(This review contains spoilers not only of the episode being reviewed, but of subsequent episodes and seasons as well.)
There's been a love triangle building on BoJack Horseman, and in "Our A-Story is a 'D' Story", the series decides to do something with it. I suppose that that's a good thing. As I've said before, the relationship between BoJack and Diane is the show's most interesting, and this episode gives both of its members a chance to consider what it is and what they would like it to be. For the time being, Diane still brings out the best in BoJack - Diane knows him, and he likes that, and he in turn cares enough to know her. If BoJack had ended up with Diane, the Closer may never have needed to tell him that he was afraid to know others and be known, in season 3's "Stop the Presses".
But BoJack does not end up with Diane; Mr. Peanutbutter does. That relationship is emphatically not the series' most interesting, but neither is it a dramatic lost cause, and the groundwork is laid for some of its future tensions: Mr. Peanutbutter, the veteran of 1980s/1990s sit-coms, thinks that love can only be proven by grand gestures, and is ignorant of and indifferent to Diane's dislike of these. His ignorance and indifference gives BoJack a chance to provide a contrast by demonstrating real sensitivity, which gives the audience an all-too-rare chance to cheer for the protagonist. The goodwill BoJack builds with the viewer is this episode's greatest triumph; most of us, I think, spend the back half of the episode cheering for BoJack to get the girl, no matter how undeserving of her he may objectively be.
The B-story is another Todd adventure, which offers some chuckles, but not much else - and, as is so often the case when Nazis are played for comedic effect, some of the chuckles come perilously close to being offensive. Besides that, the prison gang/prom date analogy was played for similar laughs in "Arrested Development" a decade earlier, and BoJack Horseman doesn't have a new spin to put on it.
This is the episode in which BoJack Horseman starts to make permanent changes to its universe, most obviously in Hollywood becoming Hollywoo, but also in BoJack buying Elefante, and Todd getting some prison tattoos.
"Our A-Story Is a 'D' Story" occupies a significant place in season 1's arc and in the series', and it deserves respect for that. But it has very little true poignancy (BoJack explaining to Diane that Mr. Peanutbutter's gestures are for his own benefit comes closest) and not a lot comedic genius ("Sex and candy" being one of the multiple choice answers to the question of in what two disciplines Marie Curie won Nobel prizes is perhaps the best joke, and it's only so-so).
And so closes BoJack Horseman's uneven first half-season. This is the half-season that received lukewarm reviews from critics, and the one in which my average rating (6.8) is a full point lower than for the second half-season (7.8). The series, in other words, is about to go from okay to good, before stepping on the gas and accelerating to true greatness in later seasons.
*********************
Best animal-based visual gags: In a sure sign of a sub-par episode, there are no such gags.
Best running joke: BoJack and Diane's use of "Whaaaaaat?" to profess ignorance whenever it is suggested that BoJack is in love with Diane.
Best cameo by a character from another episode: The Super-Max's inmates include the recurring dumpster-diving raccoon, and also the rhinoceros who roughs up Todd in the first episode's flashbacks (all now seems to be forgiven between them). The dogs who discuss how chocolate will literally kill them in "BoJack Hates the Troops" are among Elefante's patrons.
There's been a love triangle building on BoJack Horseman, and in "Our A-Story is a 'D' Story", the series decides to do something with it. I suppose that that's a good thing. As I've said before, the relationship between BoJack and Diane is the show's most interesting, and this episode gives both of its members a chance to consider what it is and what they would like it to be. For the time being, Diane still brings out the best in BoJack - Diane knows him, and he likes that, and he in turn cares enough to know her. If BoJack had ended up with Diane, the Closer may never have needed to tell him that he was afraid to know others and be known, in season 3's "Stop the Presses".
But BoJack does not end up with Diane; Mr. Peanutbutter does. That relationship is emphatically not the series' most interesting, but neither is it a dramatic lost cause, and the groundwork is laid for some of its future tensions: Mr. Peanutbutter, the veteran of 1980s/1990s sit-coms, thinks that love can only be proven by grand gestures, and is ignorant of and indifferent to Diane's dislike of these. His ignorance and indifference gives BoJack a chance to provide a contrast by demonstrating real sensitivity, which gives the audience an all-too-rare chance to cheer for the protagonist. The goodwill BoJack builds with the viewer is this episode's greatest triumph; most of us, I think, spend the back half of the episode cheering for BoJack to get the girl, no matter how undeserving of her he may objectively be.
The B-story is another Todd adventure, which offers some chuckles, but not much else - and, as is so often the case when Nazis are played for comedic effect, some of the chuckles come perilously close to being offensive. Besides that, the prison gang/prom date analogy was played for similar laughs in "Arrested Development" a decade earlier, and BoJack Horseman doesn't have a new spin to put on it.
This is the episode in which BoJack Horseman starts to make permanent changes to its universe, most obviously in Hollywood becoming Hollywoo, but also in BoJack buying Elefante, and Todd getting some prison tattoos.
"Our A-Story Is a 'D' Story" occupies a significant place in season 1's arc and in the series', and it deserves respect for that. But it has very little true poignancy (BoJack explaining to Diane that Mr. Peanutbutter's gestures are for his own benefit comes closest) and not a lot comedic genius ("Sex and candy" being one of the multiple choice answers to the question of in what two disciplines Marie Curie won Nobel prizes is perhaps the best joke, and it's only so-so).
And so closes BoJack Horseman's uneven first half-season. This is the half-season that received lukewarm reviews from critics, and the one in which my average rating (6.8) is a full point lower than for the second half-season (7.8). The series, in other words, is about to go from okay to good, before stepping on the gas and accelerating to true greatness in later seasons.
*********************
Best animal-based visual gags: In a sure sign of a sub-par episode, there are no such gags.
Best running joke: BoJack and Diane's use of "Whaaaaaat?" to profess ignorance whenever it is suggested that BoJack is in love with Diane.
Best cameo by a character from another episode: The Super-Max's inmates include the recurring dumpster-diving raccoon, and also the rhinoceros who roughs up Todd in the first episode's flashbacks (all now seems to be forgiven between them). The dogs who discuss how chocolate will literally kill them in "BoJack Hates the Troops" are among Elefante's patrons.
