After six years of great television, BoJack Horseman has finally come to a conclusion. There are a lot of feelings going around right now and for good reason. This show has quietly triumphed as one of the best television shows of the decade while somehow managing to avoid the kind of popular interest that ruins the watching experience, looking at you, “Rick and Morty” and “Steven Universe”. The tension was especially high considering the hiatus between the first and second half of the long final season. Now, the fandom has to sit and settle as the reality of the ending sinks in. There is almost too much to say about the second half of the final season, so let us boil it down to a few main points.
It is real. The ending is the logical conclusion of all the fantastical and complex nonsense that made the show so amazing. The finale unabashedly confronts the driving questions of the show: “How far can you run from your mistakes?” “Is chasing happiness a one-way path?” “Does working hard make you a better person?”
It hurts. Seeing the characters change in ways that are both necessary, wonderful and terrifying. Seeing Diane learn the truth about her own happiness. Seeing Princess Carolyn forge her own future. Seeing BoJack face reality like he is hitting a brick wall. It really hurts, because if you are this far into the show, you have probably started caring about these characters like they are real people.
It is made with love. The animation is gorgeous, creative, expressive and massively weird. Not once in its run does this show lose its charm, its quirks or its little touches. The vivid verbal and visual vocabularies built up over six seasons come out in full force here, tying so many things together in a way that is summarily gratifying. As always, the voice acting is out of this world.
Now, are there problems? That depends on what the viewer was looking for in a finale. Since the show was cancelled so hastily, the crew only had one slightly longer season to wrap things up. As a result, there are one or two minor plotlines involving Todd and Princess Carolyn that are perhaps more rushed than they ought to be. However, the way they are handled is still good. Despite time constraints, the writing is still funny, heartfelt and honest, even if it is a bit compressed. The characters never feel lost despite the production limitations. And each character’s major arc is, overall, given an ending worthy of the show. It is the kind of ending that feels like the writers were always on their way there. Now that they have made it, the keen viewer will definitely want to give the show a rewatch, because this season featured the culmination of a ton of visual and narrative themes that have linked up over the seasons. Special mention goes to the penultimate episode “The View From Halfway Down,” which, in the show’s classic fashion, races toward the finish line with a surreal visual majesty that reminds the viewer exactly what they are watching. If one is a longtime fan, get up to speed, but do not rush through it. It is honestly one of the most important shows on television. It is heavy, but it is also sweet and creative. It has got a brand of humor that it seems to have self-cultivated. It is textually rich and yet completely silly. It cares so much. And hopefully you will too.
Image from Netflix via YouTube
