Also comparing it to Rick and Morty which suggests they haven't watched it
edit: If you don't like the show that's cool I just thought this was a weird pattern
Have you seen this take here? I haven't, aside from people calling it "sad horse show."
One criticism I've seen of Rick and Morty is that although Rick is very clearly portrayed as a bad person who has no regard for the well-being of those around him, he never faces any permanent consequences for his actions. This makes sense as a creative choice because the show has to return to the status quo at the end of each episode, but it leaves room for some obnoxious fans to identify with Rick and idolize the type of personality the show is in part trying to criticize.
Bojack Horseman doesn't have this problem. When Bojack makes bad decisions and hurts people, he has to live with the consequences of those decisions for the rest of the show. There's an entire story arc where Bojack uses a character he's playing as a justification for his own shitty behavior and gets called out for it by his friend. The writers weren't subtle in calling out this type of toxic fan. The show is very clear about how Bojack is supposed to be interpreted.
Not here, from fans of the podcast Chapo Trap House, which has a similar name to this website despite there being no relationship between the two to my knowledge
I honestly thought it was great, and somewhat responsible, of the writers of Bojack to put a whole season in where Bojack is playing a character (Philbert) -- who is essentially himself -- and at the end Diane calls him out for perpetuating an asshole stereotype that he shouldn't be apologizing for/emphasizing with.
Sad horse show is way better than sad grandpa show and both are reflections of the social malaise we’ve fallen into
but even that's not a fair comparison, because sad grandpa is not self reflective. he's just a fucking prick.
yeah, that honestly seems like the exception rather than the rule. the entire show is about him being right, even when he is wrong, because everyone else is a fucking moron. it's literally just dan harmon's massive ego being projected onto the world.
I mean, yes, but there again - just another rare exception to the overall body of work that is "Rick is always right, even when he's wrong".
Have you seen season 4 yet? Specifically, the "Vat of Acid" episode? It's so fucking angry and cynical. And it wasn't even funny. I'm kinda drunk and not really at a point where I can keep this up, just watch Renegade Cut's video on the show, he really sums up the things that bother me about the series better than I can.
So no form of art is deserving of valid criticism? They just exist in a vacuum, and whatever meaning derived from them is detached from any messaging, real or imagined, in the artwork?
Smells like bullshit to me. The show has a bad message, and I don't like the message of the show. I'm not criticizing the drawings or the color scheme.
Nah, it was a net positive show that explored some uncommon subject matter like mental health. It definitely had its moments.
People hate on it because the animation crew struggled to get union wages and because a white actress voiced a Vietnamese character (oh shit, the same criticism was leveled at Rick & Morty). Also some people consider Will Arnett a creep because he dates younger women.
So it's not really about the show they hate so much as the superficiality surrounding it.
People hate on it because the animation crew struggled to get union wages
But they did manage to unionize before the final season was released and this was presented as a plus in the sub.
"Capitalism sews the seeds of it's own destruction" is literally a line from that show.
It was alright but I couldn't stop thinking about all the animals and humans fucking
And where only like 1/4 of their body resembles the animal and the rest is totally human like.
And where cross species breeding is possible.
I think you should finish it because it actually gets better and the whole thing is treated pretty damn well.
It is brilliant, it's a fantastic reflection of the absurdity of society. The absurd is constantly mixed with the mundane to highlight how absurd "normal" life is and the hoops we jump thru to justify it.
Yep, this is why I didn't like it. I'm already depressed, don't need my entertainment to double down on it
I feel the same way, I put off watching so many classic movies and TV shows that are sad or depressing because the misery porn just makes me feel like shit.
I just got tired of Bojack's shit after season 2 and stopped watching
Yeah how many times do we need to go through the cycle of the sad horse growing up and becoming mature and then collapsing back into drug addiction and reckless behavior? 3? 4?
He never did grow up or become mature tho. Just some progress here and there, but there were still lingering issues that had to be resolved.
Eh I feel like it's a punitive justice vs restorative justice sort of thing. Everyone ought to have access to the support BoJack has, even if they're an asshole. You don't wanna become a means-testing technocrat with how we should help people.
Like even from the most emotionless utilitarian perspective, the world would be better if BoJack's illnesses were treated and the harm he caused others was reduced, regardless of how "deserving" he is of our empathy.
oh definitely, 100%
I just wouldn't say bojack is bad because it doesn't do what all shows should do
I agree I just think this line of criticism is of hollywood and corporate media itself rather than any individual show.
I really hate american celebrity culture and i feel i could never connect to the characters. I also feel this show falls in line with a certain media obsession with mental illness going around. Particularly that discourse that paints mental illness as some sort of insurmountable block in the road that gives some people the right to act like jerks.
Particularly that discourse that paints mental illness as some sort of insurmountable block in the road that gives some people the right to act like jerks.
That was a major theme that particularly in the last two seasons argued against.
I couldn't Stomach Bojack for more than the first season; To elaborate, for the few episodes i watched i think the episodic cartoon format of the show worked against it; Because it felt like the monster of the week exercise was more of a "Bojack's little atrocity of the week;" And it wore me down before i could watch more. Maybe the show got better afterwards, but for what i saw the format got very stale.
I'm not even that type of person who's expecting a moral or happy ending in a story, But for this particular character in a spiral of self destruction, i feel i've seen it portrayed better in other shows like say "fleabag" Where he overarching plot lets me see at least a semblance of progression and understand the quirks of the character. Maybe it's just that I find American television too slow. "last two seasons" Makes me thing there is more than three?
Also people who watched Bojak; How do you feel the show's Handling of mental illness holds up against critics of modern psychology like Ashley Frowley? A little example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oji8LCbCi4I&ab_channel=RoomforDiscussion
Ugh. Then I understand why you might feel that way, there is a lot of progress in the show. First of all, they more or less drop the episodic format, after the first season the next seasons have much more of a linear progression. And yes, there is 6 seasons. They realised after the first season that some people were taking it as an excuse for Bojack being a jerk, and they incorporated that as a rather central theme. Especially in the later seasons. At some point one of the seasons (I don't remember which one) is kind of like a deconstruction of previous seasons in a sense.
By the way, I didn't like the first half of the first season and I stopped watching it until someone convinced me to start watching it again, and it just gets so much better.
Ahhh thanks; that makes total sense! It's kind of a running thing lately in animated shows it seems. where the first season feels like a pilot season and it gets good after the first couple of years. I might try it again, hell, i might even pick it up after season two.
Matt hated it, though he has by far the worst taste in media out of any of the hosts.
In reality, the concept was stale after 1.5 seasons, but Netflix milked it for 6.
Netflix didn't milk it for 6 seasons, they cut it short after 6 seasons because the crew unionized
It should have ended after 2, labor struggle doesn't change that.
Why should it have ended after two? It didn't even get worse after two seasons, at least in most people's opinion
It was petty repetitive. I think season 5 was where the show lost me. Plus I had some incredibly annoying roommates who learned all the wrong lessons from the show.
Plus I had some incredibly annoying roommates who learned all the wrong lessons from the show.
I'd appreciate if you expanded on that.
They were just terrible roommates (made huge messes and didnt pick up after themselves, one moved their girlfriend in). Most of them managed to love the show despite being conservative or centrist, and they just weren't fun to be around. Like they had strong issues with depression and substance abuse and didn't do anything to work on it.
Like I donno, I doubt the show existing or not existing would have changed shit about them but I still associate it with them.
It was the same themes and narrative over and over. Bojack just going through cycles of being a piece of shit, getting hit with consequences, learning and growing, some event happening & then him collapsing back into shit again.
I only needed to see this once or twice, not six times.
Because it was shitty after 2 seasons. The concept got old, very quickly. Once he made The Secretariat film, that was that.
People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis!