One reason that fans are so drawn to Bojack Horseman as both a show and character boils
down to the relationships.
So much of the story is Bojack struggling with his own problematic behaviors.
Never is that more clear than in his interactions with others.
I’m Brad with WickedBinge, and this is Bojack Horseman relationships: Healthy to Toxic.
Usually for these videos we rank couples, but this time around we’ll just be looking
at Bojack, and all of his relationships on the show.
This will include his ties to friends, family, and yes, some romantic partners.
We will be starting with the healthiest relationships in Bojack’s life before moving down into
the flawed and toxic.
(And please keep in mind that ‘healthy’ is relative in this context.)
Winning the Gold Medal of Healthy Relationship to Bojack is Mr. Peanutbutter.
This is as good as it gets on the show, and it’s still far from perfect.
The fact that these two even become friends hinges completely on Mr. Peanutbutter’s
lack of self-awareness.
Bojack doesn’t even like him for a good majority of the series.
It’s a one-sided friendship for a long time, which obviously isn’t the healthiest.
But it evolves into something more just by Mr. Peanutbutter sticking around through the
ups and downs.
Those downs inspire some of Bojack’s most genuine character moments.
A great example of this is when Bojack goes on Mr. Peanutbutter’s TV Show “Hollywoo
Stars, What do they Know?
Do they Know Things?
Let’s Find Out!”
Mr. Peanutbutter confronts Bojack about kissing his wife, and Bojack ends up apologizing.
This is something we know he has trouble doing, but here he does finally acknowledge that
he was in the wrong.
In turn, he reevaluates how he sees his friend.
Though the dog may have forced his way into Bojack’s life, it becomes a meaningful friendship
in earnest.
Having a constant source of positivity in his life undoubtedly makes Bojack a better
person, and gives him a support system.
This aspect of their relationship is shown when Bojack is released from prison on furlough,
and Mr. Peanutbutter is there to make sure he has everything he needs.
The final aspect that we love about their relationship is that Mr. Peanutbutter is so
self-involved.
While that can be a negative trait in some of the dog’s other relationships, it almost
serves as a buoy in this context.
Other people in Bojack’s life often get sucked into his bad habits, but Mr. Peanutbutter
always has something else going on that can keep him afloat.
Taking the Silver Medal of Healthy Relationship is Diane.
We probably don’t have to talk about why their relationship is toxic at certain points
of the show.
In the early seasons, Bojack thinks he’s in love with his ghostwriter, and tries to
win her affection away from Mr. Peanutbutter.
She correctly points out that this is juvenile, and doesn’t want to change the dynamic of
their friendship.
There are also multiple times where we see how Diane and Bojack can bring out the worst
in one another.
When she comes home early from her trip and doesn’t have the courage to face her husband,
she stays with Bojack and encourages him to hide from his problems as well.
The two drink all day and rewatch episodes of Horsin’ Around.
When the two get trapped in a collapsed fundraiser event, they avoid the realities of their situation
in a similar fashion.
Where we feel there are faults in their relationship is that they’re too similar.
Though Diane is more self-aware and tries to work through her issues, they have the
same vices and the same instinct to play games with one another rather than address their
feelings directly.
When Diane disapproves of something he’s done, she often avoids confrontation.
This leaves Bojack to fix a problem he doesn’t know they have, or make amends for something
he doesn’t understand has had a negative impact on Diane.
He should do those things, but Diane should also give him more opportunities to do the
right thing by letting him know when he’s wrong.
Still, at the end of the show, Diane works up the nerve to tell him how his actions have
affected her.
Even before that we see her setting healthy boundaries, and holding firm in her moral
positions.
The other people still close to him at that point have the tendency to coddle him and
shield him from the consequences of what he’s done, but Diane trusts him to take responsibility
when he should.
Even through their pain and disagreements, she’s still there to get him help whenever
he needs it.
Even when she’s mad at him, and disgusted with his actions, she’s always willing to
take him into rehab or call back and make sure he’s okay.
We think it’s one of the reasons why she’s so good for Bojack.
Despite some of her brief bouts with her own depression, we think he’s been good for
her as well.
Taking the Bronze Medal of Healthy Relationship, surprisingly, is Herb Kazzazz.
Herb was Bojack’s best friend back in the 90’s when they worked on a very famous TV
show together.
Since things didn’t end well between them, most of the interactions we see of the two
come from flashbacks set in that time period.
Until things went horribly wrong, we think Bojack’s relationship to Herb was undoubtedly
one of the healthiest in his life.
The two believed in one another and lifted each other up through the rocky world of show-business.
We know that it was easier for Bojack to maintain healthy relationships at this time in the
story because it was before many of his most self-destructive habits surfaced.
Though the two eventually have a falling out and don’t speak until Bojack goes to make
amends, we still have to really appreciate the friendship the two of them had.
We also have to respect Herb’s commitment to his own feelings when he ends up not accepting
Bojack’s apology.
Next up is Hollyhock
Hollyhock turned out to be great for Bojack.
Sure, their relationship got off to a rocky start with the pair of them lying to one another.
Hollyhock was secretly trying to prove that Bojack was her father.
Then Bojack tricked her into staying with him by pretending to have leads on her mother.
There were a few other bumps along the way as well.
Again, with Bojack, no relationship is ever perfect.
He eventually learns to accept Hollyhock as a member of his family.
Even though it turns out that she’s not his daughter, but his half sister, she tends
to bring out a more paternal side of the horse than we’re used to seeing.
It’s nice to see him care for and feel protective of someone.
Hollyhock contributes to this as well.
She faces a lot of the same struggles as her older half-brother, but we see her making
an effort to communicate with him.
She isn’t afraid to call him out when she feels he’s done something wrong or is taking
something too far.
Rounding out the tier is the lovable Todd Chavez.
Like with Hollyhock, we think this relationship works because Todd evolves and learns to set
boundaries.
When we’re first introduced to Todd, he isn’t in the mindset or position to call
Bojack out on much of anything — especially since he’s living on Bojack’s couch rent-free.
There was a long period of time on the show where Bojack’s relationship to Todd was
used to show his growth on the show.
The perfect example of this phase is Todd’s rock opera.
Bojack thinks it’s stupid, but then learns to care about Todd’s projects and does his
best to help him evolve it into something that will make him successful.
That pride turns into fear when Bojack realizes he doesn’t want Todd to be able to leave
him.
This is incredibly toxic behavior on Bojack’s part, but it was the first admission that
Bojack likes having someone around.
The show continues this forward progression by eventually letting Todd discover what happened
and confront Bojack.
There are other cycles of this between the two of them that culminated in Todd leaving
the apartment and moving on.
Todd learning to stand up for himself and take the space he needs was a big part of
his progression on the show.
It also meant that by the finale, he was able to be there for Bojack in the role of friend
and equal that he’d always sought.
We’re moving now into relationships that, while not completely toxic, still have their
fair share of red flags showing.
This is the Grey Area.
First up in this tier is Princess Caroline.
In the finale of the show, she and Bojack have gotten to a great place.
Prince Caroline has moved on, found love, and finally acknowledged that she isn’t
able to work as his agent without getting lost in his life.
This moment may be a great sign of growth for the pair of them, but it doesn’t undo
all the damage of their relationship before.
Bojack uses Princess Caroline for years to make him feel better about himself.
Their on-again off-again relationship was damaging for Princess Caroline every time.
She continued to allow it however, because of her own issues with self-esteem and compulsion
to problem-solve.
Still, this is something she’s able to overcome and is a big part of her character arc on
the series.
What we think is most toxic from that point forward is how she continues to enable him
and help him evade consequences.
This is a prevalent plot-line in the final season of the show.
She’s so supportive of the new, sober Bojack that she often oversteps when trying to shield
him from his own past actions.
Following her is Wanda.
This one is really frustrating, because it had the potential to be the healthiest of
Bojack’s relationships, but fell short.
Bojack becomes romantically involved with Wanda, an owl who has been in a coma since
the eighties.
She doesn’t know he’s famous, she didn’t watch Horsin’ Around.
As a result, Bojack feels like he can be himself around her.
What’s more is that being himself allows him to address and subsequently work on some
of his issues.
He admits to her that he’s not perfect, but that when he’s with her he feels like
he wants to be better.
It was progress.
Unfortunately, he abandons this arc for old habits.
He’s placed too much pressure on himself to improve, and too much pressure on the relationship
to motivate him on that journey.
When he begins to sink into unhealthy patterns and Wanda actively tries to help him, he lashes
out at her.
Their dynamic had promise, but was often filled with games and toxic traits.
At the end of the day Bojack chose to abandon his self improvement arc, and systematically
pushed Wanda away.
Next is another of his exes; Ana Spanakopita
Like most of his romantic pairings on the show, there were sweet and genuine moments
shared with Ana.
And, like the others, it was wrapped up in unhealthy patterns.
Ana and Bojack were using one another for their careers, and well as for pleasure.
In many ways it was a hollow relationship.
Even the more heartwarming moments, like where Ana gives up her other clients to back Bojack,
are undone when she eventually abandons him.
She learns that he didn’t win an Oscar nomination, and isn’t there when he’s at one of his
biggest lows.
Their relationship paints Bojack in a better light than some of the ones we’ve already
covered.
He’s finding substance and learning to support a woman, rather than the idea of a woman.
Unfortunately, these attentions are aimed at someone who wanted something different,
and had been clear about that since the beginning.
There’s no problem in wanting to have a sexy work fling with someone you admire professionally.
There’s no problem with wanting more.
The issue here was just the two partners never being on the same page, and never being emotionally
available when it was needed.
Rounding out the tier we have Gina Cazador
Hear us out.
This was probably one of the most unhealthy ends to a relationship on the entire show,
so you may have expected to see this in the ‘toxic’ section.
We’re not going to say that their relationship wasn’t flawed.
What we will say is that before Bojack’s breakdown, Gina got the best side of him.
He wanted more in the relationship than she did, but that was a want that developed for
him slower than it did with Ana.
They were in the same place of having a casual fling when things started, and Bojack was
more respectful of her boundaries as his desires for the relationship changed.
When the pair do start to get more serious, we see a rare, caring side of Bojack that
he doesn’t know how to express.
Not only does he try to support and understand Gina, but he tries to make sure she values
herself.
Often, this backfires, but the intentions are surprisingly wholesome for such a fractured
and flawed character.
Had it not been for the tragic way things ended, this might have taken the gold medal
of healthy.
Thanks to the pressure put on Bojack and his addiction to painkillers however, he ended
up assaulting Gina during a hallucination.
This had little to do with their relationship, but of course we can’t give it a pass.
Finishing up our list, we have the harmful and completely toxic relationships - the ones
that show us just what Bojack is capable of at his worst, and how he got to be that way.
Starting the tier is Penny Carson.
Again, you may have expected this one to be lower on the list.
The show paints Bojack’s night on the boat with Penny as his greatest sin, which we understand.
Even though nothing actually happened between the two, the fact that it could have illustrated
one of the show’s main themes; Bojack is not mature or stable enough to properly handle
the influence that he has.
Any good he did, or might have done, looking after her in a more parental role, is undone
by the fact he let her back on his boat after knowing her intentions.
The only, and we mean ONLY saving graces of the scene were that Penny was sober when she
made the move, and Bojack did turn her away at first.
Everything else about it was, rightly, painted as awful.
Unfortunately, there is worse to come.
Taking the Bronze Medal of Toxic Beatrice Horseman
You know the competition must be stiff if Beatrice is only taking the bronze.
This is the woman responsible for A LOT of Bojack’s dysfunction.
It always does go back to the mother, doesn’t it?
We don’t blame her for the neurological traits that she passes down to Bojack that
make him prone to things like depression and alcoholism.
We do however blame her for not preparing him or giving him any coping mechanisms to
deal with the struggles she’s already been facing her entire life.
She goes so far as to make his condition worse by putting pressure on him from an early age.
At every turn she makes him feel responsible for the things she’s given up in life to
have him.
This toxicity may start when he’s young, but it carries forward well into his adult
life.
Nothing he does is ever good enough, and she’s unafraid to let him know it.
The saddest part of Bojack’s relationship to his mother is that we see she does care
for him.
When her mind starts to go and he visits her nursing home with Hollyhock, Beatrice is happy
to brag about her son, not realizing he’s standing right there.
Though Bojack is able, partially, to forgive her, he will never forget the scars she left
him with.
Taking the Silver Medal of Toxic Relationship is her husband Butterscotch Horseman.
Bojack had less of a relationship to his father.It’s to the point that when he imagines Butterscotch,
his traits are amalgamated with that of Secretariat, someone that Bojack admired more — and in
some ways knew better.
The relationship he DID have to Butterscotch was one of the worst in the show, however.
While Beatrice might have blamed Bojack for the terrible direction her life had gone in,
she also showed some affection and pushed Bojack to be something.
Every interaction we see between Butterscotch and Bojack, Butterscotch is telling him what
not to do, while also somehow encouraging his worst side.
When he has to pick Bojack up from soccer practice, for instance, he goes into a monologue
about why it’s Bojack’s fault he can’t get his book done.
He also suggests rather blatantly that his being forced to help raise his own son is
going to turn Bojack into a cross-dresser.
This notion that is not only bigoted and offensive, but clearly designed to detach himself from
all responsibility as a father.
It’s one of the only few scenes we get to seen between the two, and it perfectly sums
up their dynamic.
Finally, taking the Gold Medal of Toxic Relationship to Bojack is Sarah Lynn
How could it not be?
Bojack’s relationship to Sarah Lynn combines all the paternal weirdness of his relationship
to Penny with the unhealthy passing down of pressures he learned from his mother.
He actually paraphrases his mother’s speech about the “Lollipop Song” when trying
to give advice to Sarah Lynn when she’s a child nervous about working on his show.
He watches this girl grow up into a woman and still ends up having sex with her when
she’s an adult.
Unlike with Penny, these are urges that are fully acted upon.
He also enables, and often encourages Sarah Lynn’s bad behavior.
Though there are times in the show that he does question her actions and asks her to
seek help, he struggles to see her doing better than him.
We can never forget that Sarah Lynn was clean and sober before the weeks-long bender Bojack
takes with her that leads to her death.
This was a toxic relationship from both sides, but it also depicts Bojack at his absolute
worst.
And that’s been it!
Our list of Bojack Horseman’s relationships from Healthy to Toxic.
Who do you think he had the worst relationship with over the course of the show?
The best?
Let us know in the comments down below, as well as what other videos you’d like to
see.
While you’re down there don’t forget to like, subscribe, and as always, stay wicked.