Even When it Hurts

I watched the 4th season of BoJack Horseman this weekend and am quite pleased with it. It remains one of the best shows around as this season did not disappoint. Along with tackling the usual topics of Hollywood, addiction, adult disappointment, and relationships, this season explored running for politics, miscarriage, asexuality, and way in which people can be more than they seem.

When I started watching this show, I thought it was wickedly funny, but kind of got swept away by how intensely sad it would be by the end of the first season. Our two main characters, BoJack Horseman, a washed up addict who used to be a famous sitcom star and Diane Nguyen, a writer who struggles with various levels of success and failure, are equal parts inspiring, sincere, frustrating, and selfish. They're both unhappy and damaged, sometimes trying their best and usually failing miserably. They fear failure and success. They hate the idea of being alone and hate being with someone. I see myself in both of them.

For instance, there's one scene where BoJack admits to the girl he thinks is his daughter that he lied to her about knowing who her mother is. Then he admits that he lied and says he won't lie anymore, only to lie within the next few minutes and admit to the lie again. And again. He honestly doesn't even know why he keeps lying to her, though as the audience, we're aware that his parents both used the truth as a way of torturing him because they never filtered out any of the darkness that came to their minds.

BoJack's mother features heavily in the season. We learn a lot about her, both through flashbacks and an episode told from her point of view as a person with dementia, one of the more experimental episodes as it explores the ideas of images in the head of a person without complete memories. This exploration of her mind brings about the resolution of the season's main plot and adds understanding (if not really resolution) to one of the key themes of the show overall. We know why BoJack's mother is such a bitch, not that it makes it hurt any less.

As much as this show can frustrate and hurt me, I always leave it feeling so much sympathy for the characters. Very few issues ever have a happy ending. Most have, at best, a path to move on from after the dreams and goals have been chased and lost. That's life though. We move on, even when it hurts.