Morality and BoJack Horseman

so at the same time boj Jack Horseman is both cartoonishly absurdist and staggeringly realistic the jokes have jokes and the characters have trauma while this is a large part of what makes the series unique and memorable it also makes what I'm trying to do here a little harder because if we go off the cold hard facts the black and white actions of every character we'd have to acknowledge certain things we may not have considered in a Discerning light like Hol Hawk nonchalantly drugging Todd and Jack Todd committing genocide and Princess Carolyn dating an actual child I think that part's still a little unclear nevertheless these situations are played for laughs and that matters because as an audience even though we know that Holly Hawk knocked out Bojack and Todd multiple times before beatric slips speed into her coffee we also naturally know which instance we are meant to take seriously wa sorry again it's just so fun so parameters we'll keep the underlying message of the jokes when they're there but we'll disregard the Absurd basically if the show doesn't take it seriously I'm not going to which should be easy because as zany and ridiculous as the stories can get boj Jack Horseman is a show that grabs you by the collar pulls you close and tells you when it wants to be taken seriously we're going to analyze some of the characters from the main cast breaking down their actions views and personal ethics and how those things change throughout the series we're going to talk about the show's themes The Writer's intentions the audience's takeaways and how those takeaways affected later Seasons but first as always a spoiler warning for the following weirdly I didn't go too off book for this one sources are linked in the description and I think that's it okay let's start my personal favorite princess Carolyn is one of the most complex examples of moral greatness in the series we need to preface with something though in the original pitch Creator Raphael Bob waxberg claimed he didn't intend for Bojack Horsemen to have a large focus on the entertainment industry he later admitted this was a blatant lie so the show would be more likely to get picked up Raphael was absolutely interested in exploring the machinations of Hollywood and Bojack Horsemen the good and the bad but evidently mostly the bad because the show takes place in a Hollywood adjacent World Raphael Bob waxberg felt a responsibility to shed light on some of its very real faults he said part of our job in being a show about show business is to point out the things of show business that are kind of gross and aren't quite right and they do BoJack Horseman dives into a myriad of prevalent issues sexism the flagrant mistreatment of Hollywood assistants toxic celebrity culture Hollywood's role in performative feminism child stardom and continuing to give horrible people power they comment on actors agents Network execs Blockbuster directors Indie directors the writers don't exempt themselves from their criticism either first mildly in season 3 with veteran sitcom writer cuddly whiskers portraying writer pretentiousness send to be an email cuddly whiskers at harvard.edu that's HR I got it later in season five they dive deeper into exploring the quintessential power hungry showrunner with flip MC vicker who is equally as insecure as he is full of himself and is unable to take criticism but quick to take credit for everything the whole point of Television is it's a collaborative medium where one person gets all the credit as the main cast's only Holly Woo agent princess Carolyn's character frequently allegorizes corruption in the entertainment industry in the earliest episodes when the show was still finding its footing and the characters were less fleshed out this was more exaggerated Sarah Lynn doesn't have an agent Laura hold my calls cancel everything ahab's got a white whale to catch baby I don't think these offshore Banks we've been using are 100% legal yeah well my mother told me never to slap an idiot what as the show progressed the writing mellowed out a bit but still carried a similar sentiment what is going on here only the future this is horrifying and it doesn't look legal but whatever it is you better be cutting me in for 10% Beyond a talent agent's stereotypical attributes princess Caroline's character opens doors to portray several industry prevalent topics such as hustle culture talent agency Dynamics nepotism and unpaid internships what do you mean like modern reading slaves exactly many of these jokes are told in passing nudges between the writers but the show will also explore issues deeper wrapping entire episodes around problems like the industry's role in desensitizing gun violence sexism and commonplace edifices of complicity that princess Carolyn is quick to partake in yes PC is ambitious hardworking and manipulative but she's also satirically representing to the audience a quintessential power agent in Hollywood sometimes there's a distinguishable line between what the writers are trying to say about the industry versus what they're trying to tell us about Princess Carolyn as a character typically it's easy iier to overlook princess Carolyn's ethics because where Bojack and Diane's senses of self and character arcs are very much tied to morality princess Carolyn's aren't she's kind of just busy with other stuff she's more secure in her own sense of self not that she has it all figured out but just that it's not as integral to how she navigates the world or views her identity this doesn't mean she's a quote unquote bad person Princess Caroline is not outwardly rude or inconsiderate in the way that Bojack is in everyday life she's generally nice polite and thoughtful to the people around her going out of her way to help her clients to a fault where her immoralities come into play typically concern her career the thing is Princess Carolyn would be happy to always do the right thing so long as it aligns with her best professional interests but in an industry that constantly ignores her potential and achievements in tends to Value money and power over ethics her best interests in the right thing aren't always one and the same and more often than not she's rewarded for lies and manipulation exactly we're not making them feel unfe for just profiting and you know if PC is not directly involved with an issue she doesn't always care or she cares obligatorily but she doesn't really care well you know I've got your back right we women have got to stick to hey fruit plate princess Carolyn's focus is ambition and self-preservation unlike Diane she doesn't want to stir the pot or make waves she does what she needs to do to survive in the industry she's all the less willing to compromise her career because of how much she sacrificed for it I have given everything to get where I am and I am not about to throw all that away in some ways it's a far cry from how she grew up Princess Caroline spent her childhood with selflessness as her defining trait constantly prioritizing her family's needs above her own she'd frequently fill in for her alcoholic mother is a maid for a wealthy family unless I wanted us to be out on the street I had to step in and cover for her a lot quickly solving other people's problems is how she had to survive my mom well obviously she was planning on cleaning the floors but I asked her if I could do it princess Carolyn was the last of her many siblings to stay behind to take care of her mother I don't think it's a coincidence that the first selfish decision princess Carolyn makes is also the decision that dramatically changes her life for the better PC retains many of the traits she developed in childhood like her tenacity and intelligence but from this point on her life revolves around a paradoxical dichotomy between selfishness and selflessness this Dynamic is perfectly encapsulated in her profession as an agent and later a manager princess Carolyn takes 10% of her clients paychecks she's not paid per hour and she doesn't earn an annual salary what she makes and how much she makes is literally contingent on how good she is at helping her clients get work you ever notice how as a woman you only make 10 cents for every dollar your clients make really makes you think huh there are some exceptions but the parameters of her job naturally dictate that to be selfless she has to be selfish and to be selfish she has to be selfless this same dichotomy extends to her personality as an adult she reverts to the role of helping those around her that she was forced to do as a child princess Carolyn defaults to this mode naturally it's borderline a trauma response we see it manifest into helping people around her like the countless times she takes care of Bojack or when she gets Diana job doing social media because my life is a mess right now and I compulsively take care of other people when I don't know how to take care of myself this is a coping mechanism PC uses to soothe her own stress although her actions are selfless and she is helping other people she does have the conscious intent to make herself feel better interestingly Bojack recognizes this trait in her you let me help you tonight because you knew I needed it you did it for me of course that opens up the debate of psychological egoism versus altruism if a person does a good deed for another person but also benefits from it themselves is their action inherently selfish psychological egoism says yes altruism says no the show actually touches on this exact philosophy in the view from halfway down with the characters at least through bojack's subconscious lens having varying opinions if you got pleasure it wasn't selfless and it's only good if it's selfless I helped people who cares if it made me feel good too nevertheless princess Carolyn cares deeply about the people close to her she tolerates bojack's flighty mistreatment of her for years helping him even when he's manipulative and dismissive of her now why don't you leave this to the grown-ups if somebody needs coffee I'll give you a ring okay best of luck she lets Todd move in with her and even after stie makes it clear she won't let Princess Caroline adopt her baby PC continues to show her kindness you want to keep the baby you want to give the baby to someone else fine just do what you want to do after I told him I wasn't going to give him the baby they all went cold or nasty TI you you were still nice I think that's a sign like Diane princess Carolyn has a tendency to get tunnel vision and miss the bigger picture but while Diane's hyperfixations stem from this is wrong princess Caroline's are more of a product of of this needs to be fixed you're seeing things in absolute we can wriggle out of this who's we in these moments all peace you can think about is closing the deal spinning the story fixing the problem putting out the fire being good at the job it's easy for her to fall down this rabbit hole and get lost in how she can solve what's right in front of her without considering the ethical ramifications doing so might have maybe the worst example of this is when she hires well-known horrible person Vance wacker to Star and Filbert this is particularly bad because this isn't an instance where she's complicit to something unethical that's already happening princess Carolyn is the one who suggests Vance's name she takes him out to lunch to convince him to join the show fully knowing and not caring about his problematic past once word gets out that it's okay to hire you again all the other offers will come rolling in it isn't until Vance double crosses PC and backs out of the filbert contract that she admits that she was wrong and wants to punish him this same thing happens during the hollywo assistant strike princess Carolyn's default position is to find a way to end it the fastest way possible while losing the least amount of money possible that's the problem she's fully fixated on it takes princess Carolyn hearing a phrase she was repeatedly told when she was an assistant to make her snap out of this fight to win mindset and see the bigger picture getting Juda to represent the assistant is one of the best things PC does and we're proud of her for it let the negotiations begin over the series we see PC shift from someone who is complicit and at her worst even encouraging of the systemic issues within the industry to someone who is actively making it a better place she declines Turtle tob's offer and decides to start her own production company in the way that she can fully design from the ground up she agrees to open up a daycare to make her employees lives easier and she backs Diane's children's book series encouraging her to write it despite man's hesitation I liked it I like thinking that my daughter could grow up in a world with books like that although the characters in Bojack Horsemen definitely vary in their scales of positive and negative actions this series makes it a point to show that they are all capable of both good and bad it's hard to find a character that hasn't done something wrong it is safe to say that the worst sins fall on the aonomus protagonist boj Jack Horseman oh and I bet aonomus was supposed to be a pun on Pony there are Reddit threads and YouTube videos dedicated to listing and categorizing every bad thing Bojack has ever done even bojack's tried it we could look at these lists pick out a few random things and conclude that by social and cultural standards yeah o Jack Horseman is a bad person but that doesn't seem to be the show's point the Creator Raphael Bob waxberg said it is very easy to see bad guys and say that is a bad guy but I think the truth is more complicated and it does a disservice to us as a Society to write off bad men and reward good men the good men have done bad things and the bad men have done good things I don't think the good forgives the bad but I also think the bad doesn't destroy the good this ideology is a fundamental theme of the series there's no such thing as bad guys or good guys we're all just guys o Jack Horseman suggests labeling people as good or bad is largely reductive because if you're deemed bad your negative actions are lumped into one distinguishable pile and anything good you do is automatically disregarded making the prospect of change pointless or you use being bad as an excuse for your behavior which just relinquishes your own responsibility from the actions that you do in fact control you're never going to be good because you're not bad so you need to stop using that as an excuse conversely being a good person either underplays or even dismisses your bad behavior that's exactly the problem because he's so nice people don't want to think he's capable of awful things so they let him off the hook or it sets you to an unrealistic standard where you're not allowed to make mistakes Raphael expanded on this in an old blog post he wrote when people self-identify as good they believe that their actions can't possibly be bad because they were actions done with the best of intentions by a good person and any criticism of their actions becomes a criticism of them a criticism which they must ultimately dismiss to continue feeling like they are good so neither options are desirable because as soon as you're dubbed either good or bad there's only so much you can be Bojack you ruin everything that's what you are and it actually took him saying it out loud for me to realize how stupid that is we're well-versed in the extent of bojack's bad actions so we're not going to weigh them out or spend too much time on them honestly we'd be here all day and Bojack explicitly breaks down the why of his actions in season 6 so we're not going to fixate too much on the psychology surrounding those actions what I'm more interested in exploring in relation to the morality of bojack's character is his impact on the audience and the subsequent conversations going on behind the scenes the writers were deliberately very cognizant of what was being said online about the show and what viewers thought of Bojack as a character in The Art before the horse Chris mcdonal wrote discussion in the writer's room often has centered around how far they can push bojack's Behavior without making him irredeemable staff writer Joe L said that scene with Penny and Bojack on the boat was days and days of conversation mainly the conversation was can we make Bojack irredeemable and the answer is no but we wanted to get right up to that line are we going to be able to come back from this it was a genuine concern they didn't want to make Bojack irredeemable to the audience they didn't want to cross that line but they did at the end of season 3 with the death of Sarah Lynn Raphael Bob waxberg told Andy wire I saw saw a lot of reaction from people when season 3 ended saying I'm done with this character Bojack is unredeemable he's unforgivable he's crossed the last threshold of my compassion I can't care about this character anymore when Raphael saw bojack's actions had finally crossed that line he tried to adjust it's like after season 3 The Writers felt they needed to swing the pendulum in the other direction toward like ability to get the audience back in the gray area so they took Bojack out of the hot seat for season 4 and although he's nowhere near perfect and definitely has some bad moments comparatively there's a noticeable difference it's not that Bojack does anything that incredible in season 4 he's still very much himself but let's be real the bar is really low so it's easy for him to impress like bojack's worst acts are so terrible that when he goes through a whole season without permanently traumatizing someone he automatically looks like a saint season 4 also narratively works in bojack's favor he isn't in the first episode so the audience has time to feel his absence and actually miss him he does some good things he helps Princess Carolyn he lets beatric move in with him and he bonds with a new significant character Holly Hawk season 4 also includes a fan favorite episode shedding lights on his internal monologue making fans sympathize with him more on top of that the worst thing that happens is for once not really his fault and the season ends on a high note with him doing doing something selfless helping Hol Hawk find her mother all of this worked a little too well in their efforts to make Bojack find a middle ground with the audience the writers overcorrected where at the end of season 3 Bojack was Flatout hated by fans by the end of season 4 he was beloved Raphael said at the end of season 4 a lot of people said oh my God I love him I'm so happy he's happy he found the way to be there's someone in his life now this is great this is wonderful I wanted to say hold on the guy at the end of season 4 is the same as the guy at the end of season 3 and I think the end of season 3 Bojack does not discount the end of season 4 Bojack the end of season 4 Bojack also does not forgive the end of season 3 Bojack how do you live with this guy who was both those things yes it's true that bojack's flaws make him more complex but being more complex also makes him harder to understand and if he's harder to understand he's easy easier to misinterpret the inevitable reality is the more fleshed out Bojack becomes the more likely people are to defend rationalize or justify his actions in a Gothamist interview when asked if he worried about certain audience members romanticizing Bojack Raphael said yes I do worry about that I think there's only so much that I can do to prevent that without being completely didactic in naked but I am doing what I can because I do think it's important to kind of keep reminding the audience that Bojack is a cautionary tail not a role model and as much as we want you to care about him or empathize with him you don't want to be him and if you see parts of yourself and him or parts of him in yourself that is something to be concerned about not comforted by although sometimes not always I will say there are ways in which it is okay to be comforted by him and that's what makes it a sticky difficult thing is that I also want our audience to feel comforted and feel like it's okay to be depressed or it's okay to have these self-hating feelings or it's okay to come from a broken home I think the way that Bojack reacts to this stuff is not always okay I think that's an important distinction to make So It's tricky because the writers of the show do want us to feel empathy for Bojack but that's a slippery slope and despite their attempts to counteract misinterpretation some of these gray areas are baked into the structure of the show already were intrinsically conditioned to root for the protagonist and sometimes it's easy to forget but Bojack Horsemen is a comedy with that territory comes light-hearted jokes that lean into bojack's alcoholism and addiction issues in a way not dissimilar to kitchy Wine mom merch I just use a small dose to help me fall asleep at night and then a much much larger dose to get me through the day can we please get some alcohol into my mouth there are jokes that lean into bojack's worst traits his selfishness stubbornness and carelessness uh Bojack you really shouldn't throw a lit cigarette off the fine I'll call 911 I want the muffins I was just looking at them but I got to say if you put muffins down they're not your muffins these jokes are often played in a similar vein as Larry David and Kirby Your Enthusiasm endearing in their bluntness relatable in sentiment more than execution that thing where you make a big deal of for nothing and everyone laughs at you but also at the same time we relate because you're saying all of things polite Society won't boj jack Horseman offers up these little bits of comedic Hedonism in more episodes than not but offsets their toxicity by also showing the audience that bojack's actions ultimately have very real and very permanent consequences still there are people who fixate on the humor and ignore the underlying messages there are fans who view flashbacks of Bo Jack's neglectful childhood not as reasons for his adult Behavior but as excuses for it there are people who equate bojack's sadness and regret for his actions to earning exoneration of them some people see Bojack with his money Fame and womanizing nature as cool or aspirational or they relate to bojack's faults but instead of using his desire to be better as motivation for themselves they use bojack's character to wallow in their own toxicity fans viewing Bojack as someone they want to be or someone they Revel in being similar to is exactly what Raphael doesn't want on the podcast talk easy with Sam froso Raphael said um you know I I like having flawed characters and I think that can be very helpful for an audience to see a flawed character but the question is how what do you do with those flawed characters and how do you continue to show them in a real flawed way that doesn't feel like you are indulging their flaws and I think it is good for Flaws to be normalized and people to understand oh this thing that I thought that made me a terrible person that I could never tell anybody I see that these characters have that and these characters are capable of forgiveness so maybe I could be forgiven too I think that is a wonderful thing I don't want people to take away from my show oh I will automatically be forgiven because I feel bad which I think is a message some people do take from the show which bothers me this overwhelming positive reception of Bojack as a character Following Season 4 was already concerning to Raphael Bob waxberg and then he got word that Harvey Weinstein was a fan of Bojack Horsemen Raphael told huff post when I heard that story the idea that Harvey Weinstein watched my show really gave me chills and I thought what is he getting out of it does he watch it and go yeah that's right that's the way to be us wood guys were trouble what are you going to do with us these instances along with the rise of the me too movement were strong influences on the writing and direction of where the show would go next and where they ended up going is kind of ingenious in season 5 Bojack takes on the role of detective John filbert the lead in a new dark detective drama show working within this series allowed the Bojack writer space to stretch out one of their familiar strengths commenting on the entertainment industry to explore a facet they hadn't yet examined one that not so coincidentally paralleled their own many fans have speculated what TV show filbert is specifically based on and there has been some confirmation that True Detective was an inspiration with a similar intro in mystery format but raphaela has made it clear that filbert is more of a catch-all Than One Singular series a coalescence of shows that contain a quote unexamined male anti-hero though filbert serves another purpose while the Bojack writers play with genre relevant tropes they also use this fictional protagonist John filbert to represent Bojack as a character yeah but also as the audience sees him they don't hold back either the writers firmly establish the parallel between filbert and Bojack right out of the gate at the start of season 5 both characters share similar names and both shows are named after them philbert's house doesn't just look like bojack's house they verbally acknowledge the similarity twice Bojack and filbert are essentially sleeping with the same person Bojack hates filbert for the same reasons he hates himself the episode begins with a party at filberts and ends with a party at bojacks from the get-go it's very consciously not subtle and that's kind of the point it's not about you you know it's filbert yeah right yeah you get it by holding up a mirror to Bojack and Filbert the writers also reflect that mirror onto themselves they use this show within a show as a conduit to speak directly to the audience it's a TV show it doesn't glamorize anything but maybe it normalizes it later in the season Diane in particular Echoes The Writer's thoughts while Bojack represents the fans misinterpreting and glorifying filberts but really bojack's character what this show says is is that is that we're all terrible so therefore we're all okay what I didn't know it would feel like that to be in that room to hear people cheering for filbert and though Diane's methods are at times repugnant at best we will get there the message is clear that's not the point of filbert for guys to watch it and feel okay I wanted to make filbert more well-rounded so the audience could relate to him better I made him more vulnerable and that made him more likable which makes for a better TV show but if filbert is just a way to help dumb rationalize their own awful Behavior well I'm sorry but we can't put this out there arguably out of all of the characters Diane NN struggles with morality the most solely because she cares about morality the most unlike other characters who for much of the show either don't really think about ethics actively try not to think about them or only think about them when it's convenient Diane is someone who genuinely wants to do good in the world in her earliest rendition Diane was not a writer but a development exec still tasked with the role of helping Bojack with his comeback because bojack's Normal world is the entertainment industry and the corruption that comes with it it makes sense that they would want to separate Diane from that world in order to highlight her moral contrast Diane outlines her moral philosophy a few times throughout the show I don't think I believe in deep down I kind of think all you are is just the things that you do she defines people by their actions so she tries to make her actions good while some people prioritize money or following a passion when they pursue a career Diane seeks purpose and meaning through her writing because of this it's easy for her to become disillusioned when she's faced with reality when I first met moved to LA I thought I was going to be doing really important work you know just writing stuff that makes a difference how do I make people care about the important stuff when all they want to do is read articles about who got slayed and who owned at the VMAs Diane is an idealist in a corrupt World she's a compassionate person who feels deeply and is understandably affected by the injustices around her the bad that exists simultaneously weighs her down and enrages her we're doing feminism it's supposed to be fun this isn't fun for me but where most people ConEd vaguely accept or ignore the injustices in the world and continue on in their day Diane can't she's impulsive and highly reactive and sometimes I really respect her for it like in Hank after dark while on a book tour with Bojack Diane offhandedly references allegations against beloved late night host Hank hippopopalous the public backlash is instantaneous but Diane stands her ground she bravely defends the victims women she doesn't even personally know and continues to even after being ruthlessly defamed by the the media and receiving literal death threats from people who know where she lives but as intelligent and well-informed as she is Diane has a tendency to get caught in the details and only focus on what's right in front of her when this happens she's often unable to take a step back separate her feelings or thoughts from a situation and see the bigger picture we see this over and over again throughout the series like when she accidentally tweets on pop star sextina aquafina's Twitter prompting sextina to publicly bort her fictional dolphin and make a pretty radical music video about it Diane is quick to criticize her for causing a negative effect on society I got to take the high road and go on the news and rat those suckers out is that really a good idea despite being Sea's literal social media manager it takes a teenager approaching Diane for her to realize that the young female fans that are directly affected by Sea's extreme approach actually view it as satirical and empowering and when you can joke about it it makes it less scary you know yeah again and again Diane gets the lines between ethics and her personal feelings blurred and sometimes when she's in vigilante mode these blinders can even make her immune to her own hypocrisy it is illegal for a restaurant to serve people water before they ask for it there is a drought in season 5 Dian is upset when what time is it right now hires Vance Wagner to work on Filbert she scolds his publicist anest bicopa for working with him when you as a woman give awful men the cover of your friendship you are then complicit no you're culpable for the terrible things they do this backfires when Anna has Vance Wagner parrot the speech as a reason why he won't work on Filbert while Diane zeros in on how filbert is in the wrong the truth is that she is too Diane is arguably bojack's closest friend even though she doesn't initially know everything that we know she wasn't with us in New Mexico with Penny or the planetarium with Sarah Lin Diane still knows who Bojack is and she still supports him despite it beyond their friendship Diane is largely responsible for bojack's comeback way back in season 1 when Diane was his memoirist she leaked the first few chapters of one trick pony because she knew the public reception would be positive she knew exactly who Bojack was and she believed the book would make him liked and culturally relevant again and she fought for it to happen and it did yes end of the day bojack's actions are his actions and no one else is responsible for them but by helping his career and supporting him as a friend Diane is the person she outwardly condemns when you as a woman give awful men the cover of your friendship you are then complicit no you're culpable for the terrible things they do she doesn't even begin to consider this until Anna makes her confront her own hypocrisy by playing her the audio of Bojack talking about Penny the worst instance of Diane's hypocrisy happens after she hears bojack's tape and and it might be the most unethical thing Diane does in the entire show after listening to the tape and after Bojack tells her they're the same Diane takes over flip script and writes a scene with filbert that parallels what happened in New Mexico they're so behind schedule that they have to use Q cards but for Diane it's also a way to intentionally catch Bojack off guard on a cinematic level it's an incredible scene that really pulls you in and the tension is only heightened by The Rush production is in to get the scene done you can feel bojack's confusion and shock as he starts to realize that he's seen this film before and he didn't like the ending but if we were to approach this scene purely from an ethical stance Diane's actions are well they're horrible Diane is smart enough to surmise that the girl from the tape is bojack's old friend Charlotte's daughter and even that Bojack went to Penny's College on his Bender with Sarah Lynn but despite having all of that information she somehow doesn't stop to consider the impact this scene airing would have on Penny Diane's not thinking about the actual victim in the situation and how she might feel if she just casually walked into a room and saw the scene playing on a TV which by the way is incredibly plausible filbert is a popular show in this world Bojack the show also establishes that Penny's family watches birthday dad the TV could be left on her friends could talk about it this episode could play on a TV in the diner where she works she could go on Twitter and read about it Penny could even seek it out herself it's totally feasible that that after Bojack ambushes her at school she likes to keep tabs on him and know where he is so she feels safe the point is there are a myriad of ways that Penny could organically find out about the scene and for just a second because Diane didn't let's consider what she would think if she did Penny's first thought might be is Bojack mocking what happened did the writers of the show know is it supposed to be some kind of sick joke at her expense is it his grandiose way of apologizing or is it some kind of a threat to say look easily I can exploit your trauma for entertainment and get away with it but even in the most innocuous scenario if Bojack was giving the writers ideas he didn't have to pick USS New Mexico but he did planting it like an Easter egg knowing that she would recognize it is he trying to get her attention none of the answers to these hypotheticals add up to anything remotely good they're all rabbit holes that penny has no way of knowing the answer to without talking to Bojack directly which again could be the very reason he did it to get her to reach out to him now of course we know he didn't and was ambushed but that doesn't matter because realistically what conclusion is penny more likely to come to that bojack's close friend who works on the show found out and passive aggressively confronted him as they shot the scene or that Bojack the star of this TV show and an alcoholic who has literally stocked penny at least once before seeking her out on the other side of the country from where he lives intentionally had the scene written into the the show for her to see but Diane does not consider any of this because she's not thinking about the girl from the tape she's not even thinking about Justice the only thing she wants In This Moment is to hurt Bojack that's all this is a means to punish him not even necessarily for what he did but for not confiding in her about it this is Diane at her worst this is her biggest problem because she's objectively right in her moral argument she feels like she is Justified in whatever actions that anger brings even if it causes is more harm than good Diane weaponizes morality at her best Diane wants to have a positive impact on the world she wants to do good things to help people and create real change but what she slowly learns throughout the series is that it can't always be in the way that she envisions Diane's instinct is to fight the current head-on in whatever form it may take but often this can lead to her setting unrealistic expectations for herself and others because she believes it's the right thing to do but it's like swimming in a Riptide the straight instinctive path to shore is the one that causes swimmers to get exhausted and drown Diane's depressive episodes are a direct result of growing tired and frustrated doing what she thinks she should be doing what she views as the ideal path that aligns with her morals the path that doesn't always work but the best path isn't always the most obvious and failure on one route doesn't mean you can't get to where you want to be on another this is a lesson that Diane learns throughout the show just because you only see one way to go doesn't mean there aren't other directions that lead to the same or even a better place because Diane doesn't have to travel to war torn cordovia to be able to directly help people she doesn't need to work at the New Yorker to write articles that start important conversations and she doesn't have to create a memoir on damage for her writing to help people deal with their own the most fulfilled version of Diane we see is when she lets herself take a path she typically wouldn't it's for here is this your way of asking me to move to Chicago couldn't ask you to do that I wouldn't ask you to ask if Sunny's going to Houston then we're going I'd feel better if you just tried the medication your doctor prescribed well I'd feel worse I don't want to write a middle-grade fiction detective series I decided that one day I would write something that would make little girls like me feel less alone and if I can't write that book then then maybe write this other book good luck with your braces I think they look cool maybe this book does that too yeah yeah know I get it it was just part of it felt real you know oh I can't wait for you to be better I need you in my life and you can be grateful for them even if they were never meant to be in your life forever I'm glad I knew you too in so many ways boj Jack Horseman is responsible and conscientious in a way that other shows just aren't and that is largely because of Raphael Bob wax and his belief that television affects people he believes that TV has the power to influence and change how people think look this is a complicated and polarizing topic how media directly influences people is not an easy thing to measure and it's something I go back and forth on all the time yeah it's one thing if a show or film is marketed to children that's much more clearcut I've talked about that before but when a TV show or a film is made for adults it's murkier and I don't mean if you watch Hannibal you're going to want to barbecue somebody but like okay in a huff post interview Raphael discussed how proud he feels when fans tell him Bojack helped them understand their emotions or feel validated from the show's representation of asexuality he then added but if I'm going to feel good about those stories it's disingenuous to say I have the power to affect people in a good way but how dare you accuse me of affecting people in a bad way and there does seem to be a consensus that fiction can affect us positiv I've never seen anyone debate that but when it's proposed that fiction can also affect us negatively people are quick to disagree Rafael addressed his perspective on the podcast talk easy with Sam fragoso and something I wrestle with on the show a lot too is is how aware are we when we watch something is there enough distance I am a very susceptible individual of the art that I consume and I think a lot of these conversations are difficult to have because not everybody is the same right I think some people can quite effectively consume art and not be affected by it in that way and then someone else says well you know this is really influencing people and they go what are you talking about I don't understand that because that is not a feeling that I have when watching it and I'm the opposite right like when people say no I can I can discern fact from fiction in that way and I can not be affected by Art in that way I don't understand it and I kind of don't believe it when I go see let's say like a Wes Anderson movie and then like for the next day I'm like talking like Wes Anders character you know that's what you do yeah or like Woody Allen Quinton Tarantino any of these guys and and and those are two guys that I don't want to be like you know they don't always get it right despite the show's strong messaging against putting people in good or bad boxes we are clearly meant to view Vance Wagner as a bad person Raphael recognizes this double standard he told huff post as we were breaking down the story about Vance Wagner we started to think well how is Bojack different from this are we Hypocrites if we constantly want our audience to feel bad for Bojack while also saying what a terrible thing it is that our industry forgives guys like Vance Wagner and that is honestly very self-aware and valid criticism of themselves I hate to compare levels of wrongdoings but if we look purely at the character's actions are Vance and Bojack really so different they've both driven well intoxicated they've both abused their Celebrity Status they've both hurt women they've both victimized themselves and to certain extents they've both been involved with underage girls what makes it different for Raphael and consequently Diane and the audience is that Vance Wagner represents a public figure that Raphael and the writers don't personally know supposedly Mel Gibson Raphael has implied that he considers the act of forgiveness of public figures to be different from the Forgiveness of people that you personally know but even though Bojack is technically a public figure too he's not treated with that same distance there is a subjectivity of Clos that we don't have with Vance and again we're conditioned to root for the protagonist with the character we spend the most time with because of that it's hard for us to be fully objective it's contradictory and complicated because relationships with people like Bojack are contradictory and complicated but also Vance is sazed in the same way that flip and Sebastian stclair are their characters may be based on real people or a culmination of problematic commonalities and tropes among specific groups of people the tortured artist showrunner that walks over everyone the performative wealthy philanthropist that prioritizes his own image above all and the actor that gets away with doing terrible things and is never fully held accountable for them for most of the series Bojack is the real fleshed out counterpart of what Vance represents if Bojack was a real person based on the Public's awareness of his actions it could easily be speculated that he was an inspiration for the character of Vance Wagner though it is important to note that the writers enforced one very significant very defining difference between Bojack and Vance unlike Vance Bojack recognizes and cares that his actions are morally wrong and he genuinely wants to become a better person this distinction is vital to the Show's theme it's what keeps Bojack from straying into narcissism it's what keeps the tones undercurrent optimistic this never ending possibility of change what if I relapse again then you'll get sober again don't get me wrong sometimes well a lot of the time Bojack Horsemen can get Bleak it's kind of an ongoing joke in the fandom poking fun at like hey who knew this comedy about a cartoon talking horse would be the darkest show you've ever watched and that definitely has Merit but Raphael always saw his show as ultimately hopeful when I think of the most feel-good parts of the series my mind goes to scenes that give us hope for bojack's change his smile knowing he's reconnecting with Hol Hawk the Montage and Rehab when we we see him put effort into recovery when he finds community at the church service reenactment symbolically letting go of his internalized hatred of Horses The Emotional fulfillment he experiences teaching kids acting at Wesleyan these moments are profound because despite everything Bojack has done we still want him to get better Raphael said I would like to see Bojack find some sort of peace I don't know if happiness is the right word I don't know if he deserves that but I would like to think even a soul is lost as Bojack can somehow crawl his way toward Redemption when Netflix releases a new season of a series on their platform they'll often wait to see initial popularity and audience feedback before weighing out their slate and deciding whether to renew the show for another season or cancel it altogether this is notoriously the case for animated shows whose contracts are usually only for one season at a time and whose plugs Netflix are more likely to pull because they have less broad appeal even though BoJack Horseman was Netflix's first animated original series produced inh house that didn't exempt it from potentially being cancelled it wasn't until the beginning of season 6 that Raphael Bob waxberg was told it was going to be the last season before that point the writers had no way of knowing if the season they were working on would be their last so these season finale moments they're incredibly significant because each one had the possibility of being the end of the series as a whole and they had to be written with that in mind and no matter how horrible boj's actions were in that season no matter how hopeless any chance for his Redemption seemed every time the writers were faced with choosing one final message to leave the audience with they made sure that message was the same thanks man you're like my hero really huh it gets easier huh every day it gets a little easier but you got to do it every day that's the hard part but I've never had a brother hello I am BoJack Horseman and I am here because I need help life's a and then you die right sometimes sometimes life's a and then you keep living well I I guess that's it if you liked this video please subscribe and hit the Bell so you're notified the next time I emerge from my Crypt if you have more of a Bojack itch to scratch you're unluck because there are like a bajillion more video essays on YouTube on so many different characters and topics honestly I steer clear of other creators videos on the same subject I'm working on or about to work on because I'm scared I'll accidentally subconsciously sponge their ideas into my own work but I do remember really loving this video by Johnny to cellos in it he analyzes how the sitcom Paradigm from horse and around is mirrored onto one of my favorite episodes but with much darker results it's really good highly recommend it thanks for watching

Channel: Sloan Stowe

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Id: _BwPByyVn1I

Length: 45min 51sec (2751 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 19 2024