Bojack Horseman Season 6B Review

All good things come to an end and that is the case for Bojack Horseman with the second part of the final season.

Bojack has overcome his alcohol addiction and has become a professor at Wesleyan University. His new job means he can get away from the corrupting influence of Hollywoo and spend time with his half-sister. But Bojack’s sordid past comes back to haunt him.

Bojack Horseman is one of the best adult animated shows, if not the best. It’s a show that mixed humour and character development with a serious look at mental health and social commentary. The final half of the final season of Bojack Horseman was no exception.

After Bojack’s effects to get clean and settle down in the previous part, his world comes crashing down, leading him to his lower ebb. This was most evident with his relationship with Hollyhock, the only horse he cares for and the last member of his family. The first episode of this part showed their relationship becoming strained and Hollyhock distancing herself from her half-brother. It only gets worst when all of Bojack’s misdeeds are revealed and leads to a heartbreaking moment for Bojack at the end of the episode “The Horny Unicorn” It was this season’s ‘fuck’ moment, where a relationship breaks down beyond repair.

The theme of the lingering effects of the past was present with some of the other characters. Diane has an episode dedicated to this when she tries to write her book. She looks back at her horrible childhood and tries to channel into her art. Her reasoning being it would be for naught if she can’t turn it into something meaningful. Her episode also looks at her depression and how anti-depressants mellowed her mood, but she wrongly feels they were hampering her creativity. It’s a fresh spin on the issue of depression in the show. Diane’s episode, “Good Damage” was similar to the Season 4 episode, “Stupid Piece of Sh*t” where crude drawings were used to show the main character’s inner thoughts as the characters deal with their psychological issues.

Todd also has a storyline involving his past because he has a dysfunctional relationship with his mother. His stepdad tries to bring them together before Todd fixes the relationship in his own special way. Penny reminds traumatised after her experience with Bojack as shown in the episode “Good Damages.” Whilst bad boy Vance Waggoner has a different view when he advises Bojack during his social isolation: embrace the past and the bad boy imagine they have. However, what Vance says and how he acts are two different things.

All of this reflection culminates in the excellent penultimate episode “The View From Halfway Down.” The season penultimate episodes in Bojack Horseman is often a surreal experience and an episode when a character is coming to a big realisation or having a major left changing event. In “The View From Halfway Down” Bojack has a dinner party with characters who have died during the show and become a reflective affair. In the episode, Bojack has a near-death experience and his mind tries to process what’s happened and his guilt gets physically manifested. The most emotional moments in that episode were Sarah Lynn’s version of ‘Don’t Stop Dancing’ and Bojack’s final call. Sarah Lynn’s performance was heartbreaking, especially the final verse where the tone was sombre. The characters all have different reactions to their impending death: from fear, to bargaining, to acceptance.

In the episode “Xerox of a Xerox” the public gets to find out about all of Bojack’s sexual relationships. Bojack gets painted as a sexual predator even though audiences know that most of these relationships were consensual. Although Bojack’s actions with Penny were unforgivable. This moment in the season shows all of Bojack’s past coming back to ruin him, and show how the #MeToo has changed popular culture.

The final half of the final season was not all hard-hitting issues: there was a lot of humour. The journalists Paige Sinclair and Max spoke in an old-fashioned, fast manner and came across as a screwball comedy couple. They were bringing down the title character, but there was a lot of fun. And the show was filled with sight gags, word-play, and Todd’s schemes. It was a relief when compared to the darker subject manner. There was also a little bit of satire when Bojack gets a lawsuit from a major company.

It was great that Bojack Horseman has ended on its own terms, compared to other adult animated shows that get run into the ground. The show ended on a high as it explored Bojack’s lowest lows.