We’ve known that Mr.Peanutbutter has consistently had failed marriages, up till now we believed it was his poor choice in women, though it’s starting to seem we may have been wrong. Over the course of the last three seasons, Mr.Peanutbutter has been portrayed as the bright beacon of the show, the character who’s always happy with life, sure he has issues, depression he seems to hide, but naturally he is a good guy who is just easily distracted. This episode pulls the rug from underneath us and suggests that there’s more of a problem to him than we can imagine. Thus far, the show has presented former ex-wives, Katrina and Jessica Biel as cruel women, with Diane being the only ex who isn’t cruel, but at the same time incompatible with Mr.Peanutbutter. This episode instead shows us it wasn’t always like that (well, for the first two anyway, Diane we knew) his wives started as kind lovers. Making us the viewers realize that the women aren’t the problem isn’t an easy feat, while we all like to say that society is less sexist, the truth is that we still all judge women much harsher than men, if a woman is mean, it can only be her fault and not of the man who pushes her. The uncomfortable reveal being that while Mr.Peanutbutter isn’t openly cruel, he is still a pretty bad person at his core, unintentionally, but intentions don’t lesson the harm, especially when he ignores changing.
As I said in the start, this episode is told with four lovers, so there’s the fun time jumping we’ve come to expect from this show, reminding us that this is always the same no matter what variables change. Starting with 93, where the first Halloween party was held at BoJack’s (it’s funny how much he hates these parties, yet somehow keeps starting them) Katrina is introduced as kind, then jumping to 2004 where we see Jessica Biel much kinder (still shallow though), Diane at 09, finally Pickles at 2018. There’s a lot of fun seeing this story play out over the course of several time periods, especially with how smooth it all transitions, we get some cute origin stories, but the strength is always in seeing the lovers. Seeing Katrina morph into the cruel person we know her to be, Jessica Biel as always shallow, but more forgiving (Biel is definitely one of the show’s greatest reoccurring characters) Diane awkwardly trying to meet BoJack earlier than we remember, while Pickles deals with the awkwardness of Mr.Peanutbutter’s past. It’s a blast seeing how these women are affected by the party.
A small downside to this being a goofy episode, is that while BoJack brings up Diane’s script, as well as seeing him now donning his on set suit 24/7, the episode is not gonna talk about that for now. Personally I’m not too bothered, but it does end up feeling like a loss in an otherwise great episode.
Where the episode consistently shines is in the humor, where we see funny background gags, clever dialogue and the eventual reveal of what ruined the parties (as well as what dooms the party to continue annually). Mr.Peanutbutter also coming to terms with why he tends to fail at love is also a strong bit of writing, especially when we realize that he may be stuck with Pickles (who is as young as the party) upon realizing his own issue, he’s old, but refuses to date his age. It’s a strong hint to what’s to be expected in the future, especially if he ignores the warnings and keeps making the same mistake he’s been making every Halloween. Definitely a weirder structure for an episode, but effective in making a hilarious statement of our once innocent character.
No comments:
Post a Comment