BoJack Horseman Review: Who Are You? (Season 5 Episodes 1-4)
In these first four episodes of BoJack Horseman Season 5, a common thread runs through them all: What defines your identity and what happens to you if it’s in flux?
In an odd and perhaps obvious way, spending time with BoJack Horseman is a lot like a therapy session. The therapist might ask you what’s going on in your life, but it’s not nearly as important as how that thing felt in the moment and after.
It’s always been a show that’s interested in hitting at the emotional complexities of the human (or otherwise) condition, such as BoJack’s depression, but these new episodes are almost taking it to another level. Not simply content to unpack the nuances, it really hopes to take them somewhere new and uncomfortable.
BoJack has always been good at having character-based episodes as a kind of template for the series and Season 5 is no exception to that.
These first four episodes are excellent. They are also great at giving its eclectic ensemble episodes of their own and a strong perspective, even when it isn’t specifically their episode.
While all very good in their own right, the one that will likely have the most staying power and discourse surrounding it is BoJack Horseman Season 5 Episode 4, “BoJack the Feminist,” which is Bojack Horseman’s answer to the #MeToo movement, despite being written before that got underway.
It’s incredibly prescient for what it is and gives voice to a lot of the frustrations that have been felt in regards to the hiring practices in Hollywood.
BoJack Horseman, even while being a smart, nuanced portrayal of depression, has always been an incredibly savvy satire of the Hollywood and Los Angeles environment. It tries at all times to take as much of the self-important wind out of that system as it possibly can.
It can amusingly deconstruct the nonsense that Hollywood so often embraces, accidentally or not, but so often it’s able to deftly strike at something within the business that needs to be addressed.
In Season 4, it was the way that Hollywood executives react to mass shootings. This season, it’s trying for something equally timely: The way we allow ourselves to so easily forgive the most despicable celebrities.
This is an episode that also reflects back to Season 2 when Diane tried to shine a light on a Bill Cosby analog and ultimately failed for no other reason than that she is a woman.
This time around for her, “BoJack the Feminist” has a more cynical and realistic take in that people would be willing to listen to Diane’s words if they came from a man, i.e BoJack.
Throughout these first four episodes, Diane is clearly the heavy hitter, being given the heaviest material to work with, and Alison Brie really makes a meal of it. That being said, and this is something that has lingered over that character for quite some time, the continued presence of Brie in that role feels like it should be more of an issue than it is.
This becomes especially apparent on BoJack Horseman Season 5 Episode 2, “The Dog Days Are Over,” when Diane travels to Vietnam to get away from everything to really remind you that Diane is, in fact, Vietnamese.
Granted, part of the point of that episode is that Diane is a stranger in a strange land, but it still feels wrong, despite how good Diane is in the role.
Nonetheless, BoJack Horseman Season 5 is off to a really great start, and we just hope it can continue the streak for the rest of the season.
Some Stray Thoughts:
- Let’s take a moment to appreciate the casting in these episodes. Whoopi Goldberg, Issa Rae, Stephanie Beatriz, Abbi Jacobson, Rami Malek, Laura Linney, Eva Longoria, and John Leguizamo; it’s an embarrassment of riches.
- “Now that is the kind of story that I could share without reading, which for our purposes is even better than people reading it.”
- “Once again my life has been lessened by a brush with musical theater!”
- “I need words for my website. There are words on the website now, but I need younger words, newer words, fresher words, to feed the insatiable beast.” I cannot relate to this at all whatsoever.
What did you think of BoJack Horseman Season 5 so far? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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BoJack Horseman is now streaming on Netflix.
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Drew Koenig
Drew has an ongoing, borderline unhealthy obsession with pop culture, but with television in particular. When he's not aggressively trying to get out of a perpetual state of catching up, he can be found passionately defending the ending of Lost. More of his online work can be found at The Lost Cause and he also co-hosts The Lost Cause Pod.