Summary: Princess Carolyn stops BoJack from continuing a bender by giving him a bourbon commercial. However, Todd gets the commercial instead and BoJack spends the day trying to win back Princess Carolyn's love, and sabotages her projects, which end up going to her rival Vanessa Gekko. Princess Carolyn decides to give BoJack the night and gets into it, but BoJack pulls out after a call from Herb. Princess Carolyn gets serious and manages to get a new project for Cate Blanchett, gets Vanessa Gekko fired, and even lands a feature for BoJack, but still feels empty about life.
The Good: Princess Carolyn has been a poorly defined character for the first six episodes of the show, and I've been apathetic towards her. But this episode completely changed that, giving us a complete emotional experience with this character, giving me a chance to understand who she is, what motivates her, and what he struggles are in her life. By the end of the episode, I can confidently say that I like Princess Carolyn and I understand so much more about who she is. This series has needed an episode which endeared me to its characters, and this was exactly that. Princess Carolyn's constant hustle went by entirely unnoticed by me in the early episodes because it was always played as a joke. But this episode makes it clear just how hard she has to work to be on top of everything, and how much keeping in touch with BoJack is a negative thing for her, but she remains loyal to him anyways. I was caught off guard by how many bad things happened to Princess Carolyn throughout the first half of the episode - almost all of them caused directly or indirectly by her association with BoJack. It made me increasingly angry with BoJack as the episode went on, and I became especially frustrated as Princess Carolyn finally lets her guard down and tries to have a nice night with him only for him to bail out on her. It was a mellow rock bottom for Princess Carolyn that was treated with a seriousness that I wasn't expecting from the show. But Princess Carolyn bounces back impressively. I really liked this episode's repetitive use of the "you need to get your sh*t together" speech, with Princess Carolyn ultimately using it on herself so that she can bounce back. The episode's end was immensely satisfying as Princess Carolyn used her knowledge of Cate Blanchett to overcome Vanessa Gekko's attempts to supplant her, and also managed to land a big role for BoJack to help him rehabilitate. She managed to repair her own personal career, while also helping out a friend. This kind of grit, determination, and altruism immediately connected me with Princess Carolyn and turned her into a character that I cared about. I was happy for her when she succeeded by the episode's end. But then the episode took a shocking turn by ending on a somber note. Sure Princess Carolyn fixed up her career, but that doesn't change that she has nowhere else to go. At the end of the day, she has no family to turn to - something that Vanessa Gekko taunts her with relentlessly - and we see that weighing on her in the end. As she sits alone in her building reflecting that she just spent her entire 40th birthday revitalizing her career, she carries an emptiness with her, a longing for a personal life that she looks so far from ever having as time leaves her hopes and dreams behind. These last few seconds were a moving ending that captures a very realistic real-life emotion that we don't often see portrayed on television. Outside of this great storytelling, this episode is quite funny. BoJack's bender at the start of the episode getting worse and worse is pretty funny (RIP John Stamos), and I like how the bourbon commercial stint went completely out of control as the episode continued. I got a laugh out of the blackmailing birds plot ending in such a stupid moment, and I also found poor incapable Charlie to be a funny jab at nepotism in the workplace. And of course, I loved the brief jokes of animals behaving like animals. The bird jumping into the glass window, Lenny walking painfully slow, "Quentin Tarantulino", and the scared armadillo lady were really funny jokes. I also got a chuckle out of BoJack being such a prick that he honks at the armadillo lady who he nearly killed. The Bad: BoJack is a little bit too crude in this episode. He's the main character but he is thoroughly unlikeable in this episode, which is especially clear since Princess Carolyn is the main character for this specific episode. It's also easier to laugh at BoJack when the show isn't taking itself seriously at all. So, when the show features more serious themes like it did in this episode, it makes it harder to laugh at BoJack being such a prick, making us dislike him more. This episode did wonders for Princess Carolyn, but didn't do much for BoJack. I'm getting used to Todd being such a random and spontaneous character, so his storylines aren't bothering me quite as much as they did before. That being said, I'm still not too fond of what he brings to the table. For example, his assertion that cameras are robots was ridiculous, and I found it hard to buy into Todd letting the "power" get to his head. I have a couple other quibbles. The disastrous merger was so disorganized to the point that I didn't buy into it as a real problem anymore. This is troublesome since the episode tries so hard to sell us on Princess Carolyn's realistic struggles, and the chaotic merger destroys any semblance of reality in the story. The resolution of the blackmailing plot was funny, but the whole storyline feels like an enormous waste of time now. The Unknown: What happened at the BoJack and Herb meeting? It sounds like it did not go well at all. Will Princess Carolyn ever have a family? It seems like she is not happy with her current hectic job. Best Moment: The somber final moment. Even after going through all that she did in this episode, poor Princess Carolyn is no closer to finding happiness. Character of the Episode: Princess Carolyn. Conclusion: This was unexpectedly great. Putting the focus on Princess Carolyn allowed this to be a much more personal episode, and endeared me to a character who I was previously ambivalent about. This was funny, entertaining, and surprisingly profound at parts. The best episode of the show so far. Score: 68
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
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