BOJACK HORSEMAN Season 5: Reliable Show Continues Galloping Along

BoJack Horseman returns for its consistently good – although not always fantastic – fifth season.

Since starting life as Netflix’s flagship animated series, BoJack Horseman has proven itself a reliable rock in the ever-shifting storm of the streaming service’s Original Content roster. Despite a shaky fourth season, the series has earned itself a place as one of the best animated or comedy shows on or off Netflix.

The show follows washed-up TV actor BoJack Horseman and a collection of other members of his Hollywood circle as they struggle with a plethora of personal and social issues. Between the realistic depictions of mental health issues, the bizarre anthropomorphic Hollywood of the show, and the warm humor (mostly animal puns), the show has built up a committed following, both for its entertainment value and the appalling yet relatable ways the actions and feelings of its characters affirm issues that many people suffer.

Perhaps as a reaction to the fourth season’s lackluster reception, the fifth season brings some noticeable – if not major – changes to the show’s formula, both in terms of content and message. There’s an increased focus on the supporting characters, and several episodes embrace an avant-garde approach to storytelling. Some of these experiments work, and some of them don’t, but each tryst with a new kind of story exhibits showrunner Raphael Bob-Waksberg’s impressive creativity.

While the fifth season of the show doesn’t quite hit the comedic or emotive heights of the first three seasons, it’s never a bore. Noone’s going to be disappointed by the new season, and the commendable ways it tries to change its formula are impressive in intention and operation – but the season likely won’t be remembered as a high point of the show either.

Old Characters Telling New Stories

The most noticeable change that season five brings is a particular focus on the show’s supporting characters. Previous seasons had embraced the whacky and diverse cast, but they had always clearly been supporting characters, with their stories nestled in to an overarching narrative that focused on BoJack. In certain season five episodes, however, these characters are front and center.

Episodes “The Dog Days Are Over”, “The Amelia Earhart Story” and “Mr. Peanutbutter’s Boos” focus on Diane, Princess Caroline and Mr. Peanutbutter respectively, giving them an unprecedented level of attention. If BoJack is present in the episode he is a supporting character, much in the same way that these characters previously had been, and his relative absence lets the story scrutinize these supporting characters.

By elevating these characters to prominence, the show can tell its story and convey its message over the course of many different voices. In particular, ideas of gender and race are conveyed through Diane and Princess Caroline that wouldn’t simply have been possible through BoJack. Another bonus is that characters can embrace the darkness that is usually monopolized by BoJack – Mr. Peanutbutter, usually an overly upbeat and happy character, receives his first proper character arc, and explores issues that BoJack couldn’t.

If there’s one character who seems largely forgotten, it’s Todd. While his misadventures are typically the comedy to juxtapose other characters’ drama, his season three realization of his asexuality brought an unexpected profundity to the character, and this representation of asexuality has been lauded as rare in TV. Unfortunately, he’s a much smaller character in season five – his story over the course of the season, of getting a job and creating a robot, contains less substance than his stories previously had in each episode. It’s a shame, because early episodes hint towards a deep look similar to that which other characters received.

Teaching a Dog New Tricks

In addition to episodes which prioritize other characters, some of the most interesting episodes from the season are those which embrace an alternative mode of storytelling. While some previous seasons have had episodes like this, such as season three’s incredible “Fish Out of Water”, season five seems to challenge itself to tell stories in different ways.

The most notable example is the episode “Free Churro”, the entirety of which is a monologue from BoJack. A 20 minute monologue doesn’t sound very compelling for an animated comedy, but it’s a testament to Will Arnett’s voice work and the writing from Raphael Bob-Waksberg, notably the only episode he wrote this season, that it works so well. This mode of storytelling isn’t just a ‘gimmick’ to vary presentation, but a fundamental part of the episode – themes and ideas are explored to an extent that wouldn’t be possible if part of a normal episode.

While the novel ways of telling stories usually works, this isn’t always the case. The episode “INT. SUB” feels noticeably off, as its ‘gimmick’ seems included purely to change the visual style of the show, instead of to analyse otherwise-untouchable ideas.

You Can Lead a BoJack to Water…

The core of the show is still BoJack, despite the commendable promotion of many other characters. This focus on the supporting cast does mean his narrative arc of the season, regarding his new show Philbert, isn’t as prominent as his narrative arcs in previous seasons. This is fine, and seems almost intentional so that these other characters can enjoy the spotlight, but it does mean BoJack’s involvement with his project can no longer be used to discern his own mental state as his Oscar bid or family drama did previously. In fact, BoJack has a noticeably smaller character arc than other seasons.

This downsizing of his characterization, or destructive agency, does work well in parts – in “The Light Bulb Scene” and “BoJack the Feminist” his lack of interest or understanding in feminism perfectly mocks Hollywood’s seemingly ambivalent response to the #metoo campaign. However, the smaller part he plays through the season does mean his regular ‘terrible act’ that he commits near or at the end of each season seems unforeseen and largely unprepared for, whereas most seasons build it up more.

This ‘terrible act’ does pose some challenging questions for the show, however. The emotional core of the show is that we should forgive BoJack’s various misdeeds because of the reasons that brought them about – overwhelming anxiety or depression triggers most of his actions, and since many viewers can relate in some way to his issues, we can sympathize. However, not only is his action at the end of “The Showstopper” prompted by drug abuse instead of mental health issues or inaction, it’s an act of such tremendous proportion that it’s arguably not right to ask the viewer to forgive BoJack. Season six is going to have to be very careful with how it rectifies this situation.

BOJACK HORSEMAN: An Old Horse That Doesn’t Need New Tricks

It’s easy to call this season “more of the same”, but for a show as good as BoJack Horseman, that’s a compliment. The witty comedy supports the profound subject matters in an appropriate way, all while being underlined by fantastic writing. The voice actors are performing admirably, especially Will Arnett as BoJack and Amy Sedaris as Princess Caroline, and the animation is once again top-notch.

In particular, the emphasis on various characters and the novel means of storytelling used show the season trying hard to keep episodes distinct, while exploring ideas and using voices to an otherwise-impossible degree. Not everything works, but enough does that the season feels fresher as a result.

The season isn’t quite the renaissance that it could have been, especially since BoJack as a character is slowly becoming a bit of a tired trope, and the themes of the show have been tempered by time. Still, the season is reliably entertaining, and remains vitally important to those who watch and relate to it.

BoJack Horseman Season 5 was released on Netlix on 14 September 2018.