BoJack Horseman

The second season begins with a young BoJack watching Secretariat's interview while his parents scream at each other. The first day of filming doesn’t go as planned and really the amount of layers to this is amazing, there is the fact that he was a comedy sitcom star and maybe that mean he really isn’t a good actor, then there's the fact that he’s trying so hard to be a changed man and therefore he can’t go to the place he needs to go emotionally in order to play this part.

We get a lot in this first episode with him and his mom. Beatrice is truly the source of most if not all of BoJack’s trauma and issues. “You were born broken…Your BoJack Horseman there’s no cure for that '' are some of the most devastating words ever spoken to another person. The fact that his mother is telling him that he will never escape himself and there is no fixing him is so aggressive. There were several times in this episode where I had to just take a deep breath and shake off some of this really heavy dialogue.

BoJack and Wanda are great because BoJack actually gets some character development, he listens to her because he’s tired of hearing about himself…that’s amazing all on its own. And then he admits to himself, and to her that he enjoys spending time with her, and wants to continue to do so. And he gets into a happy, healthy relationship.

Watching BoJack process Herb’s death was really great to watch because it was very clear that he felt a lot of guilt because Herb never forgave him before his death. And BoJack is struggling to find some kind of closure. He does run into Charlotte at the funeral and realizes she lives a lot closer than he thought and she tells him to come see her in New Mexico…this is important for later in the series.

BoJack has another good character development moment when he lets it slip out that he loves Wanda, he immediately takes it back to which she tells him that she doesn’t love him. They spend the whole rest of the episode kind of going back and forth trying to see who's going to break first. Wanda admits that she loves him and he admits that she makes him feel less broken. It's very sweet and shows more of BoJack opening up to someone.

One of the best things about this show is how brilliant it is in its quiet moments, the episode where BoJack and his director break into the Nixon library to get a shot for Secretariat and BoJack is supposed to cry. But he tells her that he can't cry in front of people, so he doesn't and they get the scene in a way she likes anyway and BoJack goes outside and starts crying. And it's such a quite beautiful moment.

BoJack in a weak moment on a whim goes to see Charlotte who he finds out has a husband and family. He lives on a boat in their driveway for two months…finally feeling a sense of family and validation BoJack drives Charlotte’s daughter and her friend to the prom. He buys them boos…which is the first obviously questionable adult decision. He then has this super terrible moment with Charlotte’s daughter, where he straight up tells her that she looks like her mother. It’s one of BoJack’s worst moments, added to when he drops Maddie off at the hospital and tells Pete to lie about where Maddie got the alcohol. He does make a semi-responsible decision when Penny comes on to him and he rejects her. But after getting rejected by her mom he allows Penny onto his boat. Charlotte gets to them before anything happens but we see BoJack self sabotaging and burning bridges.

And that’s really where we leave him at the end of season 2, screwed up, down a couple friends and headed back to LA. Now I think season 3 is really the turning point for the show and for BoJack’s character in a lot of ways so I can’t wait to get there, but fair warning if you haven’t seen the show all the way through yet. That giving minors alcohol, being alone with them and almost sleeping with his old crush’s daughter is just the tip of the iceberg…its about to get way worse.