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''BoJack Horseman'' is an American adult animated black comedy-drama streaming television series created by Raphael Bob-Waksberg. It stars the voices of Will Arnett, Amy Sedaris, Alison Brie, Paul F. Tompkins, and Aaron Paul. Set primarily in Hollywood (renamed to Hollywoo shortly into season one and then briefly renamed Hollywoob after Mr. Peanutbutter attempts to change the name back to Hollywood in the final season), the series revolves around an anthropomorphic horse named BoJack Horseman (Arnett), the washed-up star of a 1990s sitcom who plans his return to celebrity relevance with an autobiography to be written by ghostwriter Diane Nguyen (Brie), while also contending with his agent, Princess Carolyn (Sedaris), roommate Todd Chavez (Paul), former rival Mr. Peanutbutter (Tompkins), and his declining mental health. The show is designed by cartoonist Lisa Hanawalt, who has been friends with Bob-Waksberg since high school and had previously worked with him on the webcomic ''Tip Me Over, Pour Me Out''.

The series premiered on Netflix on August 22, 2014. On September 20, 2018, Netflix renewed the show for its sixth and final season, and the series ended on January 31, 2020, with a total of 77 episodes. The first five seasons consist of 12 episodes each, while the sixth and final season consists of 16 episodes divided into two parts of eight episodes each. A one-off Christmas special was also released on December 19, 2014.

Despite mixed reviews upon its debut, critics were significantly more positive towards the second half of the first season, and the subsequent seasons received widespread critical acclaim. '' GQ'' magazine hailed the show as one of the best of the decade, and IndieWire ranked ''BoJack Horseman'' as the greatest animated television series of all time. The show has been lauded for its realistic take on depression, trauma, addiction, self-destructive behavior, racism, sexism, sexuality, teen pregnancy, and the human condition. The series received numerous accolades, including four Critics' Choice Television Awards for Best Animated Series, three Annie Awards and two Writers Guild of America Awards. It also received three Primetime Emmy Award nominations, including two for Outstanding Animated Program.

Premise

The series is set in an alternate world where humans and anthropomorphic animals live side by side, taking place mostly in Hollywoo (the name is changed after the D is stolen from the sign). BoJack Horseman is the washed-up star of the 1990s sitcom ''Horsin' Around'', which centered around a young bachelor horse trying to raise three human children who had been orphaned. Now living in relative obscurity in his Hollywood Hills mansion, BoJack plans a monumental comeback to celebrity relevance with a tell-all autobiography to be written by ghostwriter Diane Nguyen. At the same time, he deals with his addiction to drugs, alcohol, and the resulting recklessness. BoJack also has to contend with the demands of his agent and former girlfriend Princess Carolyn, the misguided antics of his freeloading roommate Todd Chavez, and his former rival Mr. Peanutbutter.

Cast and characters

*Will Arnett as BoJack Horseman, a self-loathing cynical alcoholic horse currently in his 50s, whose acting career peaked when he starred in a successful 1990s family sitcom called ''Horsin' Around''. Though he began as a young bright-eyed actor, he has since grown bitter, deeply depressed, and jaded towards and who he has become post-fame. BoJack has been shown to be caring and insightful, but his insecurities, loneliness, desperate need for approval, and guilt over his own actions often result in self-destructive and selfish actions that devastate those around him. His past and present relationships with his abusive alcoholic parents and his attempts at overcoming their legacy are a continual theme of the series. BoJack also discovers he has a more sensible half-sister, Hollyhock, a result of an affair by his father.
*Alison Brie as Diane Nguyen, a human ghostwriter, a well-schooled, misunderstood intellectual, and a Vietnamese-American third-wave feminist from Boston. She is a thinker who wants to make the world a better place for women and wants others to behave according to her morals even though she often breaks them. While writing BoJack's memoir, Diane and BoJack develop a strong friendship that initially becomes awkward and strained after BoJack develops romantic feelings for her, especially as she was dating Mr. Peanutbutter at the time. She eventually marries Mr. Peanutbutter, but during and after Mr. Peanutbutter's run for Governor of California, their marriage begins to deteriorate, and they divorce at the beginning of season 5. She eventually realizes she has depression, and gains weight as her mental health improves due to antidepressants; news media celebrated the series' realistic portrayal of her changing body shape as a sign of improved health. During the sixth season, Diane develops a relationship with a buffalo named Guy (whom she goes on to wed) and comes to terms with her neglectful upbringing. She is a graduate of Boston University.
* Paul F. Tompkins as Mr. Peanutbutter, an energetic, optimistic and cheerful yellow Labrador Retriever who is BoJack's former sitcom rival. Mr. Peanutbutter was the star of ''Mr. Peanutbutter's House'', which, according to BoJack, "borrowed the premise" from ''Horsin' Around''. Despite their rivalry, Mr. Peanutbutter cares a great deal about BoJack's opinion and admires him for his work on ''Horsin' Around''. He has an especially good relationship with Todd, and his positive attitude and financial resources combined with Todd's outlandish schemes and plans often result in the two starting questionable business ventures. Mr. Peanutbutter has been married three times (to Katrina Peanutbutter, Jessica Biel and Diane Nguyen). In "Old Acquaintance", it is revealed that "Mr." is his actual first name. He is a graduate of Northwestern University and a native of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. His character was initially created as a foil for BoJack, but then evolves into an important character himself.
*Aaron Paul as Todd Chavez, an unemployed, silly but vastly talented 24-year-old human slacker who ended up at BoJack's house for a party five years before the beginning of the series and never left. Although BoJack constantly voices disdain for him, he secretly cares about Todd, continuing to financially support him and sabotage his attempts to gain independence. Todd has been shown to possess a plethora of skills including an understanding of Japanese, entrepreneurial know-how—allying with Mr. Peanutbutter for various business ideas—and writing and composing his own rock opera, which was eventually sabotaged by BoJack. This, along with other examples of BoJack's poor behavior towards him leads Todd to break ties with BoJack in season 4. Todd also has an uncanny knack for getting himself in absurd and extremely dangerous situations when his friends aren't around, such as getting into gun fights on several occasions, ending up in prison, and in one case, switching places '' Prince and the Pauper''–style with a Cordovian dictator. He is also almost never seen without wearing his signature yellow beanie. In his teenage years, he was an aimless skateboarder, and the object of affection of his schoolmate Emily. He realizes in the season 3 finale "That Went Well" that he is asexual. In season 6, Todd forms a relationship with a rabbit named Maude who is also asexual.
*Amy Sedaris as Princess Carolyn, a pink Persian cat who is BoJack's agent in the first three seasons and former on-and-off girlfriend. Hailing from Eden, North Carolina, the earnest and unflagging Princess Carolyn was a top agent at Vigor agency through her tireless pursuit of new talent and large network of odd personal connections. Though she struggles to find a balance between work, her troubled personal life, and taking care of BoJack and her friends, she enjoys her fast-paced hectic lifestyle. She left Vigor to start a new agency with her then-boyfriend and coworker Rutabaga Rabitowitz. After recognizing his lack of trustworthiness and confronting her fear of being alone, she ultimately decides to leave him and run the new company named VIM by herself. After several setbacks, Princess Carolyn closes VIM in season 3, only to reopen it as a management agency. She struggles throughout the series in starting a family and suffers several miscarriages. In season 5, after several failed attempts, she successfully adopts a baby porcupine from Sadie, a young woman from her hometown. In the series finale, she marries Judah, her loyal assistant.

Episodes

Production

Conception

After moving to LA for the first time, writer Raphael Bob-Waksberg unsuccessfully pitched ideas for shows to different networks. Among them was the idea for a family comedy set during the Reign of Terror called ''The Good Times Are Killing Me'', which Waksberg described as "''All in the Family'' but in France, ... where the Dad was guillotine salesman and business was booming, but he couldn't get his wacky family in order." Around the same time, he moved into a friend's house up in the Hollywood Hills, living in what he described as "a glorified closet in a beautiful mansion". On his first night there, he "look dout on the deck over all of Hollywood, and eltsimultaneously on top of the world and never more isolated and alone." This was the beginning of the idea that would become ''BoJack Horseman''.

Raphael Bob-Waksberg and illustrator Lisa Hanawalt had met in high school and the two would often joke about creating an animated series together. The two eventually went their separate ways, with Bob-Waksberg moving to LA and Hanawalt moving to New York, but stayed in touch, working together on the web comic ''Tip Me Over, Pull Me Out''. In March 2010, Bob-Waksberg emailed Hanawalt asking for a drawing of one of the "horse-guys" she had been sketching, outlining a pitch for a show he titled "BoJack the Depressed Talking Horse". This early pitch hewed closely to the final product except for some minor differences – Todd was called Topher and was BoJack's childhood friend; Diane was a development executive instead of a ghostwriter; and Mr. Peanutbutter was BoJack's agent instead of Princess Carolyn, with his role as BoJack's rival instead filled by a horse called Honeybucket. Hanawalt joked that the concept sounded too depressing.

Development history

In late 2010, Bob-Waksberg met with producer Steven A. Cohen of the Tornante Company and pitched five different animated projects, including ''BoJack Horseman''. After the pitch, Cohen asked Bob-Waksberg which project interested him most, and Bob-Waksberg chose ''BoJack Horseman''. He wrote up a treatment for the series which was then pitched to the Tornante Company CEO Michael Eisner, who suggested that the show center around a former racehorse rather than a former sitcom actor. While Bob-Waksberg successfully pushed for the show-business angle, this contributed to a storyline in which BoJack later played the titular racehorse in the fictional movie ''Secretariat'' in the show's second season.

Hanawalt was approached to come on board to design the show. She initially turned down the offer. "I'd just finished illustrating a children's book and it was kind of a bad experience. It took six months of work and felt endless, and I didn't want to commit to another big project. I made the mistake of not jumping aboard a good thing". Production went ahead with various other artists coming on board to design the show and characters, but none captured Hanawalt's unique style. Six months later, Hanawalt was again approached to design the show, and this time agreed. She then worked with animation production studio ShadowMachine to develop the show's visual style. The production team put together a brief pilot presentation of the show which was used to shop the show to networks.

Bob-Waksberg and the team eventually pitched to Netflix in October 2013, and the show was picked up on the condition that the series launch in time for summer 2014. As a result, the 12-episode first season was produced in just 35 weeks; the first three episodes were written by Bob-Waksberg before a full writing staff were hired, and the first table read was held in the first week of production. The original plan had been to use the footage from the original pilot presentation in the season's first episode; however, the decision was made to start from scratch (partially due to the decision to completely redesign the character of Todd Chavez from the way he appeared in the pilot).

The series premiered on August 22, 2014. Four days later, the series was renewed for a second season which released on July 17, 2015. A third season was announced July 28, 2015, and premiered July 22, 2016, with a fourth season announced the same day. The fourth season launched on Netflix on September 8, 2017. A fifth season was announced on September 21, 2017 and launched on September 14, 2018. Each season contained twelve episodes. Writers for ''BoJack Horseman'' included Bob-Waksberg, Joe Lawson, Kate Purdy, Elijah Aron, Jordan Young, Mehar Sethi and Joanna Calo. Directors include Amy Winfrey, J.C. Gonzalez, Mike Hollingsworth, Aaron Long and Anne Walker Farrell.

The show's first season intentionally told a self-contained story in case the show was not picked up for a second season. Netflix asked Bob-Waksberg to leave some threads hanging to set up a potential second season, and Bob-Waksberg asked that, should ''Bojack Horseman'' get cancelled, Netflix warn him in advance so he could end the series properly. After the release of the fifth season, Netflix told Bob-Waksberg that the upcoming sixth season would be the show's last. "They don't have to do that, obviously. But I said I would appreciate it if I could have the forewarning to give the show a proper finale, and not set up some cliffhangers that will never pay off. So when they picked up season six, they said, 'Hey, remember how you asked for that heads-up? We think that this is your heads-up.' So I'm very grateful that we got that notice." An extended sixth and final season of sixteen episodes was announced on October 30, 2018, and released in two parts of eight episodes each. The first half released on October 25, 2019, and the second on January 31, 2020.

Casting

Will Arnett, Amy Sedaris and Aaron Paul were the first actors to be cast for the show as BoJack Horseman, Princess Carolyn and Todd Chavez respectively, landing their roles ahead of the show's pilot presentation, with the remaining cast brought on board after Netflix picked up the show. Arnett and Paul also served as executive producers on the show. The character of BoJack was not written with any particular actor in mind. Bob-Waksberg cast Arnett because he was "so funny, but there's also a darkness to him... I feel like, in his gravelly performance, you feel like he's lived a life. And there's a sadness lurking underneath there. But again, he's so funny... He took our dumbest stuff and spun it into gold." Arnett also provided the role of BoJack's father, Butterscotch Horseman, as well as the voice of a younger BoJack in flashback sequences. Amy Sedaris signed on to the series as she wanted to work with Arnett.

Following Netflix's acquisition of the series, Paul F. Tompkins was cast as BoJack's sitcom rival Mr. Peanutbutter. When Bob-Waksberg was originally writing Mr. Peanutbutter, he originally imagined him as being a "meat-head" with a deep voice, but the casting of Arnett as BoJack and Paul as Todd caused the casting team to go in a different direction with the character. Tompkins brought a "beautiful, lilting quality" to the role, with Bob-Waksberg describing his performance as "skipping above the line, which as a foil to BoJack is very funny. BoJack, even in his voice, is very sunk down and in the muck, whereas Mr. Peanutbutter is playfully skipping above the muck."

Alison Brie was cast as Diane Nguyen, a ghostwriter hired to write BoJack's memoir and later ends up marrying Mr. Peanutbutter. As the show grew in popularity, Brie's casting as a Vietnamese-American character was met with controversy and accusations of white-washing. Bob-Waksberg later commented on the controversy, applauding Brie's performance of the character while expressing regret and that he believed the casting had "hurt the show". "When I think about casting now, I try to be very race-conscious. My casting director, Linda Lamontagne, and I are actively looking for people of color for every new character, and that's made a big difference in how we cast the show. I hope that is reflected even to a layperson observing the show. I'm very proud of the movement we've made, but we're always going to be somewhat hobbled in our efforts because of our original sin."

Influences

Creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg has cited the cynical humor in the Canadian show '' The Newsroom'' as a large influence on ''BoJack Horseman''. He also praised ''The Simpsons'' as an influence for being able to tell sad stories without sacrificing humor. Based on storyline similarities and graphical nuances, the series has been said to have influences deriving from ''Californication'', ''Two and a Half Men'' and ''Daria''. In September 2018, before the show's fifth season was released, Bob-Waksberg stated that the show's ten biggest influences were ''The Simpsons'', ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'', ''Archer'', ''Animaniacs'', ''Daria'', '' The Tick'', Pixar Animation Studios, '' Futurama'', '' South Park'', and the works of Don Hertzfeldt.

Addressing social issues

Since its first season, ''BoJack'' has addressed many hot-button sociopolitical issues. Its creator, Raphael Bob-Waksberg, once said that he considered the concept of "political correctness" something that other comedians and media creators should view as more of a responsibility. In a 2017 interview with ''Vice'', he said,

A notable example is the episode " Hank After Dark" (season two, episode seven), commonly referred to as "the Cosby episode," which follows Diane and BoJack on a book tour as they field questions regarding allegations that have just surfaced about a comedy legend, Hank Hippopopalous. In the episode "Brrap Brrap Pew Pew" (season three, episode six), Diane accidentally announces she is getting an abortion via pop starlet Sextina Aquafina's Twitter account, and gets swept up in talks about the practice. The season four episode, "Thoughts and Prayers," took a similar satirical approach towards the frequency of mass shootings and the gun debate in America, after Diane fires a gun for the first time, and one of Princess Carolyn's projects get caught in the crossfire, launching a debate on whether or not women should own and use guns.

The fifth season has been praised for its handling of sexual harassment and powerful men following the Me Too movement. Emily VanDerWerff wrote that it "just might be the best artistic rumination on #MeToo and an age of terrible men yet."

The show also explores Todd Chavez's open asexuality, which is addressed throughout the latter three seasons. In the last episode of the third season, Todd says, "I'm not gay... I mean, I don't think I am, but I don't think I'm straight, either. I don't know what I am. I think I might be nothing." In season 6, Todd forms a relationship with Maude, a rabbit he meets on the asexual dating app Emily created, "All About That Ace."

Music

The main title theme for ''BoJack Horseman'' was composed by Patrick Carney, drummer for the blues-rock duo the Black Keys, with his uncle Ralph Carney, and the ending theme "Back in the 90s (BoJack's Theme)" was performed by the indie-pop act Grouplove. The incidental music is composed by Jesse Novak who acted as the recurring composer for the six seasons.

The soundtrack for ''BoJack Horseman'' was released on Lakeshore Records on September 1, 2017. It includes several songs, among them the full version of the main theme, Patrick Carney and Michelle Branch's version of America's " A Horse with No Name", Sextina Aquafina's "Get Dat Fetus, Kill Dat Fetus", the themes from ''Horsin' Around'' and ''Mr. Peanutbutter's House'', and the entire score for the episode "Fish Out of Water".

Critical reception

Initially met with "mixed" to "average" reviews from critics, the series would quickly go on to receive consistent critical acclaim midway into season one and onwards. It was ranked as the best Netflix original series of all time by Thrillist and Uproxx in August 2018 and May 2019, respectively. IndieWire, in November 2018, named ''BoJack Horseman'' as the best animated series of all time. It has also been ranked as one of the best TV shows of the 2010s by multiple publications, including ''Time'' and '' Vanity Fair'' and following the premiere of the first half of season six in 2019, Chris Mandle of the BBC
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