My single greatest fear coming into this season of BoJack Horseman is the plot line teed up at the end of last season involving Mr. Peanutbutter running for governor. These days -- thanks to Donald Trump -- comedy shows, late night talk shows, and an unhealthy percentage of social media has devolved into people trying to tell the same jokes in different ways. Trump sucks, and the underlying issues are important, but I often find myself longing for the days when there was something else to say. BoJack Horseman is a special treasure; it has something unique and important to say about self-worth, happiness, and the struggle for both. I don't want to see it become Family Guy. Shit, I don't even want to see it become South Park, a show that handles the nuances of hot-button political issues better than any other I've seen. That isn't what BoJack Horseman is at its heart. I hope it does not become just another voice in the echo chamber.
The opening episode of Season Four doesn't feature the titular character at all. BoJack has gone all Luke Skywalker on everyone and only Diane seems to care. Diane's struggling with Mr. Peanutbutter's campaign and just wants it to end while appearing supportive of her husband's aspirations. While the premise at hand is ridiculous, I'm sure that many have found themselves in lower-stakes versions of that situation and that makes it relatable. We know from last season, though, that Diane's new blogging gig is going to pressure her to expose dirt on Mr. Peanutbutter, so I'm sure a lot of her concern isn't just the coffee-snatching annoyances invading her house, it's a desire to avoid that conflict.
The central plot of the episode is crazy; Mr. Peanutbutter wants to be governor, but there's no election at hand; he needs to oust the current governor, Chuck Woodchuck. In the spirit of true Hollywoo craziness, he challenges Woodchuck to a ski race for the rights to be governor of California. That, of course, doesn't make any sense. The rather level-headed Woodchuck pays it no mind, but obviously the Hollywoo media and general public is all about it, and heck, there's a State Legislature, dammit! So of course, the law is changed such that the outcome of a ski race with poorly drawn rules determines the governor. I say "poorly drawn", because Todd drops out of the sky from his "drone throne" (a truly great and hilarious Todd concept) and crosses the finish line first, and that apparently counts.
Todd refuses the gubernatorial bid, as he's still not feeling all that sure of himself following Emily's labeling of him as asexual. That refusal makes the seat vacant until the completion of a general election, thereby setting up the plotline we thought we'd get from the beginning: Mr. Peanutbutter vs. Chuck Woodchuck in a heated election race.
I want to jump back to that Todd subplot, because I think the show can do some great work with it. There hasn't been a lot of attention paid to asexual people in pop culture; it's sort of an unexplored territory (at least in my experience). I think that it could be interesting, particularly because there's probably a lot of struggles that haven't been exposed to the public eye. In just this premiere, we're faced with two: Emily distances herself a bit from Todd once she understands that he's not going to be a sexual partner and Todd himself rejects getting slapped with the label, as he at least says that it's not quite the right descriptor of his situation. The Todd scenes were the strongest part of this premiere and I'm intrigued by what they might do with this going forward.
As for my greatest fear coming into this season? Well, there's references to Mr. Peanutbutter not really knowing what he's doing, being completely unqualified, never really thinking things would go as far as they do, verbally berating an ostensibly competent counterpart, etc. It's the same shit South Park did with Mr. Garrison last year, only with someone who's easier to like (and also: a full year later). BoJack Horseman deserves all the benefit of the doubt in the world, so I'll give them a chance to see how they want to play this one out. Hopefully they understand that telling a tired story with their excellent characters doesn't make the tale any less stale.
Bullet Points:
- "GO WOODCHARLES!" (in an episode with plenty of solid jokes, that landed the best for me)
- "Ski Race" is not one of the "Constitutional and Democratic Paths to Governorship" but dammit, "Lawful Elk Duel" can get you that office, fair and square.
- It wasn't immediately clear to me whether Princess Carolyn had a miscarriage or an abortion, but maybe I missed something.
- I'm honestly curious as to how the BoJack / Mr. Peanutbutter relationship will play when BoJack inevitably comes back at some point. Mr. Peanutbutter was the only major character with whom BoJack didn't have a major falling out (though he and Diane seemed to have reconciled), and I thought that was an under-explored element of the falling action of Season Three.
- Maybe a spin-off of Todd traveling the world on a drone throne, eating kettle corn? Please?
Episode Grade: B-
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