Okay, I'm just going to warn you guys, get ready to hate me. Get ready to just rip me a new one, because I don't like Fish Out of Water. Yeah, I don't like it. In fact, I'll go as far as to say that it's my least favorite episode of Bojack Horseman. And yes, this is despite what so many other people are saying about this episode. It's so amazing. They never talk, and that's why it's so great. It's beautiful. Blah blah blah. Not only do I not agree with these statements, but I don't really understand why people love this episode so much. Okay, let's just take a look at the story. In order to promote Secretariat, Bojack has to attend a film festival that's showing the film and takes place in an underwater world. Yeah, apparently there's an underwater world now. I'll get to my problems with this in a minute, but for now, let's stay focused. Due to the fact that Bojack can't talk underwater, a bunch of crazy mix ups happen and he ends up assisting in the birth of a bunch of seahorses on a bus. But, when one of the babies gets separated from the father, it's up to Bojack to return the baby safe and sound. So, my biggest problem with this episode is actually the same reason so many other people love it: None of the characters talk. And, okay, I know cartoons have gone without dialogue before and that it's not necessary to tell a story. But, my problem is, it is necessary for this show. This show is practically known for its brilliant dialogue. And to take that away, it feels like something's missing throughout the whole episode. Even if you've never seen an episode of this show in your life, you will still know that it is a very dialogue heavy show just based on the animation. Some cartoons are able to go without dialogue because their animation is beautiful enough that we get sucked in even if nobody talks. This show doesn't really have that. Aside from a few scenes with some pretty colors, the animation here feels as stilted as it always does. Another problem I have with this episode is the underwater world. Now, don't get me wrong. I understand that the city is supposed to be based off of New York, and I can see why. It's a world where the fish are aware of the surface world, so it makes sense for them to base their world off of our surface world. But, one problem with this is that it literally comes out of nowhere. This underwater world has never been mentioned in a previous episode and it's basically never mentioned again after this episode. So, it feels very random when we're suddenly introduced to the fact that this huge underwater world exists. The show has also done this with characters in the past, but I feel like they could get away with that because it is believable that they wouldn't mention these characters before a certain point, like Captain Peanutbutter. But, this huge underwater world, it feels like this would be mentioned somewhere in the two previous seasons. Also, this episode raises far too many questions for me to ignore, like how do land creatures eat underwater, how do they drink, how do they use the bathroom, how do their clothes not get baggy from being underwater, why do fish not need to breathe water if land animals need to breathe air? And that's only a fraction of the questions this episode raises. And, finally, there's the final revelation that Bojack could have been talking the whole time. Everyone else finds it brilliantly sadistic, but I just find it insultingly dumb. Like I said, I consider dialogue necessary for this show. It's just the kind of show that it is. So, the sudden revelation that my griping about the lack of dialogue was pretty much for nothing? I probably would have been more forgiving of this if Anna told Bojack about the fact that he could talk at the beginning of the episode and Bojack simply didn't listen. At least we would have known that way. But, this sudden revelation, just feels insulting to me. And why would none of the other animals Bojack encounters either tell Bojack he can talk or simply use their own helmets to talk to him themselves. So, does all this mean that there's nothing good about the episode? Not necessarily. There was a Japanese inspired commercial starring Mr Peanutbutter that made me laugh. The jokes about cultural misunderstandings, like a thumbs up apparently being the equivalent of the finger, those were pretty funny. I liked the idea of Bojack trying to make amends with Kelsey. And there are some quiet moments that actually worked. Like the scene where Bojack says goodbye to the kid he helped save, I feel like dialogue would've ruined that scene. But, those few good things don't make up for the boring events that could've been interesting if the animation weren't so stilted or the characters were allowed to talk. In my opinion, you should just skip this episode. It's not even really important to the show's lore. The events of the episode are maybe mentioned once or twice in future episodes. But, I can't really say you should skip it, because everyone else is saying how it's so amazing and beautiful and just one of the show's best episodes. So, I guess I have to recommend you watch the episode and judge it for yourself. But, the same way I'm trying to respect this episode's praise, try to respect that this was the only episode of Bojack Horseman that didn't keep me sucked in and constantly had me asking if it was almost over. And, in my opinion, that is more than enough for me to declare it the worst episode of Bojack Horseman.
Review of Fish Out of Water
