I just finished a binge rewatch of Bojack Horseman... probably across two weeks or so. Seeing that whole show in a more compact form really hits differently.
The show is a TV-MA cartoon about topics like traumatized people traumatizing others, addiction, guilt, numbness, intoxication, and power dynamics.
Basically a guy who, when intoxicated, everything just seems to wash off guilt-free, but things happen when he's drunk or smacked out on opiates... so when he sobers up the guilt and anxiety hits. It doesn't demonize drug use so much as explores it, and also the abuse of it.
Here are some of the key moments of the show, Bojack is a drama, so it follows something like a Freytagian dramatic arc where the action rises, then the climax is in the middle, and the falling action (not that the action declines, but more like a roller-coaster where the cart goes over the peak of the hill, and is now falling down, and the action is more in the form of consequences and questions are answered instead of asked...). I'll put it under spoiler tags:
Start with this clip because it's in the rising action and doesn't have any major spoilers, for anyone who doesn't know, Bojack was on a show that was basically Full House, and this show takes place decades later, he's in his fifties and Sarah Lynn (who is like the Michelle character) is now in her early thirties (season 1-3):
Pretty much all of season 1-3 are rising action, and right in the middle is the climax. This is at the end of the 6 week bender, Sarah Lynn had been wanting to go here the entire time (End of season 3):
And this is later, after Bojack is trying to live his life and continues to abuse opiates to forget, but he starts not seeing the difference between fiction and reality, and this is his co-star/girlfriend (late season 5):
He accepts help (end of season 5):
Then as he tries to sober up, the guilt when he looks at vodka (early-season 6).
Then this is the catastrophe at the end of the drama (end of season 6):
There are so many other important parts to the story, the story is bigger than this, but I think these are probably the biggest points.
I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.
