BoJack Horseman (TV Series) Prickly Muffin (2014) User Reviews

A good premise with disappointing results

[sarcasticidealist · 6/10 · 29 December 2017]

(This review contains spoilers not only of the episode being reviewed, but of subsequent episodes and seasons as well.)

Having gotten character introductions out of the way in "BoJack Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Story, Chapter 1", and indulged the urge for political commentary in "BoJack Hates the Troops", BoJack Horseman is finally ready to get down to what makes it great: characterization and relationships...which makes it a shame that "Prickly Muffin" does both so haphazardly.

In theory, re-uniting BoJack with the now-grown-up child star of his old sit-com should provide fertile ground for character development, and to an extent, it does: we see further evidence of BoJack being stuck in the past, and of his unwillingness to take difficult steps or confront reality outside of the sit-com bubble in which he still tries to live his life. Oddly, however, the episode's most extensive development may belong to Diane: we get to see her wisdom, her third-wave feminist beliefs, and her willingness to speak truth to power (or at least to BoJack). We also get a nice glimpse of Princess Carolyn's skill as an agent, with her clever plan to land Andrew Garfield as a client by driving Sarah Lynn towards Vanessa Gecko.

But overall, the payoff to the reunion is less "meaningful character development" and more "zany high-jinks", and this show should be (and will become) much better than that.

The episode does give the first significant screen time to Sarah Lynn (voiced by the always excellent Kristen Schaal), who has the most significance and depth of any of the recurring characters outside of the main five (and probably more than Mr. Peanutbutter). But maybe that's part of the problem: at a time when the show should be sending us deeper into the psyches and relationships of the main cast, it's just too early to bring another significant character on board. The BoJack-Sarah Lynn relationship will ultimately become both important and interesting, but it can't get there when we barely know BoJack and don't know Sarah Lynn at all. And that might be okay, if this episode helped us to get to know them better, but all we really get out of Sarah Lynn is "Former mega-star entering the has-been phase of her career, but still with enough sycophants and enablers that she doesn't need to face the consequences of her actions".

There is a nice bit of foreshadowing that I presume was unintentional, as the episode hints at both Sarah Lynn's last words ("I want to be an architect") and place of death (the planetarium). And, of course, we get the first mention of Herb Kazaz, who's pivotal to season 1's main story arc. There are some laughs, too, with the funniest line being Diane's understandably confused "So...the makeup they were putting on you was not for the show, it was just for the weekend?"

But it's not enough to save the episode: re-watching the early part of season 1 after having seen the first four seasons in their entirety is frustrating, because you know what the show is going to become, and you wish that it would hurry up and get there, but "Prickly Muffin" is just another example of it taking its sweet time.

Fortunately, things are about to get quite a lot better.

*********************

Best animal-based visual gags: Very unusually, there are essentially none in this episode.

Best running joke: Sarah Lynn's repeated likening of other characters to people she interacted with at or after Adam Levine's Hallowe'en party. Honourable mention to "Whoooo (wants chocolate chip pancakes/lit my ottoman on fire)?"

Joke that I find it most frustrating that I don't get: Why are all of Sarah Lynn's friends lemurs? I'm sure that if I understood why, I'd find it hilarious, but I don't, so I don't. A close second is the "gull wrestling" sign on the boardwalk - is "gull wrestling" a thing? A pun of something that's a thing? Just a little bit of animal-based weirdness?

It Was a Nice House

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 31 January 2021]

We find out that Sara Lynn was verbally abused by BoJack as a child star on his TV show. She goes through what a lot of children in her position do. She uses her fame to get what she wants, but boredom gets her into drugs. Eventually, she is sexy and lost. BoJack tries to rescue her but has almost no skills to do it. He is still a child himself. Once in his house, Sara Lynn brings in her friends to demolish the place. And there is more (beyond the pale).

The first -and weakest- main appearance of Sarah Lynn

[szyslak-61303 · 8/10 · 4 November 2020]

Sarah Lynn, the tender girl of Horsin' Around, 12 years later sex-symbol, is 24 years later an authentic disaster. As well as his fictitious dad, she is now a ruined shadow of what she was, manipulative, far away from her glory days, and is now misspending her richness in parties and drugs. Her downfall is evident, reaching the point of being the guestroom of BoJack, and falling even lower after their farewell, admitting she was never to grow and that she was going to surround with sycophants and enablers. I quite like how their dynamic was displayed here. It's like if Sarah features BoJack, while the horse occupies the role of his close people. BoJack playing the role of a permissive father was actually funny. He gives her a lot of ridiculous authorizations and permissions, even letting her destroy the house. However, the scene where they pass time together was kinda refreshing. I laugh out loud when Bojack simulates the credits rolling after that. I was not able to foresee the big twist: now they have sex. That was an odd decision that made me leave the show for a second time, but that I don't mind anymore. Todd and Diane played a supportive function. The former, being the of the voice of the reason and the mature one, was actually great. I uniformly liked the joke of the comparisons between his situation and Sarah's at BoJack's house. Princess Carolyn shines approaching Sarah and making her take the bait in a plan to cheat Vanessa Gekko. The endings, with the paparazzi birds taking photos of BoJack and Sarah having sex, was a clever opening of a future storyline. Not one of the best episodes, though.

A very uncomfortable episode.

[ovexteam · 7/10 · 28 July 2022]

In my opinion, this episode is tied with the first episode for the worst episode in the whole show. It's not necessarily bad, just extremely uncomfortable. Bojacks tv daughter Sarah Lynn moves in with him and completely trashes his place, but Bojack can't work up the nerve to tell her to leave cuz she's basically his daughter. Eventually, they end up doing "it" which is easily my least favourite scene in the whole show. It's so uncomfortable and gross. Sarah is basically his daughter.

This episode definitely has some good to it. It gives good insight to Bojack as a character and how he sees the world as a sitcom sorta. And it's definitely important for future context later in the show.

8

[Edvis-1997 · 8/10 · 7 July 2019]

Wasn't really funny but was interesting to watch. Decent episode.

BoJack Horseman takes a darkly comedic look at child stardom

[ziancara · 7/10 · 13 April 2023]

In "Prickly Muffin," the third episode of BoJack Horseman, the show takes a darkly comedic look at the world of child stardom and the psychological toll it can take on young actors. When BoJack is unexpectedly visited by a former child co-star, Sarah Lynn (voiced by Kristen Schaal), he is forced to confront his own complicated past and the ways in which he may have contributed to her troubled present.

One of the strengths of the episode is its use of humor to tackle serious subject matter. The show has never shied away from exploring dark themes, and in "Prickly Muffin," we see this in the way the episode examines the damaging effects of fame and the entertainment industry on young people. At the same time, the episode is also funny, with moments of biting satire and clever wordplay.

Another strength of the episode is its character development. We see BoJack struggling with his own demons as he tries to reconcile his past actions with his current desire to do better. Similarly, Sarah Lynn is a complex and interesting character, with her own struggles and flaws that are explored in depth over the course of the episode.

However, the episode does have some weaknesses. The plot can be chaotic at times, with several subplots and tangents that feel underdeveloped or unnecessary. Additionally, some of the humor can be hit or miss, with a few jokes that fall flat.

Overall, "Prickly Muffin" is a solid episode of BoJack Horseman that delves into complex themes and character development while still managing to be funny. While it has some weaknesses, particularly in terms of pacing and focus, it is still an enjoyable and thought-provoking addition to the series.

I Feel Sad Rating the Episode Sarah Lynn Was Introduced In This Low

[aidricalamea · 6/10 · 12 February 2023]

I love Sarah Lynn as a character. She is interesting, complex, and very fun. But her introduction does not show any of this. She, quite frankly, comes off as a jerk here. A decent satire of Hollywood and child stardom, yes, but not a very complex or likable character. This really drags the episode's rating down a couple of points for me, which is sad, because there are so many other good things about this episode, especially with BoJack's character. For one, you begin to see how terrible he really is. In the first two episodes, you just see him being kind of petty and jokingly bad. Now you can see him doing some truly awful things. At the same time, you can now see his sympathetic side. He isn't fully fleshed out yet, but he is now interesting, and you can see some of his character motivations.

Overall, a good episode for BoJack made worse by a bad introduction to Sarah Lynn - 6/10.

Good character introduction

[snoozejonc · 7/10 · 15 January 2024]

Bojack reconnects with a former sitcom co-star.

This episode has some funny moments, but it's more of a darkly humorous take on the personal life of a child star who has had a less than ideal start in life, plus the troubles that come from fame and falling out of the limelight. Plenty of this is recognisable in various real life individuals who the writers do not name.

Lots of the humour is derived from the banter between characters. There are a number of in-jokes and pop culture references that work well.

Sarah Lynn is portrayed as bratty and out of control, but the writers paint a sad picture of her backstory. There are some interesting, albeit unsubtle points made about nature vs nurture.

Poor Sarah

[hridouane · 7/10 · 5 December 2021]

So we get the first appearance of Sara Lynn, who had a tough time with BoJack as a kid, and she eventually gets like almost every media whore out there, craves attention, replaced later, and fallen into a deep place. Then we get BoJack saying everything is society's fault, which is funny because sometimes, it is.

This wasn't the best, but this is the only season that wasn't so overall, not bad.

Not the best episode to introduce a great character

[caupolicanre · 6/10 · 2 January 2024]

I feel this episode deserves a 6 stars rating, even when I liked Sarah Lynn during the series.

It shows us what every child in her position of fame does, leaning to making music and doing drugs; until her career starts to go only downhill.

Wasn't a funny episode, and we got to see how Bojack abused Sarah Lynn verbally in the TV Show Horsin' Around, and Sarah Lynn's mother didn't care about her daughter's safety or integrity.

I don't know if it's the guilt that Bojack feels for how he treated her in the past, or what it is that makes him feel obligated to invite her to his house and allow her all the things she wants.

Forced intellectualization

[amirn853 · 6/10 · 26 March 2021]

I genuinely love that the writer finally show me the glimpse of real princess carolyn. But still I'm not satisfy with episode. The story world is still so much flat and typical. And the plot is to thin for its context, the story is not moving forward if characters explain it to us. But there is no significant plot-point to accent it with this deep explanations of character's patterns or motivations.