When Netflix was still in its infancy as a streaming service, the platform released one of its first and best original productions. This week marks the tenth anniversary of its launch – and it remains unforgettable to this day. We’re talking about BoJack Horseman.
The animated series about the aging sitcom star BoJack, who suffers from the dark side of fame in Hollywood, provided plenty of absurdly funny, melancholically clever and shocking moments in six seasons. A particularly memorable one takes place in the episode Free Churro in season 5, which I still think back to today.
BoJack Horseman episode Free Churro is still unforgettable on Netflix
An anthropomorphic horse gives a eulogy for over 20 minutes and not much more happens on a visual level. This concept for a series episode – especially an animated series episode – sounds completely absurd, if not completely boringBecause animated series live from exactly what their genre promises: animation that comes up with shapes, colors and visual impressiveness and thus breaks the boundaries of our worlds.
The fact that in the episode Free Churro we see BoJack for minutes in long shot, close-up or wide shot, standing almost still in front of what is supposed to be his mother’s coffin and listening to his stories like in a comedy special or even a podcast, breaks completely different boundaries: the expectationwhich BoJack Horseman has regularly subverted over six seasons.
Netflix
BoJack Horseman
Because even if nothing about this daring decision works, the episode is simply great for exactly that reason. With simple image design, the focus here is not only on what we see, but above all on what we hear. BoJack Horseman throws the old filmmaker rule “show, don’t tell” just completely over the top and manages to hit the mark on an almost purely auditory level.
To a large extent this is the Art of Voice Acting by Will Arnett (Arrested Development), who lends his voice to BoJack in the English original. Between comedic highs and tragic lows, he skilfully guides the audience through the episode. The real star, however, is the script by Raphael Bob-Waksberg, which unfolds its full force with emotional depth behind Arnett’s voice.
From one horse to the next
The episode fits into the series like a climax that it is moving towards over many episodes and seasons: the Death of BoJack’s motherwhich we know mainly from stories and flashbacks and which has made life difficult for the fallen Hollywood star since his childhood. At this point, the anthropomorphic horse finally lets out what influence this had on BoJack’s life and what wishes he carried with him in this eccentric mother-son relationship for over 50 years.
On the one hand, there is a tragicomic liberation takes place when BoJack talks about the last encounter with his mother, who finally let him hear what he had always hoped for ‒ only to come to a terrible realization a little later. On the other hand, a cycle is revealed that is framed by the beginning and end of the episode, and a intergenerational trauma makes it clear that BoJack lives and will live on.
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BoJack Horseman
No wonder then that the episode was not only nominated for an Emmy, but also received a rating of 9.8 out of 10 points and is therefore one of the best-rated series episodes of all time.
That Monologues not only work in Shakespeare and on theatre stagesBoJack Horseman has impressively demonstrated that it can be used not only in series formats – whether animated or not – and even inspire people in them. And even today, I still think back to the episode when I notice a similar structure in other series (looking at you, The Bear: King of the Kitchen and Reindeer Baby).
If you’re curious now, I highly recommend watching the episode Free Churro. However, to get the full effect from the episode, you should watch the previous 54 first. All six seasons of Bojack Horseman are streaming on Netflix.