Summary: BoJack goes to POFF in an underwater city and finds that he can't talk underwater. Kelsey is also there and BoJack is scared of interacting with her since he hasn't talked to her after her firing. BoJack is unable to drink or smoke underwater, so he tries to write a message for Kelsey, but before he shows her he is swept up into a bus. BoJack falls asleep and he helps a seahorse deliver babies when he wakes. The seahorse leaves a child behind and BoJack takes the child back with him. After some misadventures, he returns the child to its father but is sad after forming a bit of a bond. He finds the perfect words for Kelsey, but after he gets distracted with underwater nicotine patches and alcohol, the words get smudged and Kelsey leaves. BoJack is sad but learns that he could speak with his helmet the whole time.
The Good: It takes a bold mind to take a show that is so reliant on its clever dialogue and decide to run an episode that is largely wordless, completely removing one of the show's biggest strengths. Incredulously, it paid off in spades and provides a phenomenal formula break. When a TV show gets into a formula, sometimes the absolutely best thing is to completely deviate from the formula, creating an episode that stands out and provides an experience unlike anything else. "Fish Out of Water" accomplishes this in a way where it completely dispenses with such a central aspect of the show, and putting in enough effort to make sure that the dialogue is never missed. Silent media requires outstanding animation, sound design, and music to flourish and this episode more than delivers in that regard. With the dialogue gone, the subtle background humour is given more time to shine, the episode sports a mesmerizing dream-like soundtrack that elevates the experience so much, and the artists work very hard to create some lovely shots that perfectly work around the animation limitations of "BoJack Horseman". Despite the simplistic artstyle, the characters in this show have always been quite expressive, and that is utilized perfectly to tell a compelling story here. BoJack's personal arc in the underwater city is incredible. As ever, he's reminded of his past mistakes with the presence of Kelsey, who he naturally hasn't talked to since he got her fired. Tragically, she seems to be doing pretty poorly at this festival as nobody is talking to her about her film and she has to watch Secretariat get all of the praise instead. BoJack doesn't have the empathy to recognize this and is only afraid of his past mistakes catching up to him. Ordinarily he would drink and smoke his problems away, but here he is unable to rely on his usual coping mechanisms. What results is that we see BoJack actually confront his problems for once as he tries and fails to come up with a good message to tell Kelsey. It's not until BoJack goes through an intensely personal experience that he finally gets the right words. That experience comes from a surprising place: the feeling of fatherhood. BoJack spends much of the episode forming a bond with a seahorse baby as he attempts to bring the baby back to the father after he got accidentally stranded miles away from the city. The story here is simple and fun, and it is surprisingly touching to see BoJack start to enjoy being with this baby. But then there's an unexpectedly sad farewell where BoJack realizes that the baby will never remember this experience that they shared and that it is now gone forever. Having realized how fleeting moments of genuine connection are in life, BoJack is able to draw on this experience to finally find the perfect words to tell Kelsey, genuinely remorseful and genuinely looking to make things right. But in a tragic twist, fame strikes again and BoJack is distracted from doing the right thing by his love for being a celebrity. Rather than give Kelsey his message, BoJack instead gets access to nicotine, alcohol, and girls, and it's clear where his priorities are. He ultimately makes one final hail mary, but it fails, and it deserves to fail. BoJack waited too long and lost what was genuine about his words. When he finally gives Kelsey the letter, the words have been smudged because he took too long while reveling in the fame he has; fame which Kelsey will unfairly never be able to experience now. It's so tragic and sad, and a perfect encapsulation of one of BoJack's biggest obstacles in trying to be a better person. The ending is perfect. It's classic "BoJack Horseman" to marry comedy and profound storytelling so seamlessly, and they managed it masterfully with the final scene. The reveal that BoJack had the ability to talk and solve all of his problems the entire time was hilarious, with the ending cut being timed to perfection. But the ending has so many more layers than that. The idea that BoJack could have talked the entire time is perfectly symbolic of his situation with Kelsey. This entire time, ever since she was fired, BoJack had the ability to talk to her to fix things but he never did. He's frustrated by the end of the episode for sure, but something tells me that even with the knowledge of how the helmet works, BoJack still may not have been able to get those words out. This ending is funny, and tragically symbolic of how BoJack has always had the ability to fix this situation, but he never put in the effort. I also quite liked that "Sea of Dreams" played the outro for the episode, a rare change from the iconic "Back in the 90s" song. This is another great formula break, and is a fantastic use of a profound and beautiful song that fits so well with the story being told. I quite like the world-building that this episode offers. The existence of an underwater city for the fish people to live in makes sense, and I appreciated seeing how this world works as a part of society. Having a thumbs up be offensive, custom vehicles, helmets for the land animals to wear, and underwater nicotine and alcohol devices add so much more depth to the world and make things feel more real. Losing dialogue did not stop the show from still including tons of funny little jokes throughout the episode. In the realm of animal jokes, a camel is filling its hump with excess amounts of water in a bar at the episode's start, an eel tases BoJack on the submarine, a male seahorse gives birth, a pufferfish expands and rips a dress, and many other little things permeate the episode. There are fun background jokes as well like the "Rinse Carlton", "Whales Fargo", "Dugong Donuts", "Master Bait" playboy magazine, and the selling of gill polish and oxygen at the convenience store. Some other fun jokes include BoJack getting ink from a squid, the hilariously unsubtle sign of "do the right thing 2: do the more right thing", the enormous lever at the factory controlling a coffee maker, and a passing news headline of Michael Richards saying "this is worse than what I did" in reference to BoJack's thumbs up incident. I also got a good chuckle out of the show following up on continuity with Mr. Peanutbutter being involved in a seahorse milk commercial, which he mentioned in "The BoJack Horseman Show". The Bad: Nothing. The Unknown: So Secretariat was a huge success at release. How likely is it that BoJack actually wins the Oscar? How does Kelsey feel about BoJack after all this time? Is it still possible for BoJack to make amends? Will he get another chance? Best Moment: The beauty of BoJack finally finding the perfect words for Kelsey after his enriching experience with the baby. Character of the Episode: BoJack. Conclusion: A wholly unexpected, brilliant episode. This was a creative concept episode that resulted in a uniquely emotional and memorable experience well above anything that this show has done before. I always loved formula breaks and this was no exception. What an episode. Score: 85
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
Categories
All
|