Remember that show Zoey 101? It was a teen comedy starring a cast of quirky friends hanging out at an academy, hopping between campuses and getting into wacky hijinks. There was also a lot of relationship drama between the titular Zoey and her chump friend Chase. It was basically a college hangout show starring highschoolers targeted at tweens. It was fine for what it was, but it carries that distinct stench of tween-comedy hokeyness that’s difficult to ignore and even harder to shake after viewing. Nonetheless, something very peculiar happened with the show recently.
The simplest way to describe the Netflix original, BoJack Horseman, is as an animated sitcom that deals with the subject of depression. Its lead, the titular Bojack Horseman, is a washed up 90’s sitcom star with way too much money and time, but is listless and eternally unsatisfied with his state of being. The main question the series asks is “How can I be happy?”, and the way it addresses that question is perhaps more raw and honest than any other show that came before it. Why that is the case is something that stumped me for quite a while. Why is this show about a talking horse and his wacky friends able to hit such a raw nerve in the discussion of depression? My take on this after a lot of thought is that we are able to connect with BoJack because of how thoroughly unlikable he is. I don’t mean that we as an audience can’t like him, because people will always be able to love terrible fictional characters no matter what, but he’s certainly not someone with typical likable qualities like basic human decency. He isn’t just flawed, he’s the kind of person that continues to make terrible decisions that hurt the people around him with full awareness that what he is doing could be harmful to others. Make no mistake however, we are supposed to be rooting for him, but we definitely aren’t supposed to like him either.
The Kenpire 