For Millennials. By Millennials.
Bojack Horseman has finally received a long awaited Emmy nomination for ‘Outstanding Animated Program’ in the Primetime Emmy Awards 2019. This is the second time they have been nominated but this is the first ever time the show itself got a nomination. And it was definitely a long time coming.
Bojack Horseman’s Take on Depression Was Pretty Accurate
Ever since Bojack Horseman premiered it has tackled major issues such as addiction, depression and anxiety. Of course, we see it in other much more popular and hit shows such as Sherlock and House M.D. Lately, we have been seeing it in contemporary shows as well such as One Day At a Time, Dead to Me, This is Us, Maniac, Crazy Ex Girlfriend and Bodyguard. What’s different with Bojack Horseman doing it is the fact that the medium is entirely different.
In a way, the medium itself may have felt restricting but it actually gives the show creators much more freedom. You can see that in several episodes. Bojack portrays depression throughout the whole five seasons, but in some moments it ends up breaking him down. We saw this when his old co-star Sarah Lynn dies from an overdose. This is after they take a lot of drugs together. It is because of Bojack Sarah Lynn breaks her sobriety. He even loses people who used to be close to him due to his questionable actions. This self-destructive behavior even pushes away the close people in his life currently such as Diane, Todd and Princess Carolyn.
In season 5, Bojack’s childhood was delved much deeper. Not only his but we find out why his mother was so emotionally abusive to him throughout. There’s apparently a pattern of emotional abuse that runs through the Horseman family. We see his father as well as his mother’s father be misogynistic to the highest degrees. In the iconic season 5 episode ‘Free Churro’, for which the show got nominated for as well, we see Bojack give out a eulogy for his mother. The eulogy was much like Bojack’s unfiltered ranting where he is honest about the pains and trauma his mother caused him when he was a child. All he wanted was to be feel acknowledged by her but he never gets the chance.
Everyone Gets Their Own Story on Bojack
He’s not the only one dealing with a lot of pain Diane Ngyuen and Mr. Peanutbutter also go through their own versions of depression and heartbreak when they get divorced. Diane can’t seem to find peace in her own life no matter what action she takes, whether it be getting married, getting divorced or taking a random trip to Vietnam.
Meanwhile, Mr. Peanutbutter realizes he cannot ignore his problems anymore either. Todd’s journey where he finds that he is asexual wasn’t an easy one too. Princess Carolyn also deals with a lot of pain when she finds out she cannot have a child of her own after five miscarriages. She ends up breaking with the one man that she was truly happy with, Ralph Stilton. Even though she does end up adopting a baby at the end.
Impact of Me Too Movement in Season 5
Me Too was a major theme that impacted how the stories in Bojack Horseman unfolded. We saw that in the episode “Bojack the Feminist” where Bojack ends up allying up with the feminism cause just cause of the positive fame he is receiving. But in reality, he ends up almost strangling his co-star and girlfriend Gina on set while he loses control of himself. And this isn’t the first time Bojack has done something questionable with women. It showed how Hollywood deals misogynistic men in a way that doesn’t outright punish them for their actions. It was pretty realistic because we see it happening in the real world as well when Louis C.K. was able to return to doing comedy shows with no repercussions.
So, Bojack Horseman was definitely worthy of this Emmy nomination.
The animated series stars Will Arnett, Alison Brie, Paul F. Tomkins, Aaron Paul and Amy Sedaris. It was created in 2014 by Raphael Bob-Waksberg.