Summary: BoJack takes Diane with him to meet Cuddlywhiskers but finds that he's missing and a dead Orca from Whale World in his pool. They are taken in by the police but Diane is able to get them out and thinks BoJack is being framed. They look into the situation and go to Whale World to learn more where they find out that the Orca likely died from an overdose. They track Cuddlywhiskers to Ojai where he says that he leaves everything behind to be happy. Mr. Peanutbutter accidentally gets sprayed by a skunk and enlists Todd and Princess Carolyn to help him. He is upset when Diane does not come home and stays out with BoJack.
The Good: The heart of this episode comes from BoJack and Diane's relationship, as well as the end of the episode. Diane is bang-on about the two of them being similar. Diane's struggles with depression last season and the poor choices she made to handle it created a parallel with BoJack, and this episode addresses the interesting idea that Diane and BoJack both enable each other to be worse. Even though they are friends and they understand each other, it's not necessarily a good thing when they spend a long time together. Unfortunately for Diane, she gets sucked into more time with him and forgets all about her home life with Mr. Peanutbutter, another bad decision that weakens their relationship further. Lots of fun details again. I enjoyed the Whale World commercial a lot, and I found the concept of the location to be outrageously funny. There's no way that a place like this would ever exist in our world, but in the inherently ridiculous "BoJack Horseman" universe it fits right in. I also really liked the cheesy non-denominational school, and the various jokes about it are amusing. The animal jokes are great here with highlights being a "bat bat mitzvah" ("yes two bats because she is a bat", the banner says), a snake eating an entire cake in one bite, and a mole running rampant in a yard digging holes. Some other jokes are effective. Mr. Peanutbutter forgetting why he bought spaghetti strainers is amusing, as is his inability to control his urge to shake. The senior center has good jokes like a cameo from the in-universe "Mister Ed" horse, a poor elderly turtle being pushed over by BoJack, and a funny sign saying "Why don't your grandkids call? A seminar on being less boring". Lastly, there's some nice continuity in Todd wearing one of the custom shirts Mr. Peanutbutter made back in "After the Party". The Bad: I disliked the mystery parody done in this episode. The issue is that this didn't even work as a parody. The show did not poke fun at mystery tropes at all and instead seemed to copy mystery storytelling into the episode without making any sort of stance or statement about them. Instead of examining the mystery genre, this episode sloppily integrates mystery in a completely uninteresting way without any of the nuance that makes mystery work. We never cared about the mystery, it was not rewarding to figure out, and the episode being a mystery offered absolutely nothing to the story whatsoever. With this being the major gimmick of the episode, it's hard to say that this episode had much success when its main idea is so uninspired and boring. The Todd and Mr. Peanutbutter side story is more filler than I expect from this show. It goes absolutely nowhere, has very little in terms of good jokes, and feels like a sloppy use of both characters. Todd is just high in the background, which is more like the inconsistently written season 1 character than the interesting season 2 character. Mr. Peanutbutter is his usual self until the final scene when he calls Diane, but this makes his disappointment in her feel less impactful since we know that he has been his normal self all episode. Princess Carolyn doesn't even have anything interesting to offer, and this whole story is basically a dud. The Unknown: Is Cuddlywhiskers right? Do BoJack and Diane need to give up everything they currently have to finally be happy? Or is there another way for them? Diane and Mr. Peanutbutter still have plenty of tensions between them. Will Diane's struggles to deal with her own mental health cause the end of this relationship? Best Moment: The final conversation with Cuddlywhiskers is great, offering a bleak and painful possibility for BoJack and Diane that they may never be truly happy if they keep on living their current lifestyle. I love the symbolism of Cuddlywhiskers drinking the tea (symbolizing happiness), while BoJack never even tries to reach it and Diane tries but fails to get anywhere close to it. Character of the Episode: Diane. Conclusion: An episode that overall did not work as a mystery parody, even if there were some good moments throughout. Season 3 is off to a bit of a mixed start with the last two concept episodes not living up to their potential. Score: 57
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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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