How BoJack Horseman Became The BEST Netflix Original Series

2. It Takes Risks Other Shows Don't, And Pulls Them Off

BoJack Horseman Fish Out Of Water
Netflix

BoJack's sheer existence is something of a risk, given it's an adult animation about a talking horse, but each season only impresses more with the scale of its ambition. When it started to really hit its stride in the second and especially its third season, it could've easily rested on its laurels and delivered more of the same.

Season 4, however, represented a real change of pace and a difference in how it told its stories - not least with separating BoJack from the other characters for a spell, and Season 5 is similarly experimenting with its storytelling.

It might be Season 3's Fish Out of Water, an episode that plays out almost entirely without dialogue, the future-set, heartbreaking Ruthie, or the non-linear, emotionally devastating Time's Arrow, but BoJack loves to try and deviate from the 'norm' of television, experimenting with different narrative devices to explore its characters greatest fears about themselves.

There aren't many series, on Netflix or otherwise, attempting to cover topics about mental health, addiction, and self-destruction, or that would take an episode to switch its focus from its male equine protagonist to centre on the very female pain felt by the feline Princess Carolyn over her inability to have children. There are even fewer that could pull it off with such aplomb.

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Contributor
Contributor

NCTJ-qualified journalist. Most definitely not a racing driver. Drink too much tea; eat too much peanut butter; watch too much TV. Sadly only the latter paying off so far. A mix of wise-old man in a young man's body with a child-like wonder about him and a great otherworldly sensibility.