Bojack Horseman: The Mother of All Monologues

Bojack horseman Season 5 episode 6 free churro contains a 22 minute 20-second monologue no show should have that much talking TV is a visual medium now before you rage quit this video from having your knickers twisted too far into a tizzy those are not my words or thoughts on what I consider to be one of the best episodes in the series those are bojack's own words at the time of speaking they're being said to Princess Carolyne and are in reference to filbert the show Bojack is headlining this season but just as important as the words themselves is when they are spoken these words are said in episode 5 just before bojack's own 22 minute monologue I think the writers purposely included this line because they were aware of what a departure from tradition free churro would be it is simultaneously a joke about the show and in acknowledgement by the creators to the audience that they recognize how unique and delicate bojack's monologue is now I don't hope or plan to make a 22 minute video about the entire monologue but I definitely want to identify and unpack with the major themes of this episode are or at least what I feel they are because I am NOT a writer for the show for all of you who might have heard of theme but never actually got a true definition we can start with that a theme is the central topic or idea of a text television and cinema included themes can be divided into two categories statements and concepts a thematic statement is what the work says about itself a thematic concept is what the audience thinks about the work without getting too deep into the rabbit hole the distinction can be further understood by studying the terms created by roland bart a french philosopher and narrative theorist he writes about the difference between read early and write early texts read early text makes no requirement of the reader or the audience to produce their own interpretation of the theme the work explains itself and gives all the answers to its own questions all right early text is the exact opposite its theme its core message is laid out in a way that must be digested and thought about the answers aren't easy and each person who interacts with the work might come away with their own interpretation the audience becomes a writer for the text because each person's opinion is valid Bojack horseman as a show steeps itself in thriving to be a part of the writerly category and free churro is no different Bojack is a dynamic flawed ever-changing character and his eulogy monologue was much the same free chirls meaning is not in situ grasped nor are its implications for Bojack but I think that is what makes it so luring and what also makes it the highest rated episode of the show on IMDB I want to take a look at the themes of in the episode to demonstrate how to go about creating or write early text and so it also tip my hat so will arnett and the creative team for their amazing work the first theme we will look at being the most powerful and prominent is the concept of being seen it is so central to the episode that it actually is used to create the framework of a typical story structure introduction conflict and resolution we see Bojack introduce us to the events of his mother's death and the last words that she says to him I was in the hospital with her those last moments and they were truly horrifying full of nonsensical screams and cries but there was this moment this one instant of strange calm where she looked in my direction and said I see you it's the last thing she said to me I see him while after we see Bojack wrestle with what his mother's ICU really meant maybe maybe it wasn't maybe it was an ICU like ICU like you might have the rest of the world fooled but I know exactly who you are that's more my mom speed or maybe she just literally meant ICU you are an object that has entered my field of vision she was pretty out of it at the end there so maybe it's done to try to tribute it to anything finally towards the end of the monologue Bojack comes to the resolution of the circumstances surrounding his mother his last words I'm not gonna stand up here and pretend I ever understood how to please that woman even though so much of my life has been wasted in vain attempts to figure it out but I keep going back to that moment in the ICU when she looked at me and I see you I see you Jesus Christ we were in the intensive care unit she was just reading his son if you ever wondered what kept the monologue from seeming incoherent or rambling it was this theme that gave structure to everything Bojack was saying each time the monologue started to strain to obscurity we would snap back to the crux of the episode Beatrice's death and how it relates to Bojack the theme of being seen gave this episode form and it also pervaded nearly every facet of the episode to let me tell you it's a weird thing to feel at 54 years old that for the first time in your life your mother sees you it's an odd realization that that's the thing that you've been missing the only thing that you wanted all along to be seen no point beating a dead horse the interest horseman was born in 1938 and she died in 2018 and I have no idea what she wanted unless she just wanted what we all want to be seen well Bo Tech wants from his mother and really from life can't be stated any more bluntly than that being seen as a person is one of those important things in bojack's life it is a validation for him in this episode we see him uninterrupted for 22 minutes conversely we see Beatrice Horseman whom this episode and eulogy are about not once not even in a flashback the title of the episode didn't even reference Beatrice she was beaten out by a stick of hot cinnamon in fact we were supposed to see her as was Beatrice his desire for an open casket but Bojack deemed her too horrifying to be seen and denied his mother a dying wish Bush that he himself always wanted but was never granted being seen is such an overarching concept for the episode that it affects the episode from the very start yes yes I see you these are the words that begin free churro there is spoken by bojack's father butterscotch to a young Bojack except it is not meant as an active acknowledgement or acceptance it is said in annoyed anger a call for Bojack to rush into the car so his father can get back to the all-important act of writing in a grand izing self-pity ironically butterscotch then goes on to monologue for the entire car ride barely actually looking at Bojack at all even when bow tack is being seen isn't being seen in the right way and it affects how he sees himself which leads us into our second theme of the episode how Bojack frames life all I know about being good I learned from TV and in TV flawed characters are constantly showing people they care with these surprising grand gestures and I think that part of me still believes that's what love is this central closeness to television permeates throughout bojack's entire character his parents were not responsible for imparting crucially important fundamental aspects of humanity on him at least as far as he's concerned TV did that for him so it is only natural that instead of being seen by his parents he strived to be seen on TV in his eulogy monologue he references not one but three different television shows and intertwines them with himself to give them great personal intimacy when telling a story about his childhood and his mother buying him a jacket that he always wanted he reveals that that was all fictional taken from an episode of Maude that he walked when he was younger and at the end he states why the episode of television is so important to him that same episode of Maude or Bojack grab the story from sees Maude monologuing to a therapist the next television show mentioned in the eulogy is Becker and beau jack goes so far as to make a one-to-one comparison between his reality and the show you know what it's like it's like that show Becker you know what Ted Danson I watched the entire run of that show hoping there would get better and it never did it had all the right pieces but I just could have put them together and when it got canceled I was really bummed out not because I liked the show but because I knew it could be so much better and now it never would be and that's what losing a parent is like it's like Becker this section of the monologue also sheds some light on how Bojack sees himself he's a rich famous man in Hollywood someone with all the right pieces but somehow can't put it all together even though he keeps waiting and waiting for it to happen modak frames his life relative to television because of his need to be seen because of youthful dependence on television as a barometer for morality and because he himself is inextricably tied to television because of horsing around the third show that he mentions horsing around a fictional show became bojack's identity he is known as the horse from horsing around literal first words of the outro are back in the 90s I was in a very famous TV show through horsing around Bojack was simultaneously able to be seen by millions of people and live a completely safe structured healthy family life one that he did not care was fictional and it is because of this strong tide of television portion arounds specifically that Bojack stayed so at odds with his mother she never liked the show she never watched her keiretsu she refused to see Bojack in real life and in television which only fed into his desire to become so famous and recognizable that people would have no choice but to see him this merging of television and reality transforms from somatic to literal in the last episodes of the season where Bojack actually cannot distinguish between what is scripted and what is not and the consequences of this forced him to his lowest point yet that low point is a product of the last theme of the episode bojack's addiction to dysfunction now if you've watched the show open to this point I don't have to tell you that Bojack makes bad decisions constantly for both himself and others but I think Bo tech himself revealed the underlying reasons why he does these things he's been conditioned to live in dysfunction waiting for it to resolve itself he says as much with your kid maybe the grand gesture could be enough that even though your parents aren't what you need them to be over and over and over again at any moment they might surprise you with something wonderful I kept waiting for that to prove that even though my mother was a hard woman deep down she loved me and cared about me and wanted me to know that I made her life a little bit brighter even now I find myself waiting bo-tat could never move on from his self-destructive life style nor walk away from his emotionally abusive MA because he found comfort in it it was the only thing that connected him to his parents abject depressive anguish was the only thing that connected the family as a unit mostly you're drowning she understood that too and she recognized that I understood it and dad all three of us were drowning and we didn't know how to save each other but there was an understanding that we were all drowning together and I would like to think that that's what she meant when we were in the hospital and she said I see you Bojack couldn't let go and move on from his mother because he doesn't know how to let go of negative things he steeps himself in dysfunction because that is what he's most comfortable with even when he does receive something good the thing he said he truly wanted out of life to be seen by his mother he has to turn it into something negative to properly cope with it let me tell you it's a weird thing to feel at 54 years old that for the first time in your life your mother sees you it's an odd realization that that's the thing that you've been missing the only thing that you wanted all along to be seen and it doesn't feel like a relief to finally be seen it feels mean like Oh turns out you knew what I wanted and you waited until the very last moment to give it to me I was prepared for more cruelty I was sure that she would get in one final singer about how I let her down and how about how I was fat and stupid and too tall to be an effective Lindy hopper how I was needy and at burden and an embarrassment all that I was ready for I was not ready for I see you only my mother would be lousy enough to swipe me with a moment of connection on her way out and do you remember how I said bojack's identity became inseparable from horsing around that show allowed him to exist in an environment with a completely dependable supply of dysfunction Bojack himself says that in the eulogy you can't have happy endings that sitcoms not really because if everyone's happy the show would be over and above all else the show has to keep going there's always more show and you can call horsing around um or bad or unrealistic but there's nothing more realistic than that you never get a happy ending because there's always more show Bojack has lived and views life is a sequence of continuously worsening events that wear you down until you die he has a defeatist attitude and Jesus negativity because he believes it is inevitable anyway he then uses the horrible consequences of his choices as validation for his bleak rationale there was one sliver of Hope that kept Bojack more to the idea of betterment but unfortunately that too is snuffed out in this episode my mom died and all like that was just free churro to Bojack Beatriz dying was supposed to be her grand gesture of love the kind that TV taught him always came from flawed characters a gesture that was supposed to put something in him to rest he expected to gain something from her death and all he got was a free churro for all of you aspiring writers out there I hope this video shed some light on the intricacies and payoffs of creating themes in narrative thematic management might not be as glamorous as cliffhangers or dialogue or characterization but it is just as important in creating full gripping pieces of work I had a blast making this video mostly because I will take any excuse to put more Bojack of my life so until next time

Channel: Savage Books

Views: 833,306

Keywords: Bojack Horseman, writing, narrative, television, theme, beatrice horseman, bojack horseman season 5

Id: LaMsrUKAqHE

Length: 14min 24sec (864 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 16 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/donaldtroll]

I would go so far as to say it is one of the best episodes of any series ever

[u/Crabacus]

Nice

[u/DonDove]

Very good video, I like!

[u/justme257]

Loved your insights!