Episode 604 - Surprise! (Patreon)

Hollywood spends too much time demonizing social media. 

Especially in television, where most shows are currently being written from a Gen X perspective (he said, self-flagellatingly). But coming up just behind that generation are people who increasingly grew up with social media. Where having youtube channels, followers, and feeds is no more or less strange than any other part of the high school experience. And yet as us older folk write about their experiences with a sense of horror (as if we alone can see the precarious situation these technologies put them in), the truth is that they understand their system better than we ever could. 

They know the harsh realities of social media because it is their reality. And we’ve been so busy demonizing it as a whole that we have failed to see the ways it is also a part of an all-encompassing human experience. Because we don’t show the ways that social media can be sweet, loving, and genuinely breed connection. After all, most younger people can speak to the new adage that “no one has your back like a social media friend you’ve never met” (something I find to be utterly true). And yes, looking back at our social media pasts can even elicit feelings of embarrassment, or nostalgia, or deep sadness about posts long since made, but the point is that there’s a spectrum of the humanity within all of it. And lacking that range is most shows get wrong in their depictions.

Luckily, BoJack Horseman is not most shows.

From the first few notes of lovely music coming in the intro, we get a far-ranging montage of Pickle’s social media presence through the years. We’re talking high school breakups, fatherly intrusions, job searches, failing upwards, and falling downwards. And along the way? The communal growth of the PicklePack. And yes, the specific details of their interactions are often hilarious in their lackadaisical or vapid nature, but at the center of the montage is an earnest depiction with an empathetic heart and deeper understanding that this has been part of her support system. And it is one that is about to be the center of crisis…

Because Mr. Peanutbutter his finally spilled the beans about cheating. And he has done so at a moment that is so comically unfortunate that it could only happen in the BoJack universe: their surprise wedding! How could such a thing even happen? Well, Todd you see (I could stop there), he knew Mister Peanutbutter was getting stressed out from the wedding planning and he also knew that Pickles loves surprises so lo and behold, he’s gathered all the family and friends to join in surprise matrimony! There’s so many faces from years past including JD Salinger, Virgil Van Cleef (the rock opera connoisseur), and even that guy he met at the gas station. But when they go to yell “surprise!” it comes right at the moment of confession. Oops. Now they have to constantly hide and dive out of the way as Peanutbutter and Pickles have an emotional, honest, and deeply-awkward argument.

It’s a good time to mention how outrageously good this show is at french farce. It’s been true from the very start, but I thought they hit their zenith with last year’s “Planned Obsolescence,” in which the Todd met Yolanda’s hyper-sexual pornographer parents (who didn’t know the two of them were asexual and thus they had to pretend to be all sexual). But this week’s farce is all about the physical gags of hiding and cowering in plain sight. There are too many perfect moments to recount here (but I have to single out Captain Peanutbutter moving around within the picture frame). But like most good farce, the real issues aren’t the gags, but the character’s secrets that get revealed in the upstairs / downstairs buffoonery, often to a mix of funny / horrifying results (after all, nothing terrifies like the idea of actually hearing the worst things your friends secretly say about you that they won’t say to your face). But really, the entire point of this farce is offer up a surprisingly thoughtful portrait of our two love birds.

Mister Peanutbutter and Pickles are… well, they are who they are. They’re excitable, gregarious, charming, goofy, and if we’re being honest, they’re also not that bright. I don’t mean that as some kind of knock, neither do the creators. Heck, if there’s ever been a show more honest about both the trappings and worthlessness of intelligence, it’s this one. Because all it really gives us anyway is awareness of complex systems, personal failings, and our endless paralyzing options. Which are the kind of things that are at important to understanding life, but really not that important to the living of it. Especially as there’s certainly nothing about intelligence that makes you decent and kind. But both Mister Peanut Butter and Pickles are just that: kind, loving, and good-natured. They’re humanity rests right on their sleeves. Which means they are at once easily-wounded as they are easily-healed. But real problems can occur when the wounds cut deeper than their understanding of the world prepares them for. And thats when the healing requires more understanding, care, and patience than either can typically give. 

Starting with the fact that the happy go lucky Mister Peanutbutter has no idea how to be a “bad dog.” He can only whimper and pout, desperate for affection, completely unsure how to fix what he has broken. But he has to not only learn that you CAN hurt people, but that you have to take responsibility for it, too. Likewise, Pickles tries to turn to her social media following for guidance, but she’s dealing with a situation that doesn’t have an easy, singular answer. And so she gets lost in the cacophony of back and forth opinions, trying to make a decision as they support her every whim. In reality, it’s going to take something a lot more steady to fix this one. 

But through subtle helping and machine mimicry, BoJack and Diane try their best to 1) escape their tormenting situation and 2) help the two of them reconcile. It starts with Pickles finding some space to ruminate in the yard. And then it takes Mister Peanutbutter really having to listen to her instead of constantly offering some suggestion as how to quick fix it. Sure, the solution they arrive at (Pickles getting to cheat in turn) is short-sighted, goofy, and perhaps delusional, but it’s also uniquely them. And in the end, all relationships can ever rest on are the decisions you earnestly make together.

It’s so easy to look at their choice cynically. Just as it’s easy to social media cynically. Just as it is easy to look at the age we live in as a deluge of present shock, where we are always assaulted by information, ugliness, and replies from those who are untoward. But when I sit down and take stock of the gifts it’s given, too? From being able to connect to people, to the discovery of lovely voices, to all the times that Twitter has genuinely put me in touch with people going through similar mental health problems, well, that’s when I find thankfulness. Don’t worry, there’s no need to warn me. I know it has limitations. Just I know the ways it’s false and can make us feel more alone. Just as I know it’s no substitute for the real thing. But sometimes it breeds a reel connection. If only for a moment. And sometimes, just sometimes…

That connection can mean the world.

OTHER NOTES

-“I’m going to tell everyone about this, I’m a gemini!” Okay, is this where I can admit that I literally have no idea what birth signs mean and yet astrology’s popularity seems to have quadrupled the last few years and I have literally nothing against it, but I also don’t know what any of it means and at this point I’m too afraid to ask. WHAT’S GEMINI SEASON!?!? HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO MAKE SENSE OF IT?!?! IS A PLANET IN RETROGRADE???? THIS FEELS LIKE A LOT OF WORK.

- Todd sending them to Angels in America thinking it’s a rendition of Angels in the Outfield is just my favorite thing.

-The moment where BoJack tepidly asks Diane, “It’s not because of me that you’re moving to Chicago?” is one of those perfectly heartbreaking little moments. Because when you’ve gone through the ringer and really learned to see your own toxicity, it becomes so easy to see others choices as a direct commentary on said toxicity. You are just in a state where you have ZERO self-esteem and thus can’t see their actions independently of you. And BoJack’s sobriety means he’s finally feeling the emotions of having pushed people away for so long, and now he’s so scared to keep doing it.

BEST JOKES

-“Thank you queefburgler69 for that lovely cartoon heart!”

-“Ever since she’s got that Sunday to Thursday job she’s turned into a real C U Next Friday!”

-“Look I never thought this would have so much practical application in my life, but you could tie those sheets together to make a rope.”

-“So why Chicago? Is it the rampant gun violence, or do you just like seeing improv actors who aren’t good enough for L.A.?”

-“What?! Stay out of my shit, marcyfarts!”

-“I love the challenge of trying to square two irreconcilable decisions!”

-“Was that a cat?”

-Best Tongue Twister: “I understand your pickle pack is part of how you process pain!”

-This Week’s Mean Joke Target: (tie) “Built to last… like America and its current love affair with Rebel Wilson!” / “she did a voice like Cameron Diaz ‘did a voice’ for the Shrek movies.”

-Best Bit Part Animal: (tie) Neither are bit parts, but Eduardo the Fainting Goat Sober Guide / Captain Peanutbutter - I’m sorry, but I have to single how much I love that Weird Al Yankovic plays Mr. Peanutbutter’s brother. There could just be no better choice.

-Moment That Made Me the Most Emotional: BoJack’s honest admission of, “I got my two month chip and I thought, “I wish Diane could see this.” Those words remind me why their relationship really is the cornerstone this show. You might task, “Why are they friends? Even after all this?” Because they see each other in a real way. It’s not just that BoJack gets her references and jokes, he gets what makes her great. And vice versa. Her witnessing his progress means so much because she already sees total BoJack. Not just what makes him good, but she also sees all the bad of his actions. Meaning there are so few barriers left between them, which allows direct honesty to be at the center of their growth. And we get another major sign of this just a scene later: when Diane mentions needing to be okay, it’s actually BoJack that disarms the worry, “that’s not a friendship that’s a hostage situation.” Revealing that the thing that will be most okay for them is if she goes off to be happy. For this will be what makes them okay, most of all.