I love BoJack Horseman, I make that no secret. It's hilarious, surreal, depressing and probably the smartest written show right now, yes, I love this show, even by the first episode I was hooked, which is the focus today, let's get to it.
One thing I noticed going back to this first episode, is that the show seemed to employ a lot of cutaway gags, not to the level of Family Guy, but they are there. I bring this up, because outside of that, this episode doesn't really show much of a difference to later episodes of the series. With most shows, the first episodes can be weird to watch after a while, you notice actors don't sound quite the same, people are getting used to the new style they're working with, or the show's tone feels completely different, or at least not quite there. With this episode, nothing felt off, even watching it, after all the episodes released since. The only thing that feels different, is again, this episode employing cutaway gags, which illustrate the jokes or conversations in the episode, so they at least feel natural.
Anyway, this episode opens with BoJack, voiced by the always funny Will Arnett, we quickly learn he's a washed up 90's actor for a show named "Horsin' Around" which is clearly paying homage to shows like Full House. He lives mostly alone (Aaron Paul plays his wacky human roommate, Todd) in his nice home by a cliff, but living off his old show, BoJack, we quickly find out has no interest to actually do anything besides watch reruns of his show.
As it turns out though, a promise to deliver a memoir to a failing publishing company leds to the season's main story arc, BoJack's novel. The head of the publishing company, a penguin (get it?) is voiced by a hilariously desperate Patton Oswalt, who needs BoJack's book so much he hires a ghost writer for the incompetent horse. BoJack has little in the way of reluctance here, which eventually leads to him meeting the secondary protagonist of the show, Diane, voiced by Alison Brie.
Along the way, we get set ups for the rest of the main cast, including Amy Sedaris as Princess Carolyn, BoJack's ex/agent (it's hilarious how she balances the two) and Mr.Peanutbutter, voiced by Paul F. Thompkins, he's basically BoJack, with a happier exterior, also as a dog. Again, it's all set up in a way that feels natural, making for a show that feels like it knew exactly what it wanted to be right away.
We get a minor subplot here about Todd owing a party to a druglord, which is funny, but it's all clearly just a way to write in BoJack meeting Diane at a party.
On the whole, this is not among my favorite episodes of the show, not even close, but I enjoyed it. It's weird, but knows how to keep it humorous, we get our hints of what's to come, while feeling like it's own thing, BoJack Horseman started off fairly strong is my point.
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Written by Octaviano Macias
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