53. “Mr Peanutbutter’s so stupid he doesn’t realise how
miserable he should be. I envy that.”
17/12/2017
It has been over a week now since I saw what is, for me, one
of the defining moments of television I have seen this year – the fact it was
first shown last year means I should have come across it earlier.
It involved a character whose self-worth had dropped to zero
– he was told, by his friends, on many occasions, that his own destructive
behaviour, which has led him to lead a lonely life, cannot be blamed on others,
for it is just who he is. Now, with this behaviour leading to the death of a
friend, he drives to the desert, in order to kill himself. He puts his foot
down on the accelerator pedal, and lays back in his seat. Something stops him –
putting on the brakes, he gets out of his car, and looks across the desert to
see a pack of wild horses, running to... who knows. For the first time in a
very long time, the character has hope in his eyes. All the while, the music
playing has been Nina Simone’s live cover of Janis Ian’s song “Stars” – “We
always / We always / We always have a story.” As the credits begin, Simone’s
final piano crescendo dies down – “The latest story that I know is the one that
I’m supposed to go out with / And the latest story that I know is the one that
I’m supposed to go out with / And the latest story that I know is the one that
I’m supposed to go out with…” The record ends, the credits end, the episode
ends.
I was devastated – I am still trying to find a copy of Nina
Simone’s 1976 Live at Montreux album. For all the decades “The Simpsons” proved
that animated TV shows can have emotional plots and situations, it is “BoJack
Horseman” that, in unrestricted space afforded it by streaming on Netflix, transcended
the sitcom altogether, into comic drama. “BoJack Horseman” was a show that initially
received questionable reviews, as it was not clear why we should follow a
has-been former sitcom actor who hates himself, but treating character
development like a drama, while continuing to treat the comedy like a sitcom, is
something that makes the regular sitcom format stale. Not resetting the status
quo at the end of every episode helps too, especially when you turn to the
binge viewing that Netflix encourages. (Having said that, this paragraph took four
hours to write, because research turned to enjoyment - just go watch the show.)
No comments:
Post a Comment