Bojack Horseman is a Netflix original series about a washed-up actor of the same name. He used to star in the 90s sitcom “Horsin’ Around.” Fast forward twenty years later, and he’s become jaded and depressed. Oh, and he’s also an anthropomorphic horse. Half of the cast is half human, half animal. While initially receiving mixed reviews in its first season, Bojack Horseman grew to be one of the most beloved shows of the decade, combining hilarious Hollywood satire and some of the most genuine, powerful, and downright depressing moments ever put to animation. Season 5 continues this trend and proves that Bojack Horseman truly is a masterpiece of a show.
After the events of season 5, Bojack looks to be wanting to make a positive change to his life due to his experiences with his long-lost half-sister. Now, he’s starring in a new crime show called “Philbert,” where he hopes that he can grow to be a better person. However, when the past and his own addictions start to catch up to him, conflicts begin to grow between him and his friends, as well as himself.
While this show brings up dark topics, it never glorifies or glamorizes them. Instead, Bojack Horseman shows the viewer these subjects up front and how destructive they can be. The show offers tragic consequences for the character’s actions, and they are brutal to watch. As a result, it is one of the most genuine shows of recent memory. The raw emotion that this show offers is dark, heavy, and hard to watch at times, but it is so masterfully executed. Season five continues this trend, offering some of the heaviest and most disturbing moments of the entire series. And it’s not disturbing to be shocking. There’s a method to its madness. The show has a knack for giving the viewer disturbing content and showing the repercussions the characters go through. It’s effective, powerful, and makes those moments even more unsettling.
Now, that’s not to say that this show is all doom and gloom. At its heart, Bojack Horseman is a comedy, and it’s a very funny one at that. The show relentlessly satirizes Hollywood, from its celebrities to its politics, and it’s hilarious. Plus, the movie is filled to the brim with puns and meta jokes. While those types of jokes can be considered lazy, this show manages to pull it off in such a clever way. Something as simple as characters saying what year it is during flashback scenes and banners that include the instructions following the message make for some of the funniest moments in the entire show. While season 5 may not be the funniest season, it’s still has a lot of laugh out loud moments, ranging from the inane and idiotic to the smart and clever.
However, it's the characters that make the show truly stand out. While none of them are particularly likeable, they are all fascinating to watch. Their stories are all investing, and each character has so much depth to them. All of the main characters are heavily flawed, and seeing each one of them work through their flaws season by season makes for some of the most compelling storylines on television.
The big question is how season 5 of Bojack Horseman stands compared to the rest of the series. While it’s not my personal favorite, that distinction goes to season 3, season 5 is still amazing, offering some of the darkest and most powerful emotional moments of the entire season. The best episode of the season is, without question, “The Churro.” It’s a self-contained story, featuring a twenty minute monologue by Bojack, voiced by Will Arnett. It’s an amazing performance, and the speech he gives is captivating. Other than that episode, the biggest highlights are “The Dog Days are Over,” “INT. SUB,” “Ancient History,” “Head in the Clouds,” “The Showstopper,” and “The Stopped Show.” But then again, every episode is great, and not one of them can, or should, be skipped.
Bojack Horseman once again proves why it’s one of the best shows on Netflix. It combines great humor and drama to make a powerful and addicting series. Sure, the show is grim, but the way it shows its viewers its own subject matter is used in such a mature and emotionally stirring way. This show is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. However, I think that everyone should watch this show. It’s an important cartoon that takes real problems and handles them in a beautiful, tragic, graceful, and unsettling way. This show is fantastic, and season 5 is just another notch under this series’s belt.
Final Score: 9/10 (Amazing)
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