Bojack Horseman Season 4 Netflix Series Review

Bojack Horseman (2014-)
Season 4 - 10 episodes (2017)

Watch Bojack Horseman Season 4 on Netflix

Created by: Raphael Bob-Waksberg
Starring: Will Arnett, Amy Sedaris, Alison Brie, Aaron Paul, Paul F. Tompkins
Rating: TV-MA

Plot
In this animated world, anthropomorphic animals and humans live side by side. Bojack Horseman is a TV actor trying reclaim fame. In season three, Bojack hoped his latest film Secretariat would net him an Oscar nomination. As season four begins, everyone is wondering where Bojack is.

Verdict
Bojack Horseman is an incredible series. Few shows if any, can blend emotional devastation and wacky humor the way this does. Being animated helps make Bojack's dark and twisted life just bearable enough to watch. This season delves into Bojack's past through his mother and a girl claiming to be his daughter. Bojack is broken and the season, nor the series,shies away from that. Concurrently Mr. Peanutbutter runs for mayor and Todd becomes a boy toy for Courtney Portnoy.
The episodes are creative and inventive. The dialog is clever and poignant. Episode nine is a standout.
Watch it.

Review
I started season one, but quit half way in. After the unanimous praise of season three I read that season one takes a while to find it's footing. I picked this up with season three and was thoroughly impressed. Check out my season 3 review.

The dialog is just so clever, and often abrasive. It plays on words perfectly, with subtle jokes coming so quickly you could easily miss it. What this show does is impressive.

When the season opens, no one knows where Bojack is. If you recall the end of season three, you know why he had to get away from everything. Instead we follow Mr. Peanutbutter who will become mayor if he can win a ski race. His mayor race is a recurring story throughout the season. Mr. Peanutbutter is one of my favorite characters. His antics always entertain. He's not the brightest bulb, and that plays perfectly in his campaign. He's for facts, but also for emotions. Mr. Peanutbutter talks but says nothing of substance, often eerily sounding like a real politician.

Hollyhock and Bojack

The through line is Bojack trying to find the mother of Hollyhock, a girl claiming to be his daughter. Bojack revisits past relationships, all of them left broken. One of his past flings was Tonya Harding.
We are introduced to his mother, and that history is a focus this season as we delve into Bojack's childhood and his mother's. We get to see how Bojack's parents meet. It's a cycle of poor parenting that Bojack isn't really changing. Bojack's mother is a real piece of work and while he bears those scars and hates her for it, he isn't being a great parent to his newly discovered daughter.

Bojack's parents.

Bojack isn't unaware of his deficiencies. Episode five dives into Bojack's head and his self loathing. He's a deadbeat. This season isn't trying to excuse it, but merely show the cycle is difficult to break. Multiple characters are dealing with despair and all of them handle it differently.
If you know this show, you know Bojack and his daughters story isn't going to be happily ever after.

Princess Caroline in episode 9.

Episode nine is a standout episode in how soul crushing  the show can be. It focuses on Princess Caroline, giving us a glimmer of hope that for at least one character everything works out. That hope is fleeting, but it's authentic. It's a raw and honest account of how she makes it through the hard times. As strange as it is, she may be the most well adjusted character, other than the comic relief.

Mr. Peanutbutter for mayor!

This is one of Netflix's best shows. I wonder what this would look like as live action, but being animated dulls how depressing this can be. Bojack is a dark character, and he's not a good person. He's selfish, but this season we begin to see how and why. Bojack knows this, but feels powerless to change. Then we have Todd and Mr. Peanutbutter, two bonkers characters that get into zany adventures. Todd's dentist clown venture can't be properly expressed in words. There's a ridiculous yet poignant episode about gun ownership. This season tackles fracking and Vincent D'onofrio makes a cameo.
We need Mr. Peanutbutter and Todd because otherwise this show is a an unending pit of despair with a lot of puns. That's not a bad thing, it handles a broken character incredibly well and admirably. It's just often a tough watch, a creative, inventive, and daring tough watch.