![]() The show walks a tremendously difficult line-encouraging us to empathize with Beatrice Horseman, while still holding her accountable for her cruelty to her son, and showing how trauma can pass from generation to generation. And we have gotten many hints at how his mother’s constant lack of approval shaped the way that BoJack sees himself and the world around him. This slow building plot line is deeply affecting: BoJack’s own childhood trauma has been a standby throughout the series, as we’ve seen little BoJack’s attempts to reach out to both of his parents, each time getting rather cruelly rebuffed. And yet, season four focuses on Beatrice’s story, and how her foundational experiences, heartaches, traumas, and disappointments, ended up shaping her relationship to her own son. For the past three seasons, we’ve seen how BoJack’s mother Beatrice was both emotionally abusive and painfully neglectful. The most ambitious exploration of how the stories we tell ourselves shape our understanding of the world delves into the heart of BoJack’s childhood trauma. While, in earlier seasons, Diane was charmed by her husband’s playful supportiveness, this season has her questioning PB’s judgment, as well as values, and while their verbal sparring at times leads to some voracious sexy times, at others it is very clear at Diane wonders if their entire marriage is a sham: a story they told themselves that doesn’t actually hold up. Peanutbutter is shown to be an ideological one. Throughout the season, Diane’s frustration with Mr. Peanutbutter, two characters who have always seemed to be a strange pairing. Peanutbutter’s enthusiasm is infectious, this season also showcases the absurd ways that society values personality over substance, and highlights the mounting differences between Diane and Mr. ![]() Peanutbutter’s run for governor, where he challenges the incredibly qualified Woodchuck Couldchuck Berkowitz, the long-standing governor, who suddenly finds himself having to compete in various likability contests in order to win his well-deserved vote. The theme of storytelling as a kind of construct is in most obvious and comical display in Mr. Didion famously opens her book The White Album with the line, “We tell ourselves stories in order to live,” and season four of “BoJack” unpacks what it means when our fantasies don’t measure up with our very real experiences. But in addition to these antihero influences, the series is also a clear articulation of Joan Didion’s vision of California: from her obsession with looking at the hopes and follies of the American Dream to the quintessentially American fantasy of escape and starting over that renders California both alluring and devastating. “BoJack Horseman” has always been a show that is self-aware about its lineage: a season three poster features a close-up of BoJack looking squarely into the camera with the words “Soprano, Draper, Underwood, Horseman” over his head. In season four, we see a brokenhearted, but perhaps wiser, Princess Carolyn come to terms with her own disappointment. In season one, we watched Princess Carolyn give herself a similar kind of pep talk, urging herself to not let her emotions get the best of her and be little more than a machine. Throughout the series, Princess Carolyn is portrayed as a fierce go-getter, someone who is not only able to lift herself up, but who dedicates a tremendous amount of her life to lifting up others: from convincing actors to pursue a compelling script, to talking BoJack down from one of his ridiculous drunken binges. In the next scene, we see a distraught Princess Carolyn cry privately in her car. “Somebody just told you a story,” the jeweler says, “I’m sorry.” She tells the jeweler that the necklace was a family heirloom from the “old country” but when she comes to pick it up, the jeweler informs her that the piece is, in reality, worthless: it is just another piece of costume jewelry. In one of many moving storylines this season, Princess Carolyn goes to the jewelry store to get the clasp to her favorite necklace fixed. ![]() This fourth season is no different, as we learn more about the inner lives, desires, hopes, fears and dreams of characters we have grown to know and love. ![]()
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