every single person i know told me to not watch bojack horseman while i was in a bad place but i did it anyways. i actually do not regret it, i really liked this show and it's quickly become one of my favorites.

bojack horseman is about the titular bojack horseman, a washed-up actor who, back in the nineties, was in a very famous tv show... it's a lot funnier than it has any right to be, and it very quickly gets a lot more hard-hitting than it has any right to be. i've heard good things about bojack horseman for a long time now, but i never really got around to watching it because i wasn't very keen on the art style. that grew on me too, when i actually watched it.

bojack horseman was a surprising watch because i didn't realize how intricate it was. every character feels very very human, even when they're getting up to cartoonish shenanigans. i liked how complex every major character was, even and sometimes especially the ones that seemed simple at first. i found bojack in particular to be a very well-written character - which makes sense, seeing as the show is about him. bojack horseman (the show) does a great job portraying him as a complex and even deeply sympathetic character without even once excusing his harmful and sometimes downright horrific actions. it's true to life - abusers are rarely the one-dimensional wholly evil monsters we'd like them to be, and even the best of people all hold the capability for great harm within them.

i can see why people discouraged me from watching it while i wasn't feeling great to begin with, but i thought it was a surprisingly hopeful watch. it's a black comedy, and a tragedy, and there's no shortage of terrible and heavy things that happen, but it's not bleak or nihilistic by any means. i was pleasantly surprised by that, and i don't think it would be as good of a show without that little aspect. i think it's absolutely worth a watch for anyone who's curious about it. it's not the usual kind of thing i'm into, but i had a really great time.

one thing. wtf is going on with the furry situation in this world. like every single animal is a human - makes sense, it's a world with furries - but they're still also animals? seagulls still steal people's food and horrifyingly they raise chicken people and eat them? you can be a therapy animal and this is a separate classification from a therapist even though all (most) animals have human intelligence? they never address any of it and it's kind of awesome.

five stars.