I finished bojack a few nights ago and while it did crush me it’s a lot more satisfying of a ending then people would give it credit for, I think people are wrong to assume it’s subversive because it doesn’t give closure, because for the first time in his life bojack looks at peace truly. And I’ll never understand people who think he should of died, what message would the show be sending if bojack took the easy way out and got to kill himself, he’s gotta live with the consequences with his actions and for the first time he fully accepts responsibility, I don’t think people understand that if he was going to die it was on HIS terms, he was going to kill himself and be martyred for it, have it hang around every single person who ever cared about him on their head, but the show said “no he needs to take responsibility and change”. Literally the last convo in the show is about horrible Diane felt after she listened to that voice-mail, and it harkens back to bojack talking about his near death experience at his moms funeral, “won’t they be sorry” was his first thought. Him dying is the worst possible ending for the show. But thats just how I feel
As someone who dealt (and still does, to a lesser extent) with suicidal ideation, I honestly would have found an ending with Bojack commiting suicide waaaay too hopeless and dark.
The message in that case would have been: It doesn’t matter how much you try to change, sometimes it’s not enough, sometimes all you’ll ever be is an useless piece of shit, so you should just kill yourself and be done with it. The world is better without you.
I was sooo fuckin relieved when I saw the last episode and Bojack had not only survived, but managed to re construct his progress in his year on prison, and the show ending on a bittersweet but cautiously optimistic note.