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Megan Malloy
Mrs. Roberts
English 3
2/24/22
A Horse Walks Into A Bar

Here's the pitch: a washed-up 90’s actor struggling with self-destructive behaviors,

depression, and addiction. Sounds fine and dandy, but let's make the main character a horse,

perfect. An idea this ridiculous would seem hard to reign in, but Bojack horseman became a

modern masterpiece, invoking a sense of introspection in even the most dubious viewer. As each

character's stories are pulled back layer by layer the watcher cannot help but feel a sense of

connection as they watch raw hard-to-tell stories presented in such a raunchy fashion. Sometimes

you laugh along but other times you're left unsettled and wondering, why would someone do that,

then walk away. The traumas of each character add a fragmented love to the show. You love

them, love to watch them, but you don't love to relate to them. Bojack's universe is a reflection of

our human-riddled world and how sometimes life is hard but you have to keep living. Bojack

Horseman is a groundbreaking show with compelling dynamic characters and meticulous care

poured into every frame.

There is a saying that goes “ you can't beat a dead horse.” Bojack Horseman has been

long since beaten to death by the world. His parents beat him down, social media beat him down,

the industry beat him down. Everything in Bojack’s eyes was set on beating him down but in

reality, he was his biggest abuser. His deep cuts of self-loathing seeped onto everyone he came

close to until they became tired of his mess and left. Stories about infertility, loss, divorce and

even dementia unfold in a deeply compelling manner, leaving many with a feeling of identity.

Empathy is handed even when characters make the foulest mistake because we as spectators

know they're growing- nevertheless, when karma comes back with a justly blow we pity the
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criminal. People will watch Bojack as a way to escape from their tasteless lives but are met with

a foil of who they are. Issues people see with life glare at them from the frames of their TVs

showing us who we are. We are products of who we mold ourselves out to be, but victims of our

environment. The storytelling leaves us haunted by who we are on the inside while

simultaneously laughing at the plethora of vulgar jokes.

Adult swim commonly uses facetious jokes to nudge the plot along during its

thirty-minute run time the late-night network grants them. It’s a frequently made claim that

Bojack Horseman's more than vexing language leaves many people disturbed, but they should

take this claim with a grain of salt. I’d go so far as to advise them to sprinkle it on their evening

red herring dish and look at the show more intimately. Sara Lynn was a child star that got her big

break on Bojack’s tv show in the 90s. She spent her entire adolescence blinded by the limelight

and internalizing degrading content media sources portrayed her as. Often the show will say

inappropriate jokes about Sara Lynn or have her body be the source of a subplot. She never saw

herself as who she wanted to be, an architect, only ever seeing herself as what she was told she

was. Merely an object for society's pleasure to ponder over. Sara Lynn died unfulfilled, and the

world that chastised her while living continued shamelessly in death. The merging of comedy

over a melancholy arc masks the pain Sara Lynn was living through making the viewer’s laugh

just as hard of a blow as the attacks the world threw at her.

“ My mom died and I'm left with a churro,” is Bojack's opening for the episode and his

mother's eulogy. The camera's focus is solely on Bojack as he monologues for the duration of the

episode. He rambles along, trying to find a reason as to why his mother's last words to him were

“ I see you,” and why, even though she left him with nothing but years of abuse, does he feel so

alone. The devastating realization is Bojack's mother never saw her son as who he was, not even
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in her final moments. She was only reading the ICU sign behind Bojack. The creators of Bojack

Horseman never give their characters an easy way out. They pick at every crack until a character

crumbles apart. They'll spend dialog-less episodes underwater where Bojack desperately tries to

convey his apologies to his friend, only to have the current wipe away the ink on a note he gave

her, leaving the two with thoughts unsaid but a relationship severed. Storylines that would make

other shows drown is where Bojack adult swims. The creators never shy away from telling the

uncomfortable side of adulthood, and pour unmatched attention into every frame no matter how

meaningless it may seem. They tell a complete story from start to finish in creative ways that

keep viewers watching even if the animation is blurred through tears.

All things come to an end eventually, Bojack Horseman, and even this essay. Just like in

life not everything will be tied up before the end. Not every plot thread is finished because

endings are more of a goodnight, not a goodbye. We’ll never see if Bojack became a good person

-- and that's okay. We don't need to hold the characters hands forever; letting go can be the best

decision. In the show's finale episode, each character says their final goodbye to Bojack in a

bittersweet hope for the future, Amor fati. There is a very real possibility that this will be the last

time Bojack speaks with these characters we've grown to love, but that's how life is and that's

okay. At some point we all move from being the main character in someone else's story to being

written off as our paths divide, cheering from the other side. Each person that gave Bojack

Horseman a chance back in 2014 sewed the seeds for it to become the magnum opus of adult

swim. It encapsulated the perfect synthesis between what makes a good or a bad person or what

parts of you culminate into a good or a bad person. For six seasons we were given the chance to

see what happens when a horse walks into a bar.

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