7 important things BoJack Horseman and his friends taught us

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Animal cartoons have not been so human for a long time. Caution: Spoilers!

On January 31, 2020, the last episodes of BoJack Horse, an adult animated series about the adventures of an anthropomorphic alcoholic horse and his friends, were released. The life hacker says goodbye to history and recalls the lessons she taught us.

Caution: material contains spoilers.

1. Admitting mistakes is not scary

The series begins with former Hollywood star BoJack meeting Vietnamese-born writer Diana Nguyen. The horse needs to be popular again, and one way to do this is to write a book about himself. The hero gives this matter into the hands of a literary slave and begins to tell Diana his life: it is at this moment that he takes the path of admitting mistakes, first denying them, then admitting and finally repenting.

BoJack could become a real anti-hero: he hates his mother, betrayed his best friend Herb, did not appreciate the sincere love of everyone who did not care about him. He drank a lot and inclined others to bad habits - for example, the star Sarah Lynn, who had given up alcohol and drugs. Nevertheless, one cannot help but sympathize with him: every time, as soon as the horse realizes his mistake, he awkwardly and awkwardly tries to correct it. And it is the realization of his mistakes that slowly changes BoJack's life for the better - he finally finds out his relationship with his beloved women, voices claims to his family, and even asks for forgiveness from a terminally ill friend. We cannot change our past, but the future is quite.

2. The fight against bad habits is not a matter of one step

We hear a lot about how harmful alcohol and drugs are, but when we see with our own eyes the abyss into which they are pushing the hero, a real chill runs through the skin. BoJack's relationship with booze began when he was a child: lonely and forgotten by his parents, he took a sip from a bottle so it wouldn't be so bitter. Then he drank as a teenager, on the set and at glittering parties - when for fun, when in order to forget. The star revises his relationship with alcohol only when they lead to something terrible - and make the hero dangerous to others.

After that, the horse tries to embark on the path of correction: it goes to rehab, undergoes a course of treatment and for a long time goes to meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous, trying to hold on. True, after the first blow of fate, he again touches the drink. It is interesting that BoJack is not the only character with addiction: his doctor, horse hippotherapist, is also an alcoholic in a string, who once breaks down and cannot stop.

The show explains that it is possible to “take and quit” any addiction, but it is quite difficult. On the way to a normal life, breakdowns are possible. But this does not mean at all that you need to stop striving for it.

3. Broken relationships cannot be glued together with a beautiful gesture

The writer Diana Nguyen is a touching and creative girl, uncompromisingly honest and embarrassingly shy. It's amazing that at the very beginning of the story, she managed to enter into a relationship with Mister Pigtail - a funny dog-TV star, a short-sighted extrovert and the embodiment of the holiday, in general, its complete opposite.

The relationship of the heroes is going through a crisis literally from the very first acquaintance: the scoundrel cannot understand Diana, and Diana herself cannot take seriously the endless adventures of her beloved. Nevertheless, the dog tries to fight for his love: first he gives Nguyen the letter D stolen from the Hollywood inscription, then decides to win her heart with a luxurious gift, completely recreating the library of the protagonist from Disney's Beauty and the Beast. At the same time, the couple cannot voice their real expectations from the relationship to each other, they do not talk much - and in the end they part.

Love is not like a game of cards, where one beautiful action can beat dozens of silly nagging, mistakes and words unsaid to each other. And the story of Mister Catch and Diana only confirms this once again.

4. Becoming the perfect parent is optional. It's enough to try to be good

The career cat Princess Carolyn is an example of a self-made woman: she is successful in business, steers the lives of Hollywood stars and projects with a multi-million dollar budget. However, by the middle of the story, she becomes a mother and with horror realizes that she cannot be effective in the nursery as well as in her office: tasks tear the heroine apart, the baby requires attention, and with all this, the world makes you smile and continue to step forward, like nothing happened. The princess is so overwhelmed that she doesn't even have time to think of a name for her daughter.

One day, not having time for another very important party, the heroine stops and exhales: it becomes clear that her new project "Baby" is much more complicated than everything she had been doing before. Becoming the perfect mom is an insoluble task. But you can try to just do everything as best as possible - and the child will definitely appreciate it.

The series generally talks a lot about family and motherhood issues: for example, the mother of the protagonist BoJack was also not ideal. But unlike Princess Carolyn, she did not try, sincerely hating the husband who broke her life, and the child who was born from this husband.

Being a mother is very difficult, and when God gives a bunny, no lawn is attached. The animated series shows that being a parent is a great job, and the line between good and bad is much thinner than it seems.

5. Being different from others is not bad

Todd Chavez is an unemployed guy who once came to one of BoJack's parties, and then stayed on his couch, where he hung for about five years. In the fourth season, he discovers that he is asexual, and because of this he loses his beloved, who finds it difficult to feel desirable without physical contact.

At the same time, Todd does not despair and, perhaps for the first time in his life, feels really good: he finds other people who are not interested in sex, and starts new relationships with girls who accept him for who he is. Chavez's confession frees him from what a “normal person” supposedly should and should not do - and helps him become happier.

6. Even in the most bitter moments, there is time for a stupid joke

BoJack Horseman is a series at the junction of tragedy and comedy: when the viewer is ready to burst into tears from another plot twist, the story throws up an absurd and therefore especially funny punch. For most of the jokes, the simpleton Todd and the not-too-smart Mister Rack are responsible: the heroes either decide to open a female taxi with stripper killer whales as drivers, or they come up with an office with dentist clowns, which then develops into a horror park.

However, the characters continue to remain ironic, even when life throws a lemon that cannot be turned into lemonade. At the funeral, BoJack makes a speech that is more like a stand-up comedian, and during a heartbreaking conversation with an old friend, he suddenly switches from his own pain to the story of how he hates melon - Jared Leto from the world of fruits. It is the sense of humor (sometimes quite tough) that prevents the heroes from sinking into the abyss of despair and helps them not to lose hope even in the saddest moments.

7. Time does not heal. But makes us ourselves

In the final episodes, Diana Nguyen tries to write a memoir and thinks a lot about the Japanese art of kintsugi - filling cracks in dishes with molten gold. Kintsugi reminds us that it is the cracks that make us who we are, and therefore we should not hide them.

All the characters in the series are deeply traumatized people who constantly transmit pain in a circle. Beatrice Horsman was unhappy in her marriage and therefore did not love her son. BoJack hated his mother and was therefore unable to give love to anyone else. Diana Nguyen could not find mutual understanding in the family, and therefore completely closed herself off from Mr. Ponytail, and Ponytail himself was painfully worried about a divorce from each of his wives. Todd hadn't spoken to his parents in years, and Princess Carolyn had seen nothing but work for a long time. Each character lives his life alone with his pain, trying in every possible way to distract himself. But it still does not work out to the end.

The heroes made many mistakes, most of which, as it turned out, could not be corrected: the relationship collapsed, friendship slipped through their fingers, and old grievances remained close forever. But along with them came the experience: an understanding of how important it is to give love to those who are near, that real closeness is easy to miss, and timely repentance can glue what is broken.

And it is experience that makes us who we are: not always good and correct, but sincere and alive. As we know ourselves - who have overcome a lot, and therefore are especially strong.