…You know, over the years I’ve drawn Movie Slate in various degrees of anger and what not, but this is the first time I think I’ve drawn her silently furious with someone. I don’t know what it is about the expression here but even I’m getting upset looking at her. She is downright pissed off with Bojack but, to be fair, that’s not an unnatural response to being near him. It’s funny how the main character of this show happens to be both sympathetic and almost irredeemably unlikeable. Speaking of which!
 
“Bojack Horseman” is perhaps the best animated show to have come out in the 2010’s. I could end my discussion there and just recommend everyone to go see it, but that’s what everyone has already done, to various degrees of reaction. I wasn’t that much into it during the first few episodes, but then Bojack starts to work on his novel and things get interesting. I’ll only talk about Season 1, mostly because I’d like to cover all the other seasons individually. You know how it is with most shows, where we have the first season to establish characters, and the stories are pretty simple, and things aren’t all that developed. Or you have the other side of the coin, where the story and characters are so developed that the thing becomes incomprehensible, only to those super fans who have read the five novels that come before it. This show, like all great series, throws you in with the story already under way, but not so much that you can’t catch up with it, the narrative heavily relying on strong characterisation. I could dedicate an entire afternoon to talk about the characters in this show, but let me put it this way. You know that moment when that one character shows up in your favourite show and you go “Ugh, not this guy, I hate this guy!” well, Bojack Horseman doesn’t have a single moment like that. And it’s not like al the characters are likeable, far from it, some of them are downright monstrous. But they are fascinating in how horrible they are, something that my unfortunate rubber-neck personality quite enjoys. It’s the mentality of “Can’t look away from a trash fire because it’s just so entertaining to watch”. Well Bojack (the character) is made entirely out of trash fires, to the point where in how enjoyable it is to see him lose what little humanity he’s got started reflecting on me as a person. Is Bojack Horseman the monster or is it me who enjoys to see this very unlikeable character fall apart? Does it make me a horrible person to see this guy, who’s had a really terrible life, get humiliated and fail constantly? Who is the real bad person here?
 
It’s around this point where I talk about what I consider the weaknesses of the show, but I don’t think I can come up with any. If anything this show made me think about my own weaknesses, some of which I’m still working on to this day. I came to this party late, only started watching in 2018, and have barely had enough time to do any fanart besides that one very simple drawing I uploaded a while ago. It’s not due to lack of appreciation or care, it’s rather a matter of time. But no, I seriously hardcore loved this show, for all the things it did and all the things it didn’t do. Is it perfect then? Well, if the definition of perfection is something you can’t find any flaws on, then yes I guess this show to me is perfect. At least, this first season. I will go into detail on the other seasons as I get to them. It’ll give me an excuse to draw all the other characters, I mean come on.
 
Bojack Horseman is a rare gem of story telling and execution that balances it’s very heavy themes with surprising ease, relying on strong characterisation. A perfect mix of light and heavy tones only made possible by good writing and flawless tone setting.