BoJack Horseman, first airing in 2014, is a show about an actor named BoJack Horseman. The show starts off with BoJack at a low point in his life after struggling to get another role after his failed show, The BoJack Horseman Show. BoJack lives with his best friend, Todd Chavez, and is told by his agent and ex-girlfriend, Princess Carolyn, that he should get a ghost writer and publish a book. BoJack reluctantly agrees and meets Diane Nguyen, who is dating Mr. Peanutbutter, who BoJack has one-sided beef with. The show continues over seven seasons, where we see BoJack become a better person and understand that he deserves what has happened to him because of his past actions, and he learns to live a better life and be happy with what he has made.
With the five main characters listed, we can now dive into what each character represents, what their fatal flaws are, and how they deal with their issues.
BoJack Horseman:
BoJack represents cynicism, self-loathing, and self-destructive behavior. This stems mostly from his childhood trauma. As a child, BoJack suffered from emotional neglect, abuse, and a lack of emotional support from his parents, who were also victims of their own trauma. Some key moments from his childhood trauma include being forced to smoke a cigarette while his mother told him that he ruined her life, and constantly getting insults from his father. This led to BoJack’s deep-seated unhappiness and inability to form healthy relationships. BoJack finds his fatal flaw as a constant need for external validation, leading to sabotage, addiction, and eventually his downfall. Three of the main reasons for BoJack’s downfall was his involvement with his co-star Sarah Lynn’s death, his addiction to pain killers, which led to his exposure as the person he is.
Diving deeper into Sarah Lynn’s death, BoJack was with her when it happened, and to cover his tracks, he told the police that he found her like that. He wasted seventeen crucial minutes, in which Sarah Lynn could have been saved. This pushed BoJack into a deeper state of denial and self-pity. BoJack then landed a role in a hit show called Philibert, where he declared that he could do his own stunts. In a stunt-gone-wrong, BoJack was injured and was prescribed painkillers. He became addicted to the feeling, and to get more pills, he caused a car accident. After weeks on the pills, his acting life and real life started to blur, ending with the attempted manslaughter of his new co-star. After realizing how bad his situation was, BoJack admitted himself into rehab. After fixing himself, BoJack found himself in a new problem. Investigators were looking into the death of Sarah Lynn and uncovered the truth, getting him kicked out of his hit show Horsing Around and this pushed him over the edge. He lost all of his money, his house, and his reputation was down the drain. He relapsed and almost drowned in his own pool after breaking into his old house. After being resisted, BoJack was sent to prison, where he finally became clean and decided that he was ready to turn his life around. This realization is where the show ends.
Todd Chavez:
Todd Chavez represents the creative, unfocused, but resilient inner child. Todd was first kicked out of his mother’s home when he was a teenager, finding refuge in BoJack’s home, which led to their friendship. Todd is found doing multiple selfless acts and is always on a side quest. Todd’s fatal flaw is his tendency toward reckless impulsivity and irresponsibility. He involves himself in many dangerous situations, despite his good intentions. However, no matter what happens, he always ends up taking the moral high ground. Todd finds his voice and stands up to BoJack, who is known for constantly degrading him. He tells BoJack that people deserve better and has a line where he says, “You can be a good person and have a troubling past, but a troubling past does not give you an excuse to be a bad person.” This is one of the key factors that helps BoJack find himself. After seven seasons of multiple jobs and random lore, we find Todd reconnecting with his mother after she needed a kidney, in a healthy relationship, and running a daycare at VIM, the agency that Princess Carolyn runs.
Princess Carolyn:
Princess Carolyn represents the workaholic, responsible, but emotionally unfulfilled individual. She was raised in a home with 11 older siblings and an alcoholic mother. She was able to escape her small home in North Carolina after working hard and being fueled by the belief in her own success. Starting off as an intern being treated like garbage, she eventually took a chance on herself and opened her own agency building. Here is where she had her greatest successes; however, her fatal flaw, investing too much personal stake in her work, led her down a dark path. Here she discovered that she was infertile, and this caused much emotional strain on anyone she tried to date. She eventually ended up adopting a baby porcupine named Ruth, and this filled a large gap in her heart; the only problem was that she did not have enough time in her schedule for this new addition. After rehiring her old assistant, Judas, and creating a daycare run by Todd, she was able to spend more time with Ruth and eventually ended up marrying Judas. The show ends at their wedding, where she dances one last dance with BoJack, leaving them both with the closure they need.
Diane Nguyen:
Representing the introspective, moralistic, and emotionally dependent person who seeks connection. Coming from a home in New Jersey, her family never supported her dreams of becoming a writer. After escaping home, Diane meets Mr. Peanutbutter at a party and they hit it off. When she was later assigned as a ghost writer for BoJack’s memoir, she ended up taking what she had gathered from their sessions together and wrote the book herself. This throws a wrench in BoJack and Diane’s friendship because the book makes him look like a terrible person. There was also drama with BoJack falling in love with Diane while she was dating Mr. Peanutbutter. Her fatal flaw is her idealism clashing with reality, causing her to obtain a hero complex. She marries Mr. Peanutbutter, and their marriage starts off rocky. They eventually go on a getaway together, where everything seems to be fixed after the couple talks about their dreams and Diane mentions wanting a giant library in her dream house. Mr. Peanutbutter gives this to her, but this ends in their divorce. She then moves into a small apartment in Hollywoo (Hollywood) and ends up being the other woman in Mr. Peanutbutter’s new relationship. This leads her to lose who she is, and she understands that she needs to find other people to surround herself with. She takes on an interview role to try and take down the world’s biggest corporation. This fails, but she meets Guy, her cameraman. They end up falling in love, and he shows her that she should be taking care of herself first because that’s what is important. After spiraling out due to her new hit book, she decides that Guy is right. She starts taking antidepressants, works on her mental health, and moves to Chicago to live with Guy. Her story ends with BoJack while they are sitting on the roof of a building at Princess Carolyn and Judas’ wedding, and she tells him that she thought she was dead and blamed herself. After getting closure from BoJack, she mentions staying in Chicago to heal fully and wishes him the best.
Mr. Peanutbutter:
Mr. Peanutbutter represents unwavering, naive optimism and hedonism. Mr. Peanutbutter started his acting career by accident after wandering onto BoJack’s set, which led producers to believe that he had natural charisma, and he was given his own show. This mimicked BoJack’s show to the T. However, while BoJack saw it as an insult, Mr. Peanutbutter was just happy that he had something in common with one of his idols, and they ended up in a very one-sided friendship. His fatal flaw is the inability to listen and connect to people on a deeper level, leading him to be unable to grow or change. This is one of the main things that led to his and Diane’s divorce. He took on the role of a political representative and got into a small competition with Hollywoo’s mayor. After losing, Diane and he started to mend the relationship, going on a vacation, which, as you know, led to their breakup. After this happens, Mr. Peanutbutter starts to date another dog named Pickles. This starts off well because they are both “shallow” and find happiness in the simple things, however Mr. Peanutbutter and Diane sleep together and Pickles finds out. This leads to Mr. Peanutbutter to be exposed as a womanizer, however, Princess Carolyn has him play off the role of a sad and depressed dog and people start to like him again. After talking to Pickles, they both decided that she should be allowed to sleep with someone else to even the score. After many failed attempts, they finally find Joey Pogo, and Pickles runs off with him, ending the relationship with Mr. Peanutbutter over a text message. He is left with confusion and disappointment, but he plays it off as nonchalance and tries to continue his “happy” persona. However, this was a great wake up call for Mr. Peanutbutter, and he faces his fear of being alone. He is then able to be a sole person rather than needing someone else in the picture with him constantly.
In Conclusion
In the end, BoJack Horseman uses its complex and flawed characters to show growth and self-awareness. Together, the five main characters reveal that healing is not a straight path, and redemption is not about perfection but about facing one’s own truth. In the world of BoJack Horseman, everyone is broken in some way, but the show reminds us that being broken does not mean we are beyond repair.