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Movies & TV

BoJack Horseman gets even darker in Season 3

On paper there’s nothing especially groundbreaking about BoJack Horseman, the Netflix series about a faded sitcom star still feeding off the adoration of his fans while causing untold misery to his friends thanks to his selfish behaviour.

There have been dozens of books and TV shows rooted in that premise, and it could be argued that confessional celebrity autobiographies have kept the publishing business alive in the 21st century. But creator and showrunner Raphael Bob-Waksberg found an ingenious device to set his story apart: BoJack Horseman is an animated series set in a world where humans and anthropomorphic animals coexist. And his substance-abusing, self-loathing antihero – who dreams of making lasting art – is a talking horse.

That gives BoJack Horseman license to do whatever the hell it wants, and it’s done some remarkable things. Over three seasons, the characters have grown remarkably complex, and the show has become much, much more daring. Like its live-action analogue, Stephen Falk’s FXX You’re The Worst – and like another Netflix series, Love – it’s a sitcom about Los Angeles scenesters that’s also a thoughtful and even poignant study of loneliness and depression.

Things get even more poignant in BoJack Horseman’s third season, which drops on Netflix tonight (Thursday, July 21) at midnight. BoJack (voiced by Will Arnett) is setting up an Oscar run with a cheesy Secretariat biopic, but he’s still haunted by the mistakes he made and the lives he’s ruined through his own selfishness.

I did mention this was a sitcom, right? When BoJack isn’t staring into the void, there’s plenty to laugh at: Bob-Waksberg has never met an animal joke he won’t use, and there’s a season-long arc that finds invaluable supporting characters Todd (Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul) and Mr. Peanutbutter (Paul F. Tompkins) looking at business ventures. And Arnett’s magnificent deadpan makes a lot of BoJack’s torment really funny.

But there’s something else going on this season, too: a consideration of the characters as emotional entities. BoJack’s agent Princess Caroline (Amy Sedaris) is watching her new agency flounder, and realizing she’s given so much of herself to her work that she’s lost sight of her life. Occasional journalist Diane Nguyen (Alison Brie) is neglecting her marriage to Mr. Peanutbutter. And BoJack himself is doing everything he can to avoid facing the fact that everything is not going to magically work out the way it did back in the 90s. Everything is not going to be okay, and he’s responsible for a lot of that.

That is the very human horror at the heart of BoJack Horseman, and the thing Bob-Waksberg forces his characters to face over and over again: we are who we are, and we always will be.

And if you’re wondering how the hell a show with these characters could be as deep and relevant as I’m insisting it is. All I can say is: fire up Netflix and watch the show. It’s really something. It might even be lasting art.

Want more TV recommendations? Check out 25 shows to binge-watch now.

normw@nowtoronto.com | @normwilner

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