BoJack Horseman is a new animated comedy on Netflix about a horse (it takes place in a world where animals and people co-exist together) who starred in a popular 80’s/90’s sitcom called Horsin ‘Around. His career has pretty much been dead for years and he spends his life getting drunk and hanging around with his best friend, Todd (whose a human). One day, he is forced to hire a ghost writer (whose also a human) to write his memoirs when he keeps putting off actually writing the memoirs himself. And then a bunch of crazy events happen from there. This show is pretty damn good-unfortunately, it does have a lot of unfunny animal puns but it sets itself apart from other adult animated series by pretty much keeping continuity throughout the series. Most adult animated series (or just animated series in general) tend to revert to the status quo by the end but there are always events that happen in this show that are built on in future episodes-they don’t just resolve everything by the end of the episode and never speak of it again. There’s also a lot of character development for many of the characters as we get to know a lot about them as the series progresses. The hollywood satire is pretty spot on, especially it’s commentary about how celebrity culture can affect the celeb themselves. The voice acting is pretty good and, except for the animal puns, it can be pretty funny. Oh and BoJack reminds me a lot of horse I knew once named Oliver-he looks like Oliver and he can be very cranky. You know who else was cranky? Oliver.
However, I want to talk about the christmas episode, which might be one of the best episodes of the series. Now this episode kind of takes a break from the story that is pretty much built on throughout the entire series. Instead, this episode does something unique because it’s literally an episode of Horsin’ Around, the sitcom that BoJack starred in. There are times in the episode where BoJack and Todd pause the episode to give some commentary on what’s going on, and this commentary is very funny, but 90% of the episode is a Christmas episode from Horsin’ Around. And, really, this episode is a pretty spot-on parody of 80’s/90’s family sitcoms! It’s got the same catchphrases and corny jokes you’d expect in a sitcom from that era not to mention the same audience reactions you’d find in a sitcom from that era (of course their’s laughs but their’s also “ooh’s” and cheers-though, unlike most sitcoms, their’s literally a studio audience member screaming at the characters as if their real people, which is pretty funny). Not only that but their’s also the quirky neighbor, the sad music that goes on when something bad happens, the ending that ties everything up really neatly, and the scene where everyone learns a lesson while cheesy music goes on in the background. Hell, if it wasn’t for a few things, this would pretty much feel exactly like an 80’s sitcom! It even has a few christmas sitcom specials cliche down pretty good-the special ends with BoJack and the kids wondering where the letter that was given to them by the kids parents came from, when they realized that none of them wrote it.
And you know what happens?
Well, considering this is a sitcom parody, guess what happens?
If you guessed, it turns out it was written by Santa and then their’s a voice going “ho ho ho” while the subtitle “Merry Christmas from Horsin’Around” pops up, you’d be exactly right!
But, considering this is a parody and not an animated attempt at bringing back this style, their are some changes. And they are pretty funny, even if they are twisted. Okay, so in this episode, BoJack teaches these kids he adopted about Christmas and he teaches his youngest daughter about Santa Clause. He tells her she can wish for anything she wants and she wishes that her parents would come back. At the end, instead of her parents coming back, they just get the letter saying they were in heaven and they are proud of all of them. The little girl is upset and BoJack has to try to make everything better. He tries to say that Santa just works in mysterious ways but, when that doesn’t work, he tells her that Santa is a sham and that you shouldn’t rely on pleasing a fat old guy to be good every Christmas. If this doesn’t sound messed up enough, he tells her that being with the orphans is the best thing to have ever happened to him and that, if their parents had to die for them to be with him, it’s worth it. And she agrees with him! Now this sounds rather mean spirited but the fact that it’s delivered in a Full House/Family Matters-esque “I learned something” way makes it funnier because their saying something that is actually pretty dark and awful in such a sincere, happy way that it’s hard not to laugh, even if you don’t necessarily want to.
So, all in all, I’d reccommend this special! Have a merry christmas and yowza yowza bo bowza!
