Summary: Diane tries to find the positive in life after breaking up with Mr. Peanutbutter. She has a new apartment, a therapist, and reconnects with BoJack. She goes to a party at Mr. Peanutbutter's and is distraught when she sees him kiss someone else. In pain, she leaves the party and goes to Vietnam. But in Vietnam she doesn't find much to help her and ends up flying back home afterwards. While in Vietnam, she writes a blog for Girl Croosh. Mr. Peanutbutter picks Diane up and tells her he is seeing someone. She says she is happy for him.
The Good: The premise of this episode is perfect, and exactly what we needed to see following Diane and Mr. Peanutbutter's break-up. I love that we spent a whole episode focused on the banality of life that you experience after a long relationship, diving into Diane's psyche and the pain she feels. This is a terrific character study that offers a lot of moving moments. But in typical "BoJack Horseman" fashion, the episode does not commit to being purely bleak and miserable with many jokes and stylistic decisions. The art and animation was allowed to flex a little bit with the Vietnam setting, making this episode visually distinct. Also, the episode had a unique gimmick with Diane writing a blog throughout the episode, permitting voiceover narration to further make this feel special and different. These various decisions came together to make a high quality, memorable experience. The episode presents its story almost as a mystery. We open with Diane in a flood of tears, but we don't know why exactly she has broken down like this, and the episode is centered around answering this question. Most of the episode shows Diane in the present looking to find herself in Vietnam, but in the past we get a few flashbacks to show what led Diane to take this trip. The flashbacks are highly effective, as we see Diane desperately trying to spin things in a positive light for herself. She has an awful apartment, she feels lonely, and has many untapped emotions inside her. But she tries to put a coat of paint over all of this, saying that she likes her new life and that this is all going to be good for her. By the end of the flashbacks, we see this all come crumbling down. After some drunken dialogue and a poorly thought-out joke alienates BoJack (who seems to have genuinely become better since he refuses the chance to take advantage of Diane), Diane goes to Mr. Peanutbutter's party feeling empty and alone, and seeing Mr. Peanutbutter move on and find someone else and a new place to belong makes her feel adrift and lost. Hence the breakdown, and the impromptu trip to Vietnam. This reveal is simple, but shockingly effective as it perfectly encapsulates how even the tiniest of things can have a devastating impact on someone who is going through a tough time. Diane's speech at the end of the episode on how hard it is to move forwards after such a big change in your life is phenomenal and embodies these ideas magnificently (see: Best Moment), concluding the episode on an emotional high. The Vietnam part of the story is also highly effective. Seeing Diane venture into her homeland, only to be alienated by it all is quite sad, and the episode includes several nice touches to make this feel like a foreign experience for Diane. Scenes like Diane dressing up in traditional clothing, Diane getting hit by a local for no reason, and others help display how wrong it feels for Diane to be there. Another funny touch is that there is a Hollywoo movie being filmed in Hanoi, so Diane truly is unable to get away from her life by going to Vietnam as parts of it will always be with her. I found Diane's conversation with Laura Linney to be quite fascinating as well. After a trip that was completely useless to her, the fiction in Laura Linney's film is Diane's final chance to get some meaning out of it. And true to form, there's nothing there whatsoever outside of the usual Hollywoo smoke and mirrors, further cementing that Diane failed to find what she was looking for from this desperate trip. If there's one thing that this show does very well, it's showing us the harsh realities of life in a way that's accessible and not too bleak. The way this show avoids being overly bleak is, as always, through its comedy. This episode is particularly rich with funny moments and background details that I enjoyed. I smiled when I noticed that just about every sign in Hanoi had "Nguyen" written on it. The "Americrane Airlines" board also had some fun bits like Iceland being "Miceland" and the plane to Turkey having the status of being "stuffed". There's also a good joke in that scene about how personal customer service is being replaced by screens. There are more funny scenes too. Diane's interactions with the tourists in Vietnam was fantastic (as was the fact that she was eating a human-sized chicken leg), and I enjoyed her dressing down of the grip when she accidentally let it sleep that she speaks English. I got a laugh out of Stefani calling an exterminator to deal with unionizing cockroaches, and BoJack's "that was my Vietnam" line had tremendous comedic timing. The background jokes were terrific too. I especially got a kick out of a pig head being served at Elefante, horrifying an adult pig eating in the background, disturbing her to the point where she stops eating. The boxes in Diane's home are quite funny, especially when you realize that she has entire boxes that just describe the outfit she is wearing (my favourite is realizing that the red arrows on her jacket are apparently something that she puts on separately). The therapist's office has a great poster in the background saying "holding back tears in like spanking your inner child". Todd has a very small role in this episode, but it's amusing to hear about the whole ice sculpture debacle. The Bad: Nothing outright bad, but there was one weird moment in the episode I'll point out. Being Vietnamese, Diane naturally asks her dad why she looks different from everybody else. However, the phrasing of this is very awkward in the context of this world. A sizeable population in this world consists of animals, so this makes Diane saying that she looks different from "everyone else" ring a bit hollow. Thinking about this makes me really want to see how ideas like racism would extend into a world with animal-human hybrids. The Unknown: How will Mr. Peanutbutter's new relationship go? Will he have a better relationship with Pickles? Best Moment: Diane's speech at the end of the episode is fantastic. I couldn't ask for a better exploration of how life changes after a break-up, and I was particularly touched by how Diane knew that she asked for this, and yet now she feels so lost and unsure of where to go or where she even belongs. It's a sad monologue, and it's accompanied by fantastic visuals as we see Diane flashing from location to location, never feeling like herself and never feeling like she belongs. Character of the Episode: Diane. Conclusion: An outstanding episode. "BoJack Horseman" strikes the balance between emotional storytelling and amusing comedy so well, and episodes like these perfectly exemplify that. This was a compelling character study for Diane with a unique premise, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching this. Season 5 is up and running. Score: 80
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
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