Episode 606 - The Kidney Stays In The Picture (Patreon)

“We would like to not get treated like garbage.”

This line obviously speaks to the persistent idea that Hollywood assistants, you know, get treated like garbage. Now, I can imagine Non-Hollywood people sitting back from afar and wondering, “come on, is it really that bad?” And the answer is: yes. Yes, it is. But the manifestation of it is a little different than people think and I want to take the time to talk about it. And specifically, how it fits into this episode. 

First off, for the majority of assistant situations, the experience runs the gamut. Some bosses feel so awkward at the idea of having someone help them that they barely know how to make it a functional job. Some have no idea what skews too personal in their request. Some abuse time and boundaries. Some abuse their power. Some really are good at teaching their assistants the craft of their job and helping elevate them into the workplace. Some have no idea how to teach at all. And often, an assistant will experience variations of all of this within a single stint. But the bosses with the kind of cartoonish, berating anger on display in this episode? They absolutely exist, too. They are just slight bit more rare than what is suggested. 

They are largely viewed as “specialized cases.” When I was entering the industry fifteen years ago, people knew who the problem cases were. Before you took a given job at one of their companies you were often told to “know what you’re getting into.” Which would be a lot of yelling. And they were all given permission because they were powerful. Usually it’s one specific person at a given company (if there were two of them it would go nuclear too quickly), but there was a whole system of propagation around them. But without getting into the system, let’s also qualify that these people need to go to fucking therapy. Or more importantly, face consequences (because when the yellers fall? People can’t wait for the knives to come out). But this also comes with the understanding that certain places are worse than others. We all know high-powered, high-stress agencies are a bit more rife with that kind of behavior (especially in the wake form its bullshit pseudo-romanticization in Entourage). But it’s really a matter of the company’s specific ethos.

For instance, when I first moved to Los Angeles I was lucky as hell to get two amazing internships at A+ quality places. One where there was a lot of money and hype and prestige from successful producer types, who were mostly interested their egos and being starfuckers. They yelled, of course. And the feeling came on down from on high. Everything was tense. Everything was loaded. I still remember the exacting coffee orders like I’m having a flashback (double macchiato, EXTRA DRY, god help you if there was cream instead of foam ONLY). It was the kind of pressure where the quality and understanding of the barista literally held my day’s mood in his hands. Simply put: everyone was miserable. The other internship? It was run by one of the most powerful director / star combos in the business. And it was one of the most stress-free, lovely working experiences in my life. That’s because there was a whole emphasis on no ego and no bullshit. I even remember a particular occasion where a younger actor was being a dick to an intern (read: me) and the older star shut it down immediately. It’s such a simple, human moment that highlights how all of this shittyness exists because it’s about what is given permission.

And sometimes about the integrity that is fought for.

The moment in the prior episode where Casey says “no” to BoJack and then rallies the other assistants to go on strike is one of those lovely, beautiful fantasies that many could only dream of. Not just with the unionizing, but the way it reflects my belief that Millennials are 1) way smarter 2) understand toxicity and psychology and 3) will not put up with such toxicity. I mean, I’ve seen people demand the respect that people my age never dreamed of suggesting. And it’s working because there’s been this slow (maybe even glacial) shift in cultural understanding around these issues of toxicity. But I still see pushback. For those of us who had unpaid internships and worked at the places with screaming abuse, I’ll sometimes see someone go, “But I suffered, why should they have it easier!” Which is just the same myopic gatekeeping bullshit that plagues all societal thinking. And it’s hard not to retort, “Cause they deserve it, dumbass, just like we did.” We just have to break the system. 

But the episode proves how the system breaks us in turn. The assistants who have all been pushed to their breaking point are suddenly offered their own enticing development jobs and power, their very dreams dangled in front of them. Of course it works. But right when Princess Carolyn can win, she’s struck by a memory that was easily forgotten. Because when you move into different stages of your career, you really do forget what the early days were like. You let yourself think of the pain as a stepping stone, something you sacrificed to put you where you are now. And in that moment, she remembers the worst of her own moments, that horrible worthless feeling, and suddenly the empathy rushes to her head. She can’t screw them over the way she was screwed over… It’s time to break the cycle.

Enter Judah. Allow me to say he’s one of my favorite characters in the show. Not just because of Diedrich Bader’s perfect no nonsense monotone delivery. But also because he is something that’s not seen a lot: the career assistant. And yes, they exist, too. Sometimes you’ll hear them joke about being “lifers,” but they’re also some of the best people in Hollywood. They’re people who are amazing, detail-oriented, and understand that managing a manager is often vital to running a company. When it’s healthy? It’s one of those weirdly, amazing relationships in this town. They will often spend their entire careers working for a specific person and can end up making a great living if that person values them. And it’s a actually great sign when a star / director has a long-time assistant (whereas going through a lot of them usually a terrible sign of their temperament). And they often are the kind of people who can even rise to prominence in the day-to-day running of a company. This is all set-up to say that I found the way Princess Carolyn and Judah’s relationship ended in the prior season to be heartbreaking. Just as I mean it when I say I found his return to be incredibly cathartic.

But this is just one plot in yet another ABC story with deep, resonant themes.

Todd’s family has only been touched on a few times so far in the show. We know they kicked him out for being lazy and playing too many video games. But now we get to pull back a layer and get a little bit of understanding and context. Specifically we meet Jorge Chavez, his non-biological father who still raised him as his own (my memory is a little hazy if they always treated Todd’s character as white in the show, but luckily the episode is going somewhere with all of it). But they do not have an amicable relationship. He’s tough, mean, and has demanded so much of our favorite little weirdo, someone who clearly had no interest in that straight-foward kind of life. But whatever pains stand in their relationship, there’s a crisis: Todd’s mother needs a kidney. And Todd would be happy to give her one… only problem is he just sold his extra kidney to buy sock puppets. Classic Todd!

Which of course means we are in store for Classic Todd Wacky Adventure TM. I will say, I love this element of the show because it’s so good at bringing the show to absurd heights of pure comedy, which is place where you still make salient points (like with last season’s Henry Fondle robot). But here we see the way classic Todd adventures hit a push-pull with his stern father, who fights him every step of the way when it comes to their methodology.. Todd’s certain his plan can work, but Jorge exclaims, “things just don’t work out, Todd!” And in a way, he’s right. Because Todd’s hair-brained schemes reaches it’s inevitable failure, they get caught, and now surely go to jail. But Jorge didn’t realize something, they get let out with no punishment, they even get to keep the kidney in state of empathy because of the underlying reality of the differences between them… Todd’s white.

The whole plot is really just a sneaky parable for the immigrant parenting story and comparing it to famously carefree nature of white American adolescence. To be clear, the differences are never absolute, nor should they be assumed. I had a friend who is Asian-American director and people would always ask him, “what do your parents think!?” assuming their disapproval and he’d essentially be like “They think it’s cool! Not every parent wants you to be a damn doctor, but thanks for assuming!” But at the same time, I also have friends who tell stories about those kinds of cultural differences. Of having to come from families with parents who were traditionally distant, stern and unforgiving (while often it was older grandparents who would step in with affection). But, like the episode gets into, it’s often because these parents are reacting to how hard it is to immigrate to this country, how much pain there is in the process, and how many consequences there can be without perfection (Hell, even if you’re perfect). 

It’s a really difficult thing for people to grow up with. And so often, it’s full of the quiet battles against their parents to be the people they want, exist as the people they are, and to make good on their chosen life. Within this construct, Todd fights for Todd. After all, he’s a good natured person. For all the silliness, he spends the vast majority of his time helping people and not asking for things in return. The moment where he defiantly says, “I’m happy, Jorge!” feels so powerful because that should be what is at the center of all parental expectations. 

But while the revelation that “Todd is white and can therefore get away with it,” could seem like a flippant way of expressing the button of acceptance this dynamic (and I wholly admit I could be getting ALL of this wrong and am really interested in what others think), I do believe it’s trying to get to the heart of understanding the struggle of having that kind of parentage while also acknowledging the shitty differences that come with racial prejudice. A difference that could not be more clear when we look at societal expectations, punishments, and the court system at large. Heck, any portrayal that goes without acknowledging those differences may feel even more flippant. But again, I want to know what others think!

As for the last plot of the episode, we return to Bojack.

He’s still dealing the consequences of accidentally getting Doctor Champ drunk. But right when he thinks the man’s sobered up and gone home, he realizes Doctor Champ immediately stopped at a bar. Sigh. This is alcoholism. When you fall off the wagon, the shame spiral is so intense that you just want to cover it up with more alcohol. As the old Simpsons adage says, alcohol is “the cause of and solution to all of life’s problems.” BoJack goes in and to tries to help. But Doctor Champ is there and finally spitting fire back at him (Sam Richardson is definitely the MVP of this season, right?) and it finally becomes the knock down, drag out therapy session they haven’t had yet. Specifically in how they begin getting into BoJack’s relationships to horses. How Doctor champ reminds of father, which means he simultaneously resents him and yet craves his approval. Then BoJack makes a revelation and the show lays out the EXACT problem with his psychology in comical fashion…

BoJack exclaims, “Okay you got me! My parents gave me an internalized self-hatred of horses! So my horse body is a prison I can never escape! And this manifests in rotten behavior because I subconsciously believe I deserve to be punished. But being famous, I’m never punished! So I act out even more and since this pattern is so woven into my identity, it is unfathomable to me that it can be curbed, and so, I DRINK. So the only way I can progress is if I return to my life as a sober man and finally hold myself accountable for my actions past and future OH MY GOD IS THIS WHAT THERAPY IS!?!?!?!”

Is this on the nose? Yes. 

Is it hilarious? Also, yes. 

And it works precisely because this is a moment when being clear is what’s important to the overall story. People are often so afraid to be didactic in their writing that they often miss the ways that on-the-noseness can be the ideal engine for drama. Because this revelation will be what allows the story to progress and later address the big cathartic moments dramatically without having to explain it when the emotion is highest (specifically with what they do in the next episode). But in that moment then, Doctor Champ passes out. And BoJack realizes he will keep spiraling, so BoJack makes the call and gets him into rehab. 

It seems the simple and clear choice, but it will have an incredibly negative impact on Champ’s life, his family, and his daughter (that we didn’t even know he had). But the same would be true if he kept drinking. This is the ugly horrible crux of trying to help someone with addiction: there are no “good” solutions. Everything will have consequences. And when you try to get someone help, they will often lash out at you for all the ways this help will paradoxically hurt them. Doctor Champ begins yelling back at BoJack with true ire, calling him toxic, and “I want you to remember what you did to me!” But BoJack knows what’s happening here all too well. So he says the single most adult thing he’s ever said in his entire life.

“I remember everything, I’m sober now.”

And with that, he’s finally ready to go home.

OTHER NOTES

-It’s amazing how much this season has been quietly setting up Diane’s depressive slide. The moment where Guy tells her, “you been pretty down, not yourself.” / “actually pretty down, is myself.” That was this huge gut punch of memory for people not understanding what’s really going on inside you (myself included, once upon a time)

-INSIDER HOLLYWOOD MEETING POLITICS. That opening lunch comment is made by someone standing on the 405. There’s no way THAT old guy executive would want a Little Dom’s reservation. That’s where east side writers meet directors and comedians. Maybe a few execs from Burbank might come down. But no way an exec on the west side is setting that there, let alone desperate to do so! I’m being pedantic!

-With Robert Evans passing it’s worth noting both the episode’s eerie reference to him, and also the incredible ongoing work of J.K. Simmons as Lenny Turteltaub.

-“Why don’t you offer them one of your fancy beers?” - I can’t tell you how much this show nails Chicago people (or at least how LA people see Chicago people, for better or worse).

-The vanity card rant is a lovely shot at Netflix. Also, may have seen my rants about how I HATE the autoplay feature (even when you turn it off, it still takes you away to the screen away from credits. It actually spawned the following twitter rant from me: “Hey @netflix does your algorithm take it into account when someone wants to simply enjoy the credits after a powerful episode of TV and rapidly goes as fast as they can to hit the "watch credits" button but can't because you only allow takes two seconds so...You have to go back to the prior episode and literally fast-forward through the whole thing just to have that moment of enjoying and seeing who did the guest voices, but when you go to pause it hits “next episode” right when it pops up and you literally do this two more times?And does the algorithm account for how literally everyone is angry that you cut down the time for this and we’re all just endlessly spinning into a hopeless, constant glut of streaming and lack of choice that we have no autonomy over, but We have to face the fact that the company and the algorithm itself could give less of a fuck about experience and would rather just constantly play more more more and because it gets results nothing matters? Like, it can read that too, right?”

Anyway, I would like the permanent option to watch credits. 

BEST JOKES

-“And they even let the birthday boy pilot the airplane! … There were no survivors.”

-“I don’t know any of my passwords! What’s my mother’s maiden name?”

-“The sock puppet players tribute to Ang Lee will continue after this.”

-“Feels like a cheat on the Z.”

-The order switch with the fly getting the pasta while the woman getting the garbage.

-“Cabracadabra”

-“I’m sorry are you ready for introductions? Or are you still processing the being-kidnapped-across-state-lines-of-it-all?”

-“Perspicacious? I don’t know the meaning of the word!”

-“Wow, that was amazing!” / “No, that was logical and straightforward.”

-“I was being poetic and you ruined it!”

-Best Tongue Twister: N/A?

-This Week’s Mean Joke Target: Apparently Billy Bob Thornton doesn’t shower and / or makes for a lot of good puns about not showering?

-Best Bit Part Animal: Worm people in the puddle trying to get up.

-Moment That Made Me the Most Emotional: Judah’s return <3