I think one of the worst things Diane ever did, that she never got called out for, was using Penny’s story as a plot point in Philbert, just to rip Bojack a new one. I do understand he needed to be called out since he hadn’t really faced any real consequences for it yet, but making it into a plot point in a show that aired publicly was a shitty thing to do. Yes, the circumstances in that story were slightly different, but on the off-chance Penny or her mother happened to see that, it’s her trauma being aired without her permission. That wasn’t Diane’s story to tell and if she really was that angry about it and so determined to go after Bojack, she should have done it differently. I also hated the reporters who pried so hard into Penny’s story without any regard to how it would affect her, but they were already established as shitty people who didn’t care at all. Diane knew better and still did what she did.
I just got so angry about this and had to vent. I get why it happened, but I still hate that it happened and that no one called her out for it once they all learned about what Bojack did. Not that I can think of a way they would all find out it was her that made that plot point in the script, aside from maybe PC or Bojack connecting the dots since they were there for it.
I thought of it as unethical, but she’d consider it a breach of more than just ethics, but core friendship/trust, that he didn’t tell her about what happened in New Mexico. The fact that it was something involving an underage girl but he didn’t tell her about it, made it seem like he was covering up more than what actually happened. If I thought my friend had molested a girl, I’d be tripping like she was, you know? I get why she wasn’t thinking clearly or making the most “professional” of decisions.
I also notice that anger is the main motivator for Diane to write. She gets writer’s block unless something or someone pisses her off, then she gets manic about “exposing the truth”. Then depression comes after when the truth gets exposed and nothing changes, especially not drastically or overnight. Suddenly all that “consciousness raising” you thought was powerful was just blowing hot air…
She learns how to write when she’s happy, about happy subjects, and that’s part of her breaking free of her addiction to negativity.
I disagree with the first part, it’s not a betrayal of trust to not tell someone every detail of your life. It was undoubtedly a horrible moment in Bojack’s life, if he didn’t want to talk about it it’s his right not to. It’s not like he made a promise to tell Diane every single thing that happens to him.
I mean, it was a horrible moment in BoJack’s life because he tried to do a horrible thing. Let’s not “oh poor baby” him here when his horrible moment was the consequence of his actions. No, you are not obligated to tell your friends every moment of your life, but your motivations for doing so absolutely say a lot about you. He didn’t want to tell her, or anyone else, because he felt guilty and knew it would change the way people saw him. Not just because it was a traumatic moment.
I think people don’t understand nuance here. Saying BoJack was wrong doesn’t mean I think Diane handled the situation right. All I’m saying is, I would absolutely drop a friendship with a person who’d attempted to have sex with a minor in their fifties. And them choosing not to tell me would cement to me that they knew it was wrong.
I’d argue there’s a difference between my friend not telling me they tried to sleep with a 17 y/o as someone in their 40s and a friend not telling me they had toast for breakfast.
Also regret from doing something bad and trauma from being the victim of something bad are entirely different things. Regret is still painful but it doesn’t absolve you of your actions.