores the lifelong psychological and behavioral impact of abuse and trauma . BoJack understands that although abuse can significantly impact our actions, it doesn’t give anyone an excuse to perpetuate the same cycles. This is a show that truly believes in the power of change, constantly pushing its characters to do better and to stop letting their past dictate their actions. This is exemplified by the cathartic Season 3 episode It’s You. Throughout the season BoJack slowly demolishes all his relationships, it’s his friend Todd Chavez who tells it to him straight: “You can’t keep doing sh*tty things and then feel bad about yourself like that makes it okay! You need to be better!” Once again, as BoJack tries to explain away his actions due to circumstance, Todd forces him to actually reckon with what he’s done rather than trying to justify it.
The show also depicts how Hollywood (or Hollywoo, to be more accurate) treats men who screw up, in an high satiric tone. While also giving due to attention to the people who are affected by their actions and left to pick up the pieces. In season 5, after an actor named Vance Waggoner gets in trouble for constantly making misogynistic remarks, he plays the victim, goes on an “apology tour”, and eventually getting honoured at the “We Forgive You” awards. On the other hand, there are many victims of BoJack’s faults who are forced to grapple with the effects of his actions and only left to be traumatized. The show once again brings nuance to the topic of forgiveness: what warrants forgiveness? Is it enough to feel bad? Does your past matter? Does it matter if you were under the influence of drugs or alcohol? Will showing the other side convince you to change your mind?
The show is acutely aware of its responsibility to its audience. The 5th season is when this is most evident. In this season, BoJack stars in a show called Philbert about a morally grey detective. This season blurs the lines between fiction and reality, with BoJack spiralling to a point where he cannot differentiate between Philbert and himself. The show seizes this opportunity for meta-commentary and uses Philbert as a jumping point to critically analyse all of BoJack’s actions. In the episode named Head In The Clouds, BoJack claims that the moral lesson of Philbert is that “we’re all terrible… therefore we’re all okay.” The consequent conflict that arises between Diane and BoJack is one of the show’s best written and most self-critical. Diane points out that it is irresponsible to interpret the show as BoJack did, as it enables people to use the show and its central character to justify their own terrible behaviour. It also criticizes the narrative that BoJack is the real victim of the story — as Diane says, there are people like Sarah Lynn who have suffered irrevocably because of him.
At the end of this season, Diane takes BoJack to a rehab centre. After everything, she still believes that he is capable of changing. This is part of the fine balance that the show strikes — holding people accountable while still asking more of them. It shows how personal relationships blur the boundaries of accountability and forgiveness. Diane is left extremely conflicted when she learns that BoJack nearly slept with a 17-year-old girl, but her close friendship with him makes it hard for her to accept that right away. She can’t just abandon him because he did something unforgivable — she has to try and help. The same is the case for his long-time friend and agent Princess Carolyn, who sticks by him nearly till the end.
However the show also makes it clear that, beyond a certain point, it can’t just be other people’s responsibility to make someone change for the better. And it is on that bittersweet note that the show ends its final season.
In the end, not many people are left with BoJack. The ending is sweet and hopeful but ambivalent. Many people that BoJack has hurt have permanently left; it hurts but, the show understands that it is okay. The main people in his life have moved on: their primary job is no longer to clean up with BoJack’s messes. There’s a palpable distance between BoJack and his friends as they have their last conversations in the show; there’s an implicit understanding that too much has happened in the past that simply cannot be forgotten. But now, there is a passive acceptance of this from BoJack’s side. He doesn’t act as though everyone owes him forgiveness. As I watched the final scenes of the show, I couldn’t help but cry, not just because the show was ending and all the characters I knew and loved were going on their separate journeys, but also because I was happy for them: they have chosen to put themselves first.
Right till the very end, the show does not tell you whether you should forgive BoJack or not. It’s left to the viewers to decide for themselves.
In the final episode, Diane says: “Life’s a bitch, and then you keep living.” This is the philosophy that BoJack embodied throughout its glorious six-year run. Life can be awful and devastating, but in the end, all you can do is pick yourself up and try to do better each day.
Edited by Madhumita R
Design by Rohit G
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