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Of all the great things about television, the greatest is that it’s on every single day. TV history is being made, day in and day out, in ways big and small. In an effort to better appreciate this history, we’re taking a look back, every day, at one particular TV milestone.
IMPORTANT DATE IN TV HISTORY: August 22, 2014
PROGRAM ORIGINALLY AIRED ON THIS DATE: BoJack Horseman, Season 1, Episode 1. [Stream on Netflix]
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: If you’re picking the most unlikely Netflix original hit, you’d have some stiff competition. Who knew an ’80s monster pastiche like Stranger Things would end up being the phenomenon it was? But a strong contender for the most unlikely would have to be BoJack Horseman, the animated series decidedly not for kids about a washed up former sitcom star who is also coincidentally a horse, who is also massively and demonstrably depressed. He lives in a Hollywood Hollywoo that is a melting pot of humans and any number of anthropomorphized animals, all living and working and competing with each other.
BoJack is an odd concept, but it presents a world that is wide open for the most absurd comedy, and the show consistently delivers. Every frame offers some joke somewhere — a billboard, a marquee, a storefront — and the satire of the movie business is as sharp as you’ll find anywhere. And then there’s BoJack himself at the center. He used to star in an ABC sitcom called “Horsin’ Around,” where he played the equine guardian to a trio of kids, in the Charles in Charge vein. (That Netflix has both BoJack and Fuller House in its lineup at the same time is almost a dark joke in and of itself.) BoJack has never been able to replicate that success himself, and he’s become bitter, moody, and a heavy drinker. That the show takes this side of BoJack seriously, ultimately plumbing the depths of his depression, guilt, shame, et cetera, might make this sound like a kind of animated therapy session. But the show is careful to balance out the seriousness with that absurd humor. To that end, they cast people like Amy Sedaris (as BoJack’s agent Princess Carolyn), Paul F. Tompkins (as BoJack’s frenemy Mr. Peanut Butter), plus a guest star cast that you have to see (hear?) to believe.
As BoJack Horseman prepares to deliver its fourth season, there’s no better time to catch up on the show from the beginning. Three years since its debut, that first episode really hooks you. The parody of TGIF shows with “Horsin’ Around” is so accurate, and the world of Hollywoo is such an intricately (and hilariously) populated one that it’s impossible not to dive right in.
