Summary: BoJack is nominated for an Oscar by Mr. Peanutbutter and throws an excessive party to cope with how he doesn't feel any different. Diane comes to check up on him and they end up arguing, with BoJack telling her that her current life is not who she is. Diane leaves and BoJack drives his new tesla into his pool on accident. Mr. Peanutbutter pulls him out and we get a flashback of what happened with him. He lost the Oscar nominee envelope and made up nominations with Todd. Also, his brother's surgery went well. BoJack is dismayed to learn he wasn't even nominated and the party ends. Todd returns and BoJack ends up admitting that he had sex with Emily.
The Good: This episode is all about BoJack's fall into what seems to be another depressive mess going into what I can only expect will be another soul-crushing penultimate episode. BoJack's fall is established early as he falls back into thoughtless partying to cope with the disappointing lack of clarity he had after being nominated for an Oscar. He's in pain, but pretending he's not, and the result is a toxic party environment where he gets into an intense argument with Diane for absolutely no reason. Their friendship likely isn't burned, but it has been hurt for the moment, and nothing is more telling than BoJack's retort to Diane saying that "there will be plenty of people around when I kill myself". That line is so telling of BoJack's mindset and how adrift he feels. But the one thing keeping him going is his Oscar nomination and his relationship with Ana. And naturally both of those things are taken away from him in one swipe and BoJack faces a reckoning by the end of the episode. It's all gone, and all BoJack has left to turn to is Todd, the friend who he desperately won back last season and yet continued to mistreat as he always does. The episode offers up one final gutpunch as BoJack and Todd's relationship goes up in smoke in a sad final scene (see: Best Moment). The side characters have a decent episode. I briefly touched on Diane earlier, and it looks like her argument with BoJack resulted in her reclaiming her activist personality. Her problems with the water in the restaurant is quite funny, with amusing moments of irony as Diane drops water herself, drinks her friend's water, and then doesn't even care enough to remember her friend's job. Mr. Peanutbutter is given a strangely long sequence in the middle of the episode (see: The Bad), but there are good moments in his story. The humour is particularly good, and I quite liked the insanely unfeasible phone chase scene. I like that Captain Peanutbutter's survival was used to give BoJack some "good news" that he has zero reason to care about. Lastly we come to Princess Carolyn who officially downscales her operation, but it is treated as a positive as we get to see Princess Carolyn reconnect with Ralph, who is prepared with a charming, ridiculous fake story of how he eloped with someone else. I like Ralph so far, and this relationship should be fun. As always, lots of little things made the episode better. I loved that the German Shepherd was given a German accent, such a silly idea that works well. The Jimmy Fallon gag calling back to the Halloween in January store (it's still there!) is unexpectedly hilarious, and the subversion with the bus smashing into him was a terrific gag. The Oscar nomination board is more than worth pausing to read over. There are fantastic jokes everywhere with some of my favourites being "black people" being crossed out from the best actor section, the sound mixing section saying "see sound editing", the silly banana song being nominated for best song, and Jennifer Lawrence being everywhere in the nominations. I liked the background gag during the phone chase scene where we see four turtle electricians in the sewers obviously parodying the teenage mutant ninja turtles. The Bad: This episode has a major structural problem that significantly weakens the BoJack story. This is an episode where BoJack suddenly realizes that he has lost everything, and it's hugely important that we can emotionally connect with the sudden feeling of loss he experiences. But the moment is not realized effectively because the episode has a literal 10-minute long cutaway in the middle of a scene to catch us up on Mr. Peanutbutter's story, effectively ruining the feeling of despair that BoJack feels because we have long since forgotten the state of emotion BoJack was in when Mr. Peanutbutter started telling him the story. The cut is so jarring, and I am perplexed by the decision to structure the show in this way. Having the Mr. Peanutbutter scenes at the start and having some dramatic irony with BoJack thinking he's nominated when we know that he's not would have worked so much better, preserving all of the emotional impact of BoJack's spiral. The Unknown: How long will Judah hide the Vigor deal from Princess Carolyn? Why is he hiding it? Will Princess Carolyn and Ralph's relationship last? Has Ana abandoned BoJack now? It's sad, but I can't say I didn't see it coming. Is this the end of BoJack's friendship with Todd? Best Moment: Todd telling BoJack that he has to be better. Todd hits the nail on the head, and this feels like a moment that's been coming for a long time. BoJack has long since belittled Todd and abused his friendship, and finally Todd reached a breaking point, snapping in such a sad and real way that likely signifies the end of a relationship. The exasperated line delivery of "f*** man, what else is there to say?" to end the episode is near perfect. Character of the Episode: BoJack. Conclusion: A sad episode where everything falls apart for BoJack. Though the episode's structure gets in the way of the story, this is more powerful and affecting stuff as season 3 heads towards its close. Score: 71
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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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