(This review contains spoilers not only of the episode being reviewed, but of subsequent episodes and seasons as well.)
BoJack Horseman opened to lukewarm reviews in 2014. Notoriously, this was because many reviewers viewed advance copies of only the first several episodes, rather than the entire first season. Though the series now enjoys roughly universally positive reviews, most of them comment that it took a while to find its feet. As I write this, the debut episode is the lowest-rated normal episode on IMDB, ahead of only the 2014 Christmas special (and just barely). The consensus, then, is that this episode is a poor ambassador for an excellent series.
In hindsight, that's not fair. Viewed in isolation, "BoJack Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Story, Chapter One" appears to be introducing a somewhat more coherent version of Family Guy, complete with extended, irreverent flashbacks (I am thinking here of the scene in which BoJack subtly communicates to Princess Carolyn that he doesn't respect her enough to have a child with her, which owes much to Seth MacFarlane...as do the unnecessarily prolonged cotton candy-vomiting, Todd's response to BoJack's question "Do people not like me?", and BoJack's clarification of the nature of Diane's and Mr. Peanutbutter's relationship). If that was what BoJack Horseman turned out to be, the debut would indeed have suggested failure - the gag density is too low to succeed as a Family Guy clone, and the show would likely have worn out its welcome even more quickly than Family Guy.
Of course, we now know that BoJack Horseman is no Family Guy clone - instead, it's a dark, character-driven dramedy. With that recognition, this episode looks somewhat better. Obviously, it can't stand as among the series' best - it can't do anything meaningful with characters the audience has not yet been given a chance to know or care about. But it does make full use of its 25-minute run-time to set up characters and relationships that will pay off in later episodes. We see BoJack's idleness, insecurity, narcissism, and self-loathing, all of which will be explored in later, better episodes. We also see the groundwork laid for his relationships with the other four main characters. We begin to see - just barely - the tension between Princess Carolyn's professional and personal lives, and Diane's lack of comfort in her own skin. We see the unbearable lightness of Mr. Peanutbutter, and have him set up as a the Zelda foil to BoJack's Zoë.
With the benefit of hindsight, the episode's major failure is its treatment of Todd, who is initially defined as a taker and a leech, when we now know he is exactly the opposite (season 4's "Hooray! Todd Episode!" makes that explicit). Perhaps more jarring, his implied relationship with "Gabriella" does not work well with his subsequent struggles over his asexuality (how could it be news to him in season 4 that some aces involve themselves in romantic relationships when he has himself done so in the past?).
Less significantly, everything about the early nineties sit-com landscape is perfectly captured by Horsin' Around, from the insipid family-friendliness to BoJack's novelty rap album. That satire is not a well that will sustain a series for any length of time, and BoJack Horseman doesn't draw too heavily from it over its run, but it works here. BoJack's opening interview with Charlie Rose also (again, always in hindsight) contrasts Horsin' Around with BoJack Horseman - the first offers relief from life's "long, hard kick in the urethra", while the second often *is* that kick (that line came back to me when I saw the endings of season 4 episodes "Stupid Piece of Shit" and "Ruthie", for example).
The episode also has its share of animal-based visual gags, which will become a series staple - my favourite in this episode is probably the (anthropomorphic) pigeons in front of Elefante scattering in response to BoJack's bellowing about the cost of bread. Diane's business card and the dust jacket to her Secretariat book introduce the importance of the pause button to fully appreciating the show's humour. The running joke of BoJack composing unwieldy newspaper headlines is also a strong point, as is his response to Princess Carolyn's reference to him masturbating to pictures of himself.
No show of any depth has a pilot that stands among its best episodes, and BoJack Horseman is no exception. But, looking back, "BoJack Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Story, Chapter One" makes meaningful contributions to what the show ultimately becomes, and nothing more could reasonably be asked of it.
BoJack Horseman opened to lukewarm reviews in 2014. Notoriously, this was because many reviewers viewed advance copies of only the first several episodes, rather than the entire first season. Though the series now enjoys roughly universally positive reviews, most of them comment that it took a while to find its feet. As I write this, the debut episode is the lowest-rated normal episode on IMDB, ahead of only the 2014 Christmas special (and just barely). The consensus, then, is that this episode is a poor ambassador for an excellent series.
In hindsight, that's not fair. Viewed in isolation, "BoJack Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Story, Chapter One" appears to be introducing a somewhat more coherent version of Family Guy, complete with extended, irreverent flashbacks (I am thinking here of the scene in which BoJack subtly communicates to Princess Carolyn that he doesn't respect her enough to have a child with her, which owes much to Seth MacFarlane...as do the unnecessarily prolonged cotton candy-vomiting, Todd's response to BoJack's question "Do people not like me?", and BoJack's clarification of the nature of Diane's and Mr. Peanutbutter's relationship). If that was what BoJack Horseman turned out to be, the debut would indeed have suggested failure - the gag density is too low to succeed as a Family Guy clone, and the show would likely have worn out its welcome even more quickly than Family Guy.
Of course, we now know that BoJack Horseman is no Family Guy clone - instead, it's a dark, character-driven dramedy. With that recognition, this episode looks somewhat better. Obviously, it can't stand as among the series' best - it can't do anything meaningful with characters the audience has not yet been given a chance to know or care about. But it does make full use of its 25-minute run-time to set up characters and relationships that will pay off in later episodes. We see BoJack's idleness, insecurity, narcissism, and self-loathing, all of which will be explored in later, better episodes. We also see the groundwork laid for his relationships with the other four main characters. We begin to see - just barely - the tension between Princess Carolyn's professional and personal lives, and Diane's lack of comfort in her own skin. We see the unbearable lightness of Mr. Peanutbutter, and have him set up as a the Zelda foil to BoJack's Zoë.
With the benefit of hindsight, the episode's major failure is its treatment of Todd, who is initially defined as a taker and a leech, when we now know he is exactly the opposite (season 4's "Hooray! Todd Episode!" makes that explicit). Perhaps more jarring, his implied relationship with "Gabriella" does not work well with his subsequent struggles over his asexuality (how could it be news to him in season 4 that some aces involve themselves in romantic relationships when he has himself done so in the past?).
Less significantly, everything about the early nineties sit-com landscape is perfectly captured by Horsin' Around, from the insipid family-friendliness to BoJack's novelty rap album. That satire is not a well that will sustain a series for any length of time, and BoJack Horseman doesn't draw too heavily from it over its run, but it works here. BoJack's opening interview with Charlie Rose also (again, always in hindsight) contrasts Horsin' Around with BoJack Horseman - the first offers relief from life's "long, hard kick in the urethra", while the second often *is* that kick (that line came back to me when I saw the endings of season 4 episodes "Stupid Piece of Shit" and "Ruthie", for example).
The episode also has its share of animal-based visual gags, which will become a series staple - my favourite in this episode is probably the (anthropomorphic) pigeons in front of Elefante scattering in response to BoJack's bellowing about the cost of bread. Diane's business card and the dust jacket to her Secretariat book introduce the importance of the pause button to fully appreciating the show's humour. The running joke of BoJack composing unwieldy newspaper headlines is also a strong point, as is his response to Princess Carolyn's reference to him masturbating to pictures of himself.
No show of any depth has a pilot that stands among its best episodes, and BoJack Horseman is no exception. But, looking back, "BoJack Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Story, Chapter One" makes meaningful contributions to what the show ultimately becomes, and nothing more could reasonably be asked of it.
