Joined the group just to say my teen daughter is absolutely in love with the show…as soon as she finishes it she starts it again. Admittedly she tried to get me to watch it this past week but with Thanksgiving and a busy life I didn’t really have time to watch much. She struggles with self harm and depressive moods, we are trying to get her help she’s in therapy and on some meds we are trying for mood stabilizing as well as ADHD. I’m just curious as someone who really doesn’t know that much about the show is she trying to tell me something? Is it something to worry about or is it cathartic? She literally watches is it over and over and in most of her spare time.
I strongly recommend watching the show if she has asked you to. I know life is busy but the episodes are only about 23 minutes each, so you could watch one or two a day without it cutting into life too much. If you’re really pressed for time, maybe watch while doing your skincare routine or while cooking or something? She clearly wants to connect with you through the show. By watching it and talking about the show together, you may give her the opportunity to talk about her own struggles too.
Even if it doesn’t lead to any deep convos about her mental health, watching the show and discussing it together is an opportunity to create a shared experience. When I was a teen, I had a difficult relationship with my mum (she didn’t understand my struggles with mental health at all), but in my late teens we started watching shows that I liked together and it made our relationship so much closer. I would introduce her to any piece of media that I really loved, and even though she didn’t care for all of it, she engaged because it mattered to me.
One addendum: season 1 isn’t really the same tone as the later seasons. My mum didn’t like season 1 (she got actively MAD about the Vincent Adultman arc lmao) but got more into the show as it went on (although she never liked Todd hahah). Watch season 1, but don’t form your opinion of the show based on it, because the tone really shifts and the story gets more emotionally and thematically complex with every subsequent season. My parents both watched it with me a few years ago at my insistence, and ended up really liking it. My dad related to Bojack’s experiences with mental health, especially with his internal monologue in the episode “Stupid Piece of Shit.” I think that any adult watching can find something to connect to in the narrative. It’s such a rich text, and I’m sure that if you give it a try, you will take something valuable away from it!