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you all hate it, but i enjoyed it. I’ll stand with the libs on this one.
I think certain episides (mos specifically Bojacks ‘stupid piece of shit’ and Dianes writing troubles) really spoke to me.
The entire point of the show is that Bojack literally can’t change who he is, and acts as a completely toxic influence on everyone around him. Everything he touches is corrupted by his inner rot, his “friends” and acquaintances grow increasingly toxic and self-destructive in the same exact way.
The ending is Bojack and Diane in particular mutually recognizing this and coming to terms with cutting ties with each other forever.
EDIT: To go on, a major theme throughout the show is that the past shapes who you are and it stays with you, it’s inescapable. Over and over again Bojack repents and tries to change his ways, but every single time it seems like he’s succeeded something from his past returns to haunt him in the present and he spirals back into his toxic habits.
But Bojack is also a huge celebrity in a society that treats the elite with a different set of rules compared to mere mortals. So Bojack can relapse as many times as he wants. He can do all kinds of heinous shit. Every single time he will get off with a relative slap on the wrist. And this just reinforces his toxic behavior.
The combination of his traumatic, dysfunctional childhood and his consequence-free status as a rich Hollywood celebrity means he is a person incapable of change.
My radical take on BH is that Bojack isn’t toxic or malevolent, but just extremely stupid because he’s never had any good influences in his life so he just simply does not know how to appropriately react to situations. So all his stupid decisions end up fucking up himself and everyone around him.
This makes Todd and Mr. Peanutbutter kind of interesting contrasts, both are also pretty stupid but Todd is a Karma Houdini who seems to always end up where he started while Mr. P’s fuck ups usually end up having positive influences on the people around him
Pretty much everyone but him grew and moved on. He lost everything, and went to jail, and its incredibly unclear whether he’s really learned anything at all.
Over a year passed between the final and penultimate episode, so it makes sense that the characters would be ok with him despite being angry at him in the episodes before. And 14 months in prison isn’t insignificant - sure, its unusually short for the US’s fucked up justice system, but its still a lot of time.
And he totally does get punishment, even besides the prison time, he loses his relationship with Hollyhock and Diane, he loses his house, and I can’t imagine going through the penultimate episode was a particularly pleasant experience. The finale doesn’t punish BoJack because he’s already been punished, the finale’s job is to dwell on that and explore what that means for BoJack (and the other 4 characters) afterwards.
