BoJack Horseman Season Three, Episode One: "Start Spreading the News"

Welcome to my (hopefully) semi-regular coverage the new season of one of my favorite television shows I watched last year, BoJack Horseman.

Since this is a Netflix binge show, this coverage will be slow compared to how quickly people likely watch it. Not too many people comment here, but I'll ask that people don't post spoilers for future episodes, because I actually am watching them at the pace that I write.

We rejoin BoJack's adventures on his Secretariat interview tour where he's required to answer the same boilerplate questions over and over again ad nauseam. For me, it conjured up memories of the "I'm tired of running in circles" scene from last season (and upon re-watch, I may have just been reading the poster in the background!). There's pretty little that BoJack hates more than being forced to bullshit with people and sure enough, the sarcasm starts to come out pretty quickly. Things get worse when the interviewers start to hone in on the fact that Horsin' Around is considered to be a crappy show and BoJack simply will not stand for that. Ana Spanakopita, BoJack's advisor for the tour has to give him a reality check between takes by skewering him with a biting and well-delivered line: "Horsin' Around...was a piece of shit."

In-between the rigorous interview schedule, we're introduced to the enigmatic Jill Pill, whom was discussed last season when Princess Carolyn tried to convince BoJack to talk to her about becoming a Broadway actor. She's voiced by Mara Wilson! Remember her?  She really hasn't been up to much in the acting realm, so it's neat to see her back out there. BoJack sees her weird marionette play "Greg Kinglear" and then meets her at a diner. In BoJack's discussions with Jill, he seems to think that he'll be remembered if he wins an Oscar for Secretariat, but she troubles him with a metaphor:

"You know what the real tragedy of Greg Kinglear is? He's a marionette who doesn't realize that someone else is pulling the strings."

Ouch.

We see a callback to that when BoJack tells Ana that he's not her "puppet" when he gets frustrated with her micromanagement. When Ana leaves BoJack alone, he gets drunk and tries to sleep with a journalist, but things go south during the encounter when she mentions a boat. That brings back BoJack's memories of Charlotte's daughter, Penny, from the most crushing episode of last season. It sends BoJack into a bout of depression and eventually he's recorded saying that he's not actually even in Secretariat and that the producers were able to digitally replace him. That seems like a major catastrophe, but Ana later mysteriously notifies him that everything has been taken care of.

Ana finally gives him a heart-to-heart to address the troubling seed Jill planted within BoJack -- the uncertainty over whether he actually wants to win an Oscar. She's as realistic as possible with him; the Oscar isn't going to cure his depression or make him whole.

Meanwhile, Princess Carolyn's pretty overwhelmed with her new agency and she loses J.D. Salinger as a client. She tries to get Mr. Peanutbutter to get some work, but that only inspires him to cook up more crazy schemes, much to the chagrin of his poor accountant. Todd has a goofy adventure getting lost in the hotel room and Diane's not really involved all that much with the story. BoJack Horseman generally does a great job of working with its secondary characters, so hopefully they start to branch out soon despite the heavy BoJack-focus of the first episode.

Episode Grade: B

Bullet Points

• It's revealed that Vanessa Gekko and Rutabaga Rabitowitz have teamed up to form a competing firm. While it's not explored in the first episode, teaming up Princess Carolyn's archrival with the sketchy guy she shunned at the end of the last season is a pretty interesting setup. 

• Princess Carolyn's conference call with BoJack and Mr. Peanutbutter gives us some hints that things aren't going great between Mr. Peanutbutter and Diane as they begin to dominate part of the call with unmistakable marriage-counseling-speak.

• The guy who asked BoJack "What's it like to play Sea Biscuit" sounded a LOT like Vincent Adultman, so I guess Alison Brie's working overtime.

• "I told you to wear lipstick...and underpants, Teresa."

• I was a bit disappointed by the "small bottle of shampoo at airport security" joke, even as a throwaway. That's been done a billion times.

• "She had to move to Detroit." "Oh GOD!"

• "The lyrics are too relevant! Don't do it! NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!"