"Bojack Horseman" and the art of self-accountability
Two years after its conclusion, “Bojack Horseman” continues to be a shining example of a series that knows how to deal with the themes that its episodes employ. “Bojack Horseman” is an animated series on Netflix that centers around anthropomorphic animals in present day Los Angeles and Hollywood (or Hollywoo, as the town would later be known as in the series) and feature big actors like Will Arnett from Arrested Development, Alison Brie, Aaron Paul from Breaking Bad and so many others.
“Bojack Horseman” premiered on Netflix on Aug. 22, 2014, ran for six seasons and concluded in January 2020. The serialized animated drama quickly stood out from the rest of the adult comedy scene with its sobering tone and tackling of themes hardly seen in an animated show such as substance abuse, depression, legacy, what it means to be responsible for one’s happiness and what to do when said happiness seems far off.
One of the recurring instances in the series is the fact that Bojack, despite earning countless nominations for his movies, an available and supportive circle of friends, work partners and more money than a horse knows what to do with, at the end of each season, it is never enough for him. Bojack allows his unchecked baggage and trauma to fester as the series progresses, which leads him to damage himself and everyone around him. Bojack views his downward spiral in many instances as reimbursement for his intensely abusive childhood.
We as humans are hardwired to look for a scapegoat to blame for our problems. We tell ourselves that there is always some other reason that things are the way they are. We ask ourselves if this mental illness or if this traumatic event, or even trivial things like stress from school or work, were out of the picture, would we be better? We act out in defiance of all the terrible things that have happened in our lives because we see it as an excuse.
Because of that predestined mindset, Bojack never allows himself to try and better anything about his addictions or mental health. With all the things wrong with his head, he assumed he would never be better so there was no reason to even try. In the end, his crippling alcohol addiction and substance abuse along with other shady acts he commits throughout the series caused him to push away everyone who cares about him, but his addiction nor his manic depression and anxiety are not to blame for any of it.
One of my favorite episodes of the series is season three episode 10, “It’s You.” Mr. Peanutbutter, one of Bojack’s friends throughout the series, goes through wacky antics to announce the Oscar nominees while a future Bojack celebrates his Oscar nomination with a party. PB, as Mr. Peanutbutter is also known, points out when Todd, Bojack’s roommate, shows disdain that his roommate gets everything he wants: “I think the important thing to remember here is that Bojack is a damaged individual struggling against a sea of demons, many self-centered, but still all too real.”
Later in the same episode, Bojack wakes up from a massive hangover in his now trashed house with tremendous dejection after he found out he was in fact not nominated for the Oscars. In an argument with Todd, Bojack accidentally lets out that he slept with Todd’s ex-girlfriend, to which his follow-up is “I’m sorry, I screwed up.” Todd’s response to him is perhaps one of the greatest and haunting lines in television history: “You can’t keep doing this! You can’t keep doing shitty things and then feel bad about yourself as if that makes it okay! You need to be better. …You are all the things that are wrong with you. It’s not the alcohol, or the drugs or any of the shitty things that happened to you in your career or when you were a kid. It’s you. Alright? It’s you. … What else is there to say?”
Much later in the series, Bojack seeks out his best friend and author of his memoir, Diane Nguyen, begging her to “hold him accountable” for shady things that had come to light previously in the episode. While seeming like a step in the right direction, Diane quickly reminds him and the audience, “Whatever you put in that story, no one is gonna ‘hold you accountable.’ You need to take responsibility for yourself.”
“Bojack Horseman” shows us that we are the only ones who are truly accountable for our actions and how we dictate our lives. At the end of the day, there is no one that is accountable for you except for yourself and at the end of the day, you are responsible for your own happiness. Happiness reliant on anyone other than yourself is only temporary.
