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BoJack Horseman isn’t just another animated sitcom — it’s one of the most emotionally devastating shows ever made. Known for its razor-sharp comedy and gut-wrenching drama, BoJack Horseman has a unique ability to make audiences laugh one second and cry the next. But out of all the heartbreaking moments throughout BoJack’s six seasons, one episode stands above the rest as the most emotionally crushing story the show ever told.
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He died of a broken heart because you didn't appreciate him enough, and now he's gone forever
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We might have gone too dark on that series finale. Despite all that's been achieved in animation, there are still people who think cartoons can't be as emotionally moving as live action
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But those people have clearly never seen BoJack Horseman. Every day it gets... Yeah
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But you gotta do it every day. That's the hard part. But it does get easier
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An animated series prone to breaking its audience's heart a lot more often than most shows about talking animals
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Bojack was a comedy that managed to be one of the darkest, saddest series ever on TV
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And if you don't believe it, just wait until you hear about season four episode six
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Stupid Piece of S***. You're a real stupid piece of s***. But I know I'm a piece of s***
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That at least makes me better than all the pieces of s*** who don't know they're pieces of s***. Or is it worse
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Debuting on Netflix in August of 2014, Bojack Horseman takes place in a world populated by both humans and anthropomorphic animals
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and its title character, voiced by Will Arnett, is literally a horseman
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More specifically, Bojack is a washed-up television actor who once starred in a Full House-like family sitcom called Horsin' Around
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Hey! Aren't you the horse from Horsin' Around? Decades after it ended, however, he finds himself living mostly in obscurity in his mansion overlooking the Hollywood Hills
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In the first episode, Bojack decides to jumpstart a comeback by writing a tell-all book about his career
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And for the first half of the first season, the series is a biting but mostly light-hearted satire of the entertainment business and Hollywood culture
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Yes, I am Bojack Horseman, star of Horsin' Around. Yeah, okay, I don't care. Those are my muffins
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But as the season unfolds, the show changes gears, transforming into a much darker story about depression, addiction, and generational trauma
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It might have struck some as abrupt, but for those paying attention, it was always obvious the series had more on its mind
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From the first moments of the pilot, in which Bojack widely confesses to driving drunk and parking in a handicapped spot
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I parked in a handicapped spot, I hope that's okay. You parked in a- I'm sorry, disabled spot. Is that the proper nomenclature
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It's clear he is a selfish, arrogant jerk. We also quickly... ...who does horrible things to both himself and the people he allegedly cares about
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Over the course of the series he deliberately sabotages his best friend chance to make it in the music business invites a recovering alcoholic friend to drink with him leading to her death gets high and tries to strangle a co and that just the tip of the iceberg
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But he's not all bad either. Bojack is well aware of his shortcomings, and he wants to be a better
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person, he's just unsure he's capable of changing, and he might not be wrong. Amidst the drinking
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drugs, and debauchery, the series also slowly unravels the story of Bojack's childhood
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revealing how he was cruelly denied any semblance of love by both of his parents
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who were also alcoholics. Having been so severely psychologically abused at such a very young age
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Bojack may just truly be too damaged to fix. What if for 18 years straight, I just tell it how worthless it is every day
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how it embarrasses me, how my life would be better if it was never born? Would that be a good idea
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To the show's credit, however, it doesn't try to use this disturbing backstory to excuse its protagonist's awful behavior
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Instead, it uses it to buttress one of the show's main themes
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which is the damage that comes from being part of a dysfunctional family, be it biological or found
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After the series' true nature apparent, it quickly became famous for delivering devastating emotional blows to its audience on a fairly regular basis
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Season 1's downer ending, for example, finds Bojack going on a drooling under during which he's haunted by nightmarish visions of his mother
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humiliating him as a child, and a recently deceased friend he once betrayed
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swearing he'd never forgive him. And in season 3's That Went Well, Bojack has a brain and attempts
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to unalive himself. Other emotionally difficult episodes include season 2's Escape from L.A.
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season 3's That's Too Much Man, season 4's Ruthie, and season 5's Free Churro, which finds Bojack
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delivering an uninterrupted episode-length eulogy for his abusive mother at her funeral. In fact
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Given how many deeply moving installments there are to choose from, picking the most heartbreaking episode of BoJack Horseman isn't easy
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But for our money, it's got to be stupid piece of s***. The episode finds BoJack now living with his mother, Beatrice
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as well as a kind-hearted teenaged horse girl named Hollyhock, whom he believes to be his daughter
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Beatrice, who is suffering from dementia and doesn't seem to remember who BoJack is
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or recognize her surroundings, repeatedly asks if the baby is okay. No one knows what she's talking about
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so to keep her pacified hollyhock gives her a doll of a baby horse he kept asking where the baby was
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so i had tina get her this doll seeing his cold abusive mother shower the doll with love makes bojack jealous and in a fit of anger he pitches it over the side of his bow
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The stunningly cruel character devastates Bojack. He knows it's wrong when he does it, but still can't stop himself
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I know that because unlike any other episode in the series, Stupid piece of s*** lets the audience hear Bojack's inner monologue as the events of the story unfold
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It literally puts viewers in his head and gives them the most intimate possible look
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at just how deep his depression and self-loathing really go. And they go very deep
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His first thought upon waking up is to repeatedly call himself a stupid piece of s***
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a phrase his brain continues to bark at him throughout the day. Idiot
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What'd you do all day, piece of s***? That's a day you'll never get back. What was that
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You're a real piece of s***. It also calls him a fat ass, an idiot, a piece of garbage, an animal, an oaf, a dummy, and a dozen other mean things
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It tells him to do the world a favor by swerving his car into traffic, but also that he's not good enough to die young
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Then quickly reminding him he's not actually young. And that's all just pulled open
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The inner monologue goes on like that whenever Bojack is alone with his thoughts
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Despite the apparently harsh self-criticism, though, he still makes one bad, hurtful decision after another
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His brain tries to stop him from eating cookies for breakfast, but he ignores it
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He volunteers to get milk for the house, but instead goes to a bar and spends the day drinking
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only returning home at night, drunk and without the milk. And of course, he instigates the aforementioned fight with his mother
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As he does, Bojack's brain is telling him she's right about all the harsh things she said about him
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which makes it impossible not to notice how much the criticism coming from his inner monologue
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sounds like the criticism always coming from his mother. It's especially poignant because throughout the episode, Bojack periodically expresses his fear that Hollyhock will be damaged by living with him
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It's for her sake that he resolves to get the doll back. But even then, his relentlessly brutal inner monologue continues to attack, pushing him lower and lower
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According to creator Raphael Bob Waksberg, some of the themes of Bojack's fourth season were what we do to our family and the stories we tell, particularly the internal story
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And when it comes to this episode he thinks it almost like you watching a DVD commentary track where the whole episode you hearing Bojack just chasting himself and you feel the weight of how hard it is for him to get through every day At the same time the monologue is visualized with a simple pesky twists and around Bojack negative thoughts Bob Waksberg sees the stylized
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animation as a way of representing the way Bojack sees himself formed. Of course, the episode also has a ton of funny
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moments, and it contains a hilarious B-story. The series is a comedy, after
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all. But the scenes that emphasize Bojack's inner monologue are so cutting, they can be borderline uncomfortable to watch. That discomfort may be slightly alleviated
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by the audience's knowledge entirely wrong about him. He is a terrible person who knowingly hurts
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people, but that's part of what makes the ending so incredibly heartbreaking. In the final moments
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Bojack finds Hollyhock sitting alone and then tossing them into the water. He asks her what's
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wrong and she expresses he's never around because he doesn't want her in his life. He assures her
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that's not the case, but then she tells him that she has a voice in her head and that it's always
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telling her how she's not good enough, that other people hate her, and that they're right to
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Finally, she asks him if the voice is there forever, or whether it's just some stupid teen
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girl thing that will go away when she grows up. Bojack, along with the audience, immediately
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recognizes that Hollyhock is battling the same inner demons that have consumed him his entire
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life. But rather than saddle her with the depressing truth, he lies and says that the
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voice will go away. The episode ends on a bittersweet effort to protect her, and the
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audience is left heartbroken knowing that Hollyhock, who unlike Bojack, has done nothing to deserve it
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will likely be tormented by her own demonic inner monologue for the rest of her life
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At the same time, it becomes clear that Bojack's depression has nothing to do with whether or not
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he's a stupid piece of s**t. Depression isn't punishment for a bad behavior, it's just something
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that happens in a person's brain. It's an emotionally devastating conclusion to a difficult
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but very human story. The episode was lauded by critics and audiences alike and was ultimately
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recognized with two award nominations at the 45th annual Annie Awards. More impressive, perhaps
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is it has frequently been cited by psychologists for a realistic depiction of what depression feels
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like. It's a stunning reminder that animated stories can not only be as deep and emotional
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as live action ones, but there are some powerful stories that can only be told in animated form
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Not bad for a cartoon about the horse from Horsin' Around