Just started watching the show after seeing some really cool clips of bojack being a horrible person and not going to lie it’s been … rough. I’m really liking the show and the humour is great and all but it feels so grim and not in a fun way.
I knew the show was dark (one of those horrible clips i saw was about sarah lynn’s passing and bojacks part in it) but I didn’t expect the show to be so anticlimactic with it’s negativity. In a lot of other media, I *enjoy* bad things happening to the characters because of how they build it up as this dramatic experience that hints at future triumphs. Like normally as the music picks up and the rain starts pouring, I’ll be thinking, “oh no so many bad things are happening, our hero is being tested, how will they pick themselves back up”. With Bojack it’s more like “… I guess that’s just how it is for Bojack”.
I’m at the episode “Yes, and” right now, and he just broke up with Wanda [Hoo I LOVE, She’s the best thing that happened to him so far, i mean he looked so happy for a while : ( ]. No drama, no build up, no gasps of shock. Just bojack ruining his life like usual.
And that kind of tone is getting tough to watch, but I’m still near the beginning of the show and I worry I haven’t even hit the motherload of depression (pun semi-intended). So I wanted to know if there’s a rainbow at the end of this journey. Is there some positive message or any kind of hope in this show? It’s not like every piece of media I consume has to be optimistic and I can appreciate a tragedy, but this feels too close to home. I just really want Bojack to be okay and I have a feeling the show isn’t going to give me that.
TLDR; Just started watching and I knew the show was painful but I was expecting game of thrones type suffering. This feels very different.
I find Bojack as a show to be pretty optimistic given it’s subject matter. A running theme is that people aren’t defined by their pasts and as long as they’re willing to change and be better, it’s possible. That being said, the show does have a lot of very heavy moments in the remaining seasons, much bleaker than what is in the first two season. And you do sit in those moments a lot. But once those moments pass, I personally don’t feel hopeless about them. The message I get from the show is that despite how absolutely bleak and depressing life can be, you shouldn’t give up.
If the show makes you feel too uncomfortable you shouldn’t force yourself to watch it. My friends tell me they have to be in the right mindset before watching the show. You could also look up content warnings for the episodes to know what you’re getting into. However if you are willing, I definitely think the show has a lot of really good positive messages in it.