BOJACK HORSEMAN: HOW TO BE HAPPY?

    

    If you say that “13 Reasons Why” is the most realistic portrayal of Mental illness and Depression in Television, chances are there that your Netflix Geek friend will dismiss you by saying that “13RW” is not a patch on “Bojack Horseman”. Colourful animations, Hollywoo(D) glamour and dark humour it may look like your traditional sitcom but it is not. It has a recurrent tone of deep philosophy that is as hard it can get. So let’s talk about the things that makes the unlikely hero Bojack so relatable.

    Bojack Horseman was a Star of the 90’s show “Horsin’ Around” and though he is constantly surrounded by glamour and fame, he finds little happiness in any of them. Existential Nihilism is at the very core of the show and like other standard sitcoms, these show does not end its episodes with a happy ending. This has much to do with show creator Raphael Bob Waksberg’s philosophy who says that he does not believe in endings. Hes structures the show as moments in time. There is no sense of closure in real life. We may achieve something great one day but we still have to wake up next morning and carry on with our life. There are no easy solutions to Bojack’s problem here, it neither offers any room of easy catharsis for us. Existing is hard and we are constantly reminded of this.

    Bojack is unable to feel happy or feel good about himself and is often drowned in a state of despair. Meanwhile, he realizes that life is meaningless and it is just a dance upon the grave. The argues that we have to take responsibility for our own happiness which is hard work. And like many of us when reminded of this Bojack avoids this by saying, “What? Am I responsible for my own happiness? I can’t even be responsible for my own breakfast”. The show reminds us that happiness is a by-product. You have to do good to feel good. Bojack’s self-obsessed nature hinders him from doing good to people and he ends up hurting everyone close to him. Still, he thrives for validation and forgiveness and believes that deep down he is a good person. But this is a show which doesn’t believe in deep down as his companion Daine Nguyen puts it, “I think I don’t believe in deep down. I think all you are is the things you do”

    Just to cope with the harsh reality Bojack finds new ways to keep himself distracted. He does Drugs, fools around and can even eat a whole stack of muffin for fun. But probably his most preferred way of distraction is to be in love and to fill his life with girlfriends. But obviously, his self-obsessed dependence on others fuels his romantic misery. He needs an opposing person with an uplifting stream of positivity to feel better about himself. But his complacent nature and sense of depravity push his loved ones away from him. Though Bojack teaches himself a lesson during one of his drug sessions that: “you can’t force love. All you can do is to be good to people and keep your heart open”, he uses very little of it in reality. Beatles told us, “All you need is love” but in reality, love isn’t enough.

    Bojack has a successful life but it had little to do with his happiness. He constantly suffers from anxiety and depression, We see him getting anxiety attacks in both season 1 and 4. The reason for this anxiety can be explained by what Jean-Paul Sartre called the concept of “Radical Freedom”. Bojack has a money, fame, women in his life; he even gets to work on his dream project and was even nominated for an Oscar but noting makes him truly happy. Because he has control over his actions and therefore over his life, he feels overburdened by this sense of freedom which causes his anxiety.

 
    Through Bojack, Waksberg points out our toxic expectation from happiness. Commercial Media and movies make us believe that there is something great waiting for us in the end which will eventually result in our happiness, maybe that is love, fame or money (Remember a drunk SRK preaching you this in Om Shanti Om?). But what if there isn’t anything? Maybe there is no inherent meaning to life. Here the show echoes the philosophy of absurdity. The universe is irrational but we are desperate to search for meaning but if we stop seeking like the Stoic philosophers believed we may find happiness.“Existence precedes essence”. So maybe it is on to us to give your life meaning by doing good things and the things we like. The show directly references Camus’ “Myth of Sisyphus”. We have to push the boulder up just to witness it come rolling down again. But still, the joy is in the process. We have to create happiness for yourself in actions by doing the right things. But will it all be too hard for Bojack and us? Maybe. But as the Baboon assures us in the show, “It gets easier. Every day it gets a little easier. But you gotta do it every day, that’s the hard part. But it does get easier”.

Earlier published on Humans of Cinema