It’s pretty much been laid out in the show that he’s a bad “therapist”, mainly because he’s not an actual therapist, just a horse therapist. So I always get weirded out when people try to utilize what he talks about to analyze Bojack as a character. I thought the conversation about him drunkenly telling Bojack that he has a secret hatred for horses was meant to be a joke about how much of a hack he is, since it’s such a baseless assumption that it’s even proven wrong later in the series (when he visits the horse historical village place). He’s meant to satirize “therapists” who don’t have any more qualifications than an armchair, right?
Either way, I love it when shows do make therapy a flawed process. We did see an actually good therapist later in the series, and even then she slipped up now and then, and I felt Dr. Champ was supposed to be the antithesis to her. It makes the show feel even more grounded in reality, than therapists in other shows basically being the talking piece for the writers to roast their own character.
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agreed, but people hate on Doctor Champ WAYYY too much. he’s an addict, who spends everyday in a rehab centre, where there’s no risk of coming across alcohol. and suddenly alcohol ends up in his mouth? OF COURSE he’s gonna drink it, and of course he’s gonna try and find a scapegoat.
his actions weren’t commendable, but they were expected.
It’s not so much just critiquing therapy, but critiquing the type of addiction therapy that’s used without real doctors. The main one I felt they were throwing shade at was Passages Malibu, which is a popular Cali rehab that believes they can cure addiction and it’s known for using therapist with no degrees. If you look them up, you can see the parallels the show was poking fun of, including it’s co founder who Dr. Champ reminds me of as well.
(when he visits the horse historical village place).
I don’t know, I always took that scene to actually reinforce Champ’s point. Bojack “makes peace” in that scene, with himself and with the horses around him.
Yes he despised other horses. They reminded him of his awful parents. I thought Champ had Bojack’s number down from the beginning.
I don’t think it’s objectively wrong to read Dr. Champ as correct, but it feels kind of thematically hollow and not like something the writers would do, for a couple reasons:
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Bojack’s issues mostly already have mundane, realistic explanations behind them, it just seems unnecessary and out of left field to add another explanation that doesn’t have much of a connection to the other, adequate reasons that have already been given. There is no horse who Bojack hates, where that hatred doesn’t already have a better explanation of some kind.
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I don’t think it makes a compelling plot point. Bojack’s problems are all real things that exist, but the viewer has no context for what it means to “be a horse” and to feel guilt about that. As an emotional beat, it’s much easier to connect with his anger towards his parents as people as opposed to a hatred of horses. I mean, you could stretch it to be some sort of allegory for race/ethnicity, but six seasons in it just feels like a contrivance that wouldn’t add a whole lot to the story.
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The viewpoint of the show is generally that self improvement is the result of work, not one-off epiphanies, especially ones that happen while drunk. It just seems a lot more likely that an “aha! this explains all my problems!” moment would be satirized rather than played straight.
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Bojack idolized Secretariat all his life, that’s another counterexample besides Hollyhock. And, I don’t think Champ’s argument against Hollyhock as a counterexample actually makes sense. I think it’s true that Bojack sees Hollyhock as himself, but he clearly loves her. He hates himself for what he feels he’s become, not because he’s a horse, and he wants Hollyhock to go down a different path.
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Bojack not knowing a lot of horses just kinda makes sense. There are all sorts of different animals in the world, not that many of them are horses, and Bojack doesn’t have that many close friends. It would also be strange to write additional characters in that are the same species as the main character without some reason behind it (e.g. his family members, Secretariat, and Champ). Like how two random characters in a show will almost never have the same first name unless there’s some reason for it, because even though that’s a thing that could just happen by coincidence in real life, it sticks out to the viewer of a TV show.
All that said, I do still think it’s open to interpretation, it’s totally possible there’s something I’m just not seeing here.
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Exactly how I viewed it.
The show didn’t have any good therapists or counsellors (on screen)
frr
Which is another small part of Bojack Horseman that is unfortunately accurate. Too many people are struggling, and yet too many of the readily available therapists are just not good. And if Bojack’s rich ass fancy therapy places are bad then you can imagine how it is for lower class people!
The rich ass therapy place he goes to is not supposed to provide great therapy. It’s a cozy “rehab” you go to in order to say “I went to rehab” without doing all the hard struggles it takes to actually change yourself. They provide some programs in order to claim to be a legit operation but apart from physically isolating the patients from their habits, there is not much helping going on.
Honestly, it’s even worse than that — it’s specifically designed to be a rotating door so they get repeat clients. Can’t have them actually get better, that’s bad for business.
I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to be a reference to a real life upper class rehab center (even down to the name of the center being wordplay in the show.)
I really don’t consider the woman who treated Bojack without his informed consent to be a good therapist, honestly.
Oh yeah that is an unethical malpractice nightmare. That woman was genuinely so bad on so many levels as a therapist.
Dr. Elliott on YouTube did a review of that episode and roasted her.
I’m gonna be honest, most actual therapists are pretty bad at their jobs. The “therapy horse” thing is sadly real. Cats and dogs would probably have the same effect (AND you can take them home afterwards) but you can’t charge someone’s insurance big bucks for a trip to the animal shelter.
mainly because he’s not an actual therapist, just a horse therapist
He’s not even that, he’s a therapy horse.
i thought the joke was that he only became a somewhat good therapist and help bojack make progress when he was drunk. he’s not a good therapist, but he made a cogent point as a normal person who observed bojack for a while
Therapy horse*
Lol but I agree
Dr. Champ is there for himself. He stays sober by helping others stay sober. He finally finds someone he can use as a scapegoat to drink again.
i think you mean scapeHORSE! … i don’t know if you heard me. i said scape HORSE!
I’m gonna be honest, most actual therapists are bad at their jobs too. They’re the ones pushing “therapy horses” as cures. Cats and dogs would probably have the same effect (AND you can take them home afterwards) but you can’t charge someone’s insurance big bucks for a trip to the animal shelter.