I feel like BoJack Horseman could legitimately be analyzed in classrooms, because of how many and how accurately it shows *several* mental illnesses and emotions. I went in this show expecting to laugh at a funny horse. I ended up being mauled at a personal level in half the episodes.
That would be great. I didn't expect much when I started to watch the show but it helped me a lot to understand my own depression and why I always kept sabotaging myself and my relationships. And most important: it also taught me how to make things better for myself and not end up like Bojack.
I had that feeling with the whole "Stupid piece of shit" scene. At first I thought "Dude same" but in a joking manner. Then it kept getting more specific and I realized I should probably go see my therapist again lol.
Oh is amazing when every body gets to analyze it. In my university (I study psycholgy) we analyzed different scenes looking for examples of cognitive distortion and it was amazing! SO much material to work with. It is a great show.
I was hoping you’d address the ending too, where BoJack tears down the house and just leaves. Finally realizing he has to face his problems after watching What years of pent up grief has down to Eddie.
@LaBrava Altonia your comment needs more likes! Bojack for certain abandoned that effort to work on himself by destroying a home he spent the past year fixing.
the "Why I have half a mind-" line that pops up throughout the episode gives me chills every time she says it, knowing what happens to her in the end. The final time she says it after the operation always hits me hard. Great episode to pick, love the video
Seeing the stitches to really drive the point home of what happened to her is especially terrifying. I am so, so glad I did not grow up back then! It's barbaric. Same with any sort of electric shock therapy-even some of which they occasionally do today, which is just as wrong.
Someone once pointed out that BoJack and his grandmother, Honey, share a lot of distraction and avoidance mechanisms: - Performance - Drinking - Smoking - Making passes at young people - Reckless driving/joyrides
"Is it better to love and lose, or not to love?" The problem of course, was that Mrs. Sugarman loved exactly the right amount, but no one loved her when she was suffering.
Idk about a coping mechanism for greif but ive actually found i close my eyes when i dont believe something. My mom made me look her in the eye when she was assuring me she loved me.
@@Celeste-jh2lj oh I also close my eyes when Im in a bad place, feeling a lot of shame or anger. Its definitely a coping mechanism to take yourself out of the world if only for a moment. That being said blinking is not the same thing of course :D
Besides the "If I had half a mind" repeating throughout the episode, one of the saddest parts is the duet at the end. It appears normal to the audience, who can see the past and future play out, but take that away... it's two people singing disjointed halves to the song.
Ah yeah... Honey is only singing a harmony... because Crackerjack was her melody, both figuratively (for her life) and literally (when they sang it together). Indeed, very sad when you think about it.
It's why the band and everyone look so uncomfortable, honey's singing half of a song with no accompaniment whatsoever, with moments of pure silence and sometimes just harmony. Eddie's is more complete with the accompaniment. He's come to terms with grief a lot better over the years, though he's still using unhealthy mechanisms. For Honey the wound is still extremely fresh and she can't hide it.
"insight doesn't equal change" I need to keep this in mind when dealing with toxic relationships. Just because they can see and identify what is hurtful doesn't mean they will change anything they do..
Explains Bojack's mom's caring nature towards the doll. As though the trauma and experience that shaped who she was as a person was stripped away by her dementia.
As someone who has Bipolar, thank you so much for outlining the difference between manic defence and an actual manic episode! I've had so many people say, "I must have Bipolar too because I was sad yesterday but happy today!!" which is soo far from the truth. Massive fan of BoJack Horseman too! Love your reactions and videos!! Newly subscribed!
It’s the show I watch when I’m depressed, which is more often than I’d like. It feels like an old friend, I’ve probably watched it over 30 times easily by now and it hits differently and similarly every time. It makes me feel like my anguish and instability is being empathised with
Bojack is an amazing show it manages to tackle many issues in a non threatening way. I’d love for an episode on Todd Chavez and his quest to accept his asexuality. I can’t think of any other show that portrays an asexual character, and this show does it’s best to normalize the concept.
I think we got that for the most part, but it was more on the side because he’s mostly meant as a comedy relief character. Sure he’s multi-dimensional like most Bojack characters, but his main job writing wise is to provide some levity in a very serious show
Even though Todd is the comic relief character of the show, he gets a wonderful coming out story. The way how the show explores asexuality and explains it is great and helped me a lot in a difficult time.
The way Honey stops after saying ‘I have half a mind’ punctuates this whole episode brilliantly. The mixture of raw injustice and pain and emotion mixed in is just another reason in a long list of many why BH is such an amazing show.
I’m just going to say what everyone is thinking. Do the series. Not sure if he’s seen the whole thing but getting the whole picture, will give an even deeper context of Bo’s struggle. I often use media to try and help paint a picture of where my head is at and I think a binge of the show will give a better look at the view halfway down.
My take was that Bojack thinks that if he can fix the house then he can fix the past and in some way fix himself, but at the end he realises that like Eddie, all he's done is build a shrine to the past to wallow in.
The part with the song hits so differently when you’re actually grieving someone, but even before it gave me chills, there’s something about it that breaks my heart every time
I love your commentary on this episode!! It felt so spot on. I would love to see a React video to "That's too Much Man!","Free Churro",and "The View From Halfway Down" please!!
That final “I don’t wanna live!” Always hurts so much because that is such a real feeling. I’ve said that at my rock bottom in a similar moment. And it’s just…
That dissonant chord in the background at the end is chilling. Underlining that things are not alright, regardless of what they are saying. I binged all episodes on your previous review, and I wish I watched them earlier now.
Thanks for reviewing this episode. Once you reach one called "Time's Arrow" (Related to this one) you just HAVE TO do a reaction. It's widely considered one of Bojack's best (if not the best) episodes, and it's absolutely heartbreaking. As always it's so great to get your insight (doesn't hurt that, by god, it's impossible to stop staring at your face while you provide said insight 😍)
Dude, you don't even know how long I've waited to see a psychiatrist dissect this show. This whole show is just a gold mine for this stuff. 2:25 "If this is a place associated with happy memories..." Oh, boy, you are in for a ride... 10:30 That's true and it's one of the most interesting and tragic things about bojack as a character. His parents were both incredibly judgemental, but also quick witted, and he learned from them to be very fast about identifying people's flaws and insecurities, including in himself. He repeatedly makes it very obvious that he is fully aware of his problems with addiction, his toxic coping mechanisms, his depression, anxiety, narcissism, etc etc etc, he's completely aware of all of it and even if the steps he needs to take to improve, he just can't bring himself to do it.
Request: Review Crazy Ex-Girlfriend season 3, ep 6: “Josh is Irrelevant.” It gives a pretty deep and informative look into Borderline Personality Disorder.
The explanation you had for mania being a defense mechanism means alot for me. I have bpd and sometimes experience episodes of mania, though they only last hours. I wouldn't call them euphoria because within these episodes I am delusional and wholeheartedly believe I am invisible and god-like which puts my life in danger in an attempt to "prove" these delusions. Thankfully they only last a few hours and then I'm back to feeling aggressive, low or just numb. But your explanation of it being a defense mechanism against deeper feelings, I believe, sums it up perfectly
Hearing about lobotomies upsets me in a strange way that nothing else does. I don't know why, though, considering I don't have any kind of experience related to it. It's like a trigger for a trauma that I don't have.
@@wesleydamaschino8047 I get what you mean. I also can't explain it, but lobotomies and a small handful of other such things make me livid to my core in ways that little else does. But I also have no explanation unfortunately.
Imagine you have a valid need and you tell someone that's supossed to take care of you. Now there's a spectrum of reactions, depending on how much Empathy the other shows towards you, kinda like this: they care a lot and want to help - they care a little - they don't care and ignore the need -they ignore it and get annoyed - they are so annoyed they punish you for it - and so on. A lobotomy is, in many aspects, on the very end of that spectrum. Your valid need annoyed them so much, it "justified" them to permanently take something from you without consent, that essentially is your "soul", just so you can stop being a nuisance to them and the world. So from the victims point of view, we are confronted with this utter lack of Empathy and the feeling of disconnect that that brings with it.
From my own experiences with depression, the biggest thing for me that caused those contradictory thoughts of "I want to be loved" but also "oh my god please go away" was a big sense of feeling like no one got it. Now looking back, I dont think its that they did or did not get it, I think its more that they just didnt have the right tools to give me what I needed, though I did eventually find the people who did have the right sort of minds to help me. But, going back to those contradictory thoughts, what often ended up happening was that I would isolate myself and push everyone away. And inevitably, this would make me intensely lonely and upset, and people would see this and try to be nice to me. But that was just as bad, because the niceness was more so "oh, you can talk to me any time, tell me everything, do you need a hug? Do you want to go out and do something? What can I do for you how can I help you" and it was just too much, too much intensity, it felt like getting love bombed into a cult, and it freaked me the fuck out and stressed me the fuck out and was just generally sensory overload so I would then revert back again and push everyone away because it was *way* to much coming at me at once. I know they wanted to help, and did actually care, and did actually get what I was going through, but they just didnt know how to handle it and that was really frustrating trying to express the feeling of "I dont want you to do anything, I just want to sit here with you and watch a movie and when I'm feeling up for it I will tell you what's on my mind" and have people seemingly not understand that just because I didnt immediately tell them what was going on didnt mean I needed a constant stream of affection. I just wanted to be close to people, not be treated like a delicate vase that needed to be constantly cared for.
I love the way that you show care and understanding for even a fictional character. I love your videos, even when I’m not even a fan of the show you’re reviewing, because you really are just a beautiful human being.
12:22 - 12:46 Yup... yup. You uh, you hit the nail right on the head there. I've been reading and writing fanfic as a coping mechanism since 2013, when I got into The West Wing, which helped me cope with the trauma I didn't realize (or probably was in denial about, more like) I had at the time through Josh (a character canonically diagnosed with PTSD).
Ooh I love the thought about Bojack's insight: yes!! he's super smart, especially when it comes to TV shows and sitcom narratives. He can easily spot dramatic beats like widower fly and dead wife, but that mindset is a huge mental block. Sitcom characters don't really need to work or endure to get long-term happy endings-they need a grand gesture to patch things up until the next episode's status quo prevails. Bojack leans on things like tricking the neighbor because making his new friend get over his wife is the next logical story beat for a 30 minute TV plot. "When you're a kid, you convince yourself that maybe a grand gesture can be enough," as he phrases it in his mother's eulogy. He expects occasional grand gestures will make up for consistent bad behavior, without improving himself to not make the same mistakes. Insight ≠ change, and in Bojack's case even makes change MORE difficult.
Such a powerful portrayal of generational trauma, how the scars of tragedy and abuse can outlive any memory if their cause. Much of Bojack's pain and antisocial behavior traces directly to these events, but he can't understand or process the pain he inherits, can't confront the source of it, because he never even learns what happened.
I’ve never seen Bojack Horseman, and now I’m crying over a fly. This is great writing. I never thought I would relate to a horse women, now I have. Thank you for this commentary! Thank you also for explaining the misinformation about grief.
0:39 I constantly live in that state. Just last night I had an ugly crying breakdown talking to my best friend on the phone because I wanted so badly to talk to her about what was bothering me but I almost felt physically unable to say anything to her
I understand how you feel, please push yourself to tell someone you trust. I know how difficult it is and it can feel so scary and awful but in the long run escaping the vicious cycle will help you a lot more. You’re very strong for surviving feelings like this and I fully believe in you and your ability to reach out for the help you need ❤️ stay safe and let me know if there’s anything I could do to help
The words feel so buried deep, and it takes time to dredge each up after the friend asks the question. And then my voice comes out dull and cracked. Fun times./s
I hadn't thought of BoJack having BPD before but it definitely feels like it could fit. While it's not definite trauma is believed by some to cause BPD and BoJack growing up with parents not giving him affection feels very similar to how a friend of mine who has BPD speaks about her childhood.
I think a really cool analysis that you could do would be the movie Perks of being a Wallflower. It's a cinematic masterpiece, a timeless depiction of depression and post traumatic stress disorder wrapped into this narrative of a highschool student trying to fit into school. From a sociology perspective it really tells a lot about how society treats certain aspects of people and the result of those actions, so it would be really cool to hear a psychiatrist perspective as well. Plus i haven't seen many people do analysis' of it
Watching Honey progress from this bright, vibrant character to a grief stricken and broken down person was incredibly sad to see. Like you can really see an entirely different outcome in not only her life, but Beatrice's and Bojack's life as well if there was some kind of actual support structure in her life beyond what was available. Really hammers home the idea of inheriting your parent's trauma by proxy.
This episode was by far the most emotionally raw and triggering for me out of all the episodes because it’s not really fiction, it’s 100 percent accurate. You can pin point the exact moments where poor Beatrice changed as a person forever. She probably would have grown up to be a very loving mother otherwise. Beatrice was the most misunderstood and complicated character of all. This episode really hit the nail on the head in regards to trauma being passed down through the generations and how it effects, children, great grand children ect.
I love how he’s looking at the house in so much detail, when the show that’s usually super deep for once had a “he’s just there cuz he has nowhere else and is lazy lol.”
Great content, loving your insight so much. I hope you'll do more episodes in the future! 😊 Time's Arrow is a personal favorite that delves into more generational trauma, the effects of dementia... very interesting and so tragic.
8:49 WHOA!! Did Joseph just...try to comfort Honey by saying the same "Time's arrow" line that she laughed at earlier? Damn. That's the most compassionate gesture we see from him the entire show.
I never noticed but the doll that Beatrice carries around as a kid looks just like the one that Bojack threw off of the balcony….damn the details in this show
« What we loose in this situation is our ability to tolerate ambivalence and sit with our sense of gray ». I needed to pause the video and reflect on the universe after hearing this. I will most probably use that in my futur (since I will soon graduate and become a therapist too). Just discovered your channel, and so far, I think this is wonderful
I see you've done a few episodes on Bojack, if you like it you should check out Moral Orel. Its basically like Bojack, but from the perspective of a child who's being abused and neglected. Each episode is only 10 minutes so you can watch them relatively quickly. "Nature, part 1 & 2" These episodes have the dad (Clay) taking his kid (Orel) hunting and it turns very sour and dark. Lots of projection and trauma dumping on the dads part. "Passing" Shows the dads upbringing and sheds light on his childhood trauma "Sacrifice" Clay gets drunk at a bar and exhibits the behaviour he learnt as a child "Numb" Shows what Bloberta was doing at home during her husband/sons hunting trip. And my personal favourite (Because i relate to it the most out of every episode) "Dumb"; Where the child of a dementia ridden old man is being neglected. This episode has themes of absent and neglectful parents, trauma induced age regression and the fear of growing up to be like your parents. You *gotta* to watch it :O
It's been so insightful to further extend the assessment this series gives into grief, depression, and generational emotions through your remarks. It's like engaging in a conversation with someone knowledgeable after seeing something in itself intriguing. and: it's very rare to cry watching a "reaction" video...!
Amazing video and analysis. Pleaseee do more BoJack reviews, there's so much material to analyse, I particularly recommed reviewing episode S05E06 Free Churro
It should also be said that a good number of the people that got referred for lobotomy were often women/girls. I saw a 1950s report and later did a research paper about it. Not really, shocking though, kinda falls in line with most other things in history.
I just stumbled upon this channel now and loved both of the Bojack vids. Need to explore more, but having a soothing and grounding voice to help digest what's going on makes Bojack so much more palatable and interesting. I already enjoyed Bojack, but I had to gauge dosage carefully and could not always tell why it elicited the emotional reactions it did from me.
Could Bojack’s family carry some gene sequences that make them more susceptible to certain mental illnesses? Potential spoilers ahead I think it’s pretty much confirmed that Bojack’s dad and his half sister Holly, all have some sort of anxiety disorder. But his mother’s side, might have something that makes them more vulnerable to depression as well. All three of them seem to have some sort of stress induced impulsive tendencies. Perhaps ADHD? Might just be me projecting, but it would also explain their tendency to get depression and develop drug addictions. There are links between tendencies to develop mental disorders and genetic inheritance, that, while we can proof a connection, isn’t very well understood. So, it might be interesting to think about.
I’d like to thank you for introducing me to bojack that show became a huge comfort for me. I have depression and so finding this was probably one of the best things that happened to me. My favorite episode is stupid piece of shit. Also you are f*cking awesome
Another great video! A thought for the future: the intersection of substance use disorders and the LGBTQ communities. I'm a therapist in the states working on substance use within queer populations, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on the topic.
I only just found your videos, these BoJack ones are especially interesting to me. I absolutely adore BoJack Horseman and am really disappointed that it's gone, It helped a lot to explain certain things to people in my life who didn't really understand certain aspects of mental illness because they themselves hadn't experienced any of it. It was like giving a visual from the inside, something they could watch and go "ohhhh now I get it" because they weren't just seeing it from the outside.
I'd really like to see you talk about the episode where Todd goes off on bojack "It's you." I believe, or the final episode because I feel like it'd be interesting to see a professionals take on someone's "support" group falling apart, or when those struggling with issues like bojack lose their connections. But ALSO talking about, knowing when to leave (in Diane, Todd, and Princess Carolyn's case) and setting boundaries.
One thing to also note about the part of the episode when Bojack tries to "help" Eddie, is that it shows what happens when we might want to help people but not be the right person to help. Without the right tools or understanding of trauma, we can actually end up re-traumatizing the individual we want to help. And if someone is not ready to heal, they cannot truly begin that journey, especially if it's on our own timelines.
Great video as usual and I love seing my favourite show analyzed. A bit disappointed you didnt discuss Bojack's "solution" of tearing down the Sugarman House in an (vain) attempt to erase his past and emancipate himself from it.
Sooo many good episodes to choose from. Even if it isn't the episode most focused on mental health specifically, I'd wish for a video on 'Free Churro' most of all.
I think one of the more chilling aspects of this episode is in the “I will always think of you” duet. These are two people from completely separate times, singing only one part of the duet. The other half of the song being completely silent for them, only allowing us to hear the full song.
I feel like BoJack Horseman could legitimately be analyzed in classrooms, because of how many and how accurately it shows *several* mental illnesses and emotions.
I went in this show expecting to laugh at a funny horse. I ended up being mauled at a personal level in half the episodes.
I agree. I plan to major in psychology and I’m sure I’ll find some way to use Bojack
Just if education was this cool...
That would be great. I didn't expect much when I started to watch the show but it helped me a lot to understand my own depression and why I always kept sabotaging myself and my relationships. And most important: it also taught me how to make things better for myself and not end up like Bojack.
I had that feeling with the whole "Stupid piece of shit" scene. At first I thought "Dude same" but in a joking manner. Then it kept getting more specific and I realized I should probably go see my therapist again lol.
Oh is amazing when every body gets to analyze it. In my university (I study psycholgy) we analyzed different scenes looking for examples of cognitive distortion and it was amazing! SO much material to work with. It is a great show.
Times arrow , free churro and the view from halfway down would be great ones to react to !!!
These three are a must!!
I second all of these episodes!
I totally agree
1000%
YES YES YES
I was hoping you’d address the ending too, where BoJack tears down the house and just leaves. Finally realizing he has to face his problems after watching What years of pent up grief has down to Eddie.
Alot id like him to talk about tbh lol
regarding the show that is lol
Ya, I would like to know this as well
YES the only reason i watched the video and it wasnt brought up:(
@LaBrava Altonia your comment needs more likes! Bojack for certain abandoned that effort to work on himself by destroying a home he spent the past year fixing.
the "Why I have half a mind-" line that pops up throughout the episode gives me chills every time she says it, knowing what happens to her in the end. The final time she says it after the operation always hits me hard. Great episode to pick, love the video
Also that after she says "I have half a mind to kiss you" mr Butterscotch says "That's the half I'll let you keep"
"Why I have half a mind to kiss you right now"
"And darling, that half I'll let you keep"
Seeing the stitches to really drive the point home of what happened to her is especially terrifying. I am so, so glad I did not grow up back then! It's barbaric. Same with any sort of electric shock therapy-even some of which they occasionally do today, which is just as wrong.
More like great episode to ice pick!… I’ll show myself out.
The lobotomy is single handedly the scariest thing in the entire series to me
Someone once pointed out that BoJack and his grandmother, Honey, share a lot of distraction and avoidance mechanisms:
- Performance
- Drinking
- Smoking
- Making passes at young people
- Reckless driving/joyrides
"Is it better to love and lose, or not to love?" The problem of course, was that Mrs. Sugarman loved exactly the right amount, but no one loved her when she was suffering.
bojack: blinks
Dr Elliott Carthy: blinking is a coping mechanism for grief.
🤣🤣🤣 each time you close your eyes when blinking you get to briefly avoid facing the world around you.... something like that?
@@DoctorElliottCarthy Thank you, telling my husband that now when I lose the next staring contest.
Idk about a coping mechanism for greif but ive actually found i close my eyes when i dont believe something. My mom made me look her in the eye when she was assuring me she loved me.
@@Celeste-jh2lj oh I also close my eyes when Im in a bad place, feeling a lot of shame or anger. Its definitely a coping mechanism to take yourself out of the world if only for a moment. That being said blinking is not the same thing of course :D
@@americantoastman7296 very true
the exasperated "oh noooooo" when he realizes honey got lobotomized.... big, tragic mood
Besides the "If I had half a mind" repeating throughout the episode, one of the saddest parts is the duet at the end. It appears normal to the audience, who can see the past and future play out, but take that away... it's two people singing disjointed halves to the song.
Interestingly, Eddie's part would sound more complete. Eddie has more hope and ability to move on than Honey ever had.
Ah yeah...
Honey is only singing a harmony... because Crackerjack was her melody, both figuratively (for her life) and literally (when they sang it together).
Indeed, very sad when you think about it.
It's why the band and everyone look so uncomfortable, honey's singing half of a song with no accompaniment whatsoever, with moments of pure silence and sometimes just harmony. Eddie's is more complete with the accompaniment. He's come to terms with grief a lot better over the years, though he's still using unhealthy mechanisms. For Honey the wound is still extremely fresh and she can't hide it.
"insight doesn't equal change" I need to keep this in mind when dealing with toxic relationships. Just because they can see and identify what is hurtful doesn't mean they will change anything they do..
A truly fantastic episode.
Ghosts of the past.
Generational trauma.
Grief.
Moving on.
A masterpiece of a show
Also simply the fact that they managed to tell two stories at once with the overlapping past and present :)
I really want you to do "the view from halfway down" but there's so many other episodes before that one, imo its the big finish
Also time's arrow, and free churro!!
@@emikoch5096 so many options. id even love a live stream reaction if it were possible.
I'd really like it too, but how does it tie into the channel?
@Antonio Rojas Cortez the view from half way down has plenty of psychological stuff to dissect in it.
Explains Bojack's mom's caring nature towards the doll. As though the trauma and experience that shaped who she was as a person was stripped away by her dementia.
It should be illegal for doctors to be this cute and this smart.
PLEASE MORE BOJACK
😊😊😊
As someone who has Bipolar, thank you so much for outlining the difference between manic defence and an actual manic episode! I've had so many people say, "I must have Bipolar too because I was sad yesterday but happy today!!" which is soo far from the truth. Massive fan of BoJack Horseman too!
Love your reactions and videos!! Newly subscribed!
As someone who was diagnosed with (and still struggles with) BPD a decade ago. I’ve always felt an especially strong connection to bojack.
It’s the show I watch when I’m depressed, which is more often than I’d like. It feels like an old friend, I’ve probably watched it over 30 times easily by now and it hits differently and similarly every time. It makes me feel like my anguish and instability is being empathised with
One of my favorite episodes. Watching this is like 15 consecutive kicks into the unmentionables.
You have to do Time’s Arrow now, to complete the trilogy.
Bojack is an amazing show it manages to tackle many issues in a non threatening way. I’d love for an episode on Todd Chavez and his quest to accept his asexuality. I can’t think of any other show that portrays an asexual character, and this show does it’s best to normalize the concept.
I think we got that for the most part, but it was more on the side because he’s mostly meant as a comedy relief character. Sure he’s multi-dimensional like most Bojack characters, but his main job writing wise is to provide some levity in a very serious show
Even though Todd is the comic relief character of the show, he gets a wonderful coming out story. The way how the show explores asexuality and explains it is great and helped me a lot in a difficult time.
Yeah but didn’t he start dating at the end? With Maude? It just says to me that we all need to take our time
@@GGG_15 Asexuals can feel romantic attraction, tough. Aromantic people don't.
@@GGG_15 yes who is also asexual, asexual doesn't necessarily mean aromantic, they kinda explain all this
The way Honey stops after saying ‘I have half a mind’ punctuates this whole episode brilliantly. The mixture of raw injustice and pain and emotion mixed in is just another reason in a long list of many why BH is such an amazing show.
I’m just going to say what everyone is thinking. Do the series. Not sure if he’s seen the whole thing but getting the whole picture, will give an even deeper context of Bo’s struggle. I often use media to try and help paint a picture of where my head is at and I think a binge of the show will give a better look at the view halfway down.
Yeah. Yeah, I'd love to see a long video about the whole series.
My take was that Bojack thinks that if he can fix the house then he can fix the past and in some way fix himself, but at the end he realises that like Eddie, all he's done is build a shrine to the past to wallow in.
Poor Eddie :'(
always up for an episode of Sad Horse Show
The part with the song hits so differently when you’re actually grieving someone, but even before it gave me chills, there’s something about it that breaks my heart every time
"Well I have half a mind..." is one of the most chilling lines I've heard in any show! Spectacular show!
Loved your commentary!
New Bojack content from Dr. Elliott? My Saturday has been made!
God this was the most heartbreaking episode!!!! It really changed my thoughts on Bojack’s mother.
Definitely. Even though I still hate Beatrice, I think the episode makes the viewer realize *why* she’s that way.
@@jenn1214 It's great how the show explains exactly why Beatrice, and Bojack, are the way they are but never, ever excuses them.
10:53 The foreshadowing gives me chills every time I rewatch the episode
I love your commentary on this episode!! It felt so spot on. I would love to see a React video to "That's too Much Man!","Free Churro",and "The View From Halfway Down" please!!
Is one of those when Bojack and Sarah Lynn go on a bender?
@@athena6832 yep. That's too much man.
That final “I don’t wanna live!” Always hurts so much because that is such a real feeling. I’ve said that at my rock bottom in a similar moment. And it’s just…
That dissonant chord in the background at the end is chilling. Underlining that things are not alright, regardless of what they are saying. I binged all episodes on your previous review, and I wish I watched them earlier now.
Thanks for reviewing this episode. Once you reach one called "Time's Arrow" (Related to this one) you just HAVE TO do a reaction. It's widely considered one of Bojack's best (if not the best) episodes, and it's absolutely heartbreaking.
As always it's so great to get your insight (doesn't hurt that, by god, it's impossible to stop staring at your face while you provide said insight 😍)
Now I'm remembering the very end of that episode and tearing up a bit. Just beautiful stuff.
Dude, you don't even know how long I've waited to see a psychiatrist dissect this show. This whole show is just a gold mine for this stuff.
2:25 "If this is a place associated with happy memories..."
Oh, boy, you are in for a ride...
10:30 That's true and it's one of the most interesting and tragic things about bojack as a character. His parents were both incredibly judgemental, but also quick witted, and he learned from them to be very fast about identifying people's flaws and insecurities, including in himself. He repeatedly makes it very obvious that he is fully aware of his problems with addiction, his toxic coping mechanisms, his depression, anxiety, narcissism, etc etc etc, he's completely aware of all of it and even if the steps he needs to take to improve, he just can't bring himself to do it.
Having a real doctor dissect this is so therapuetic for me. Thank you so much doc.
Request: Review Crazy Ex-Girlfriend season 3, ep 6: “Josh is Irrelevant.” It gives a pretty deep and informative look into Borderline Personality Disorder.
VOUCH !!
Agreed!
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is SO GOOD, yes.
@@riomochaccino2108 I only discovered it a couple months ago, and binged the whole thing in a week or two.
I came here to day CXG. Its so so good
The explanation you had for mania being a defense mechanism means alot for me. I have bpd and sometimes experience episodes of mania, though they only last hours. I wouldn't call them euphoria because within these episodes I am delusional and wholeheartedly believe I am invisible and god-like which puts my life in danger in an attempt to "prove" these delusions. Thankfully they only last a few hours and then I'm back to feeling aggressive, low or just numb. But your explanation of it being a defense mechanism against deeper feelings, I believe, sums it up perfectly
The ending line of this episode kills me with how it calls back to the earlier jokes, without the punchline. "I've got half a mind..."
Hearing about lobotomies upsets me in a strange way that nothing else does. I don't know why, though, considering I don't have any kind of experience related to it. It's like a trigger for a trauma that I don't have.
or maybe you just hate the concept and its not some big truama thing
@@lackland231 I mean, there are a lot of concepts that I hate, but this one... I just don't know
@@wesleydamaschino8047 I get what you mean. I also can't explain it, but lobotomies and a small handful of other such things make me livid to my core in ways that little else does. But I also have no explanation unfortunately.
Imagine you have a valid need and you tell someone that's supossed to take care of you. Now there's a spectrum of reactions, depending on how much Empathy the other shows towards you, kinda like this: they care a lot and want to help - they care a little - they don't care and ignore the need -they ignore it and get annoyed - they are so annoyed they punish you for it - and so on. A lobotomy is, in many aspects, on the very end of that spectrum. Your valid need annoyed them so much, it "justified" them to permanently take something from you without consent, that essentially is your "soul", just so you can stop being a nuisance to them and the world. So from the victims point of view, we are confronted with this utter lack of Empathy and the feeling of disconnect that that brings with it.
@@JaneDoe-eu8vw I did not enjoy reading that 😬
This fucking show man, makes me cry even when being analyzed.
From my own experiences with depression, the biggest thing for me that caused those contradictory thoughts of "I want to be loved" but also "oh my god please go away" was a big sense of feeling like no one got it. Now looking back, I dont think its that they did or did not get it, I think its more that they just didnt have the right tools to give me what I needed, though I did eventually find the people who did have the right sort of minds to help me.
But, going back to those contradictory thoughts, what often ended up happening was that I would isolate myself and push everyone away. And inevitably, this would make me intensely lonely and upset, and people would see this and try to be nice to me. But that was just as bad, because the niceness was more so "oh, you can talk to me any time, tell me everything, do you need a hug? Do you want to go out and do something? What can I do for you how can I help you" and it was just too much, too much intensity, it felt like getting love bombed into a cult, and it freaked me the fuck out and stressed me the fuck out and was just generally sensory overload so I would then revert back again and push everyone away because it was *way* to much coming at me at once.
I know they wanted to help, and did actually care, and did actually get what I was going through, but they just didnt know how to handle it and that was really frustrating trying to express the feeling of "I dont want you to do anything, I just want to sit here with you and watch a movie and when I'm feeling up for it I will tell you what's on my mind" and have people seemingly not understand that just because I didnt immediately tell them what was going on didnt mean I needed a constant stream of affection. I just wanted to be close to people, not be treated like a delicate vase that needed to be constantly cared for.
I love the way that you show care and understanding for even a fictional character. I love your videos, even when I’m not even a fan of the show you’re reviewing, because you really are just a beautiful human being.
This episode and Free Churro are the reasons I watched the entire show. It's a devastatingly good script for sure...
Left out the "Why I have half a mind..." line. Real punch in the gut that hammers everything home
I think That's Too Much Man would be a great episode to review, it's a completely depressing episode but its definitely worth a watch
Would be really interested in your review of Times Arrow. A lot of that episode really resonates with me
12:22 - 12:46 Yup... yup. You uh, you hit the nail right on the head there. I've been reading and writing fanfic as a coping mechanism since 2013, when I got into The West Wing, which helped me cope with the trauma I didn't realize (or probably was in denial about, more like) I had at the time through Josh (a character canonically diagnosed with PTSD).
Honestly a pretty heartbreaking episode. We really get insights into challenges of grief and mourning. Thank you for the very insightful commentary!
Ooh I love the thought about Bojack's insight: yes!! he's super smart, especially when it comes to TV shows and sitcom narratives. He can easily spot dramatic beats like widower fly and dead wife, but that mindset is a huge mental block. Sitcom characters don't really need to work or endure to get long-term happy endings-they need a grand gesture to patch things up until the next episode's status quo prevails. Bojack leans on things like tricking the neighbor because making his new friend get over his wife is the next logical story beat for a 30 minute TV plot. "When you're a kid, you convince yourself that maybe a grand gesture can be enough," as he phrases it in his mother's eulogy. He expects occasional grand gestures will make up for consistent bad behavior, without improving himself to not make the same mistakes. Insight ≠ change, and in Bojack's case even makes change MORE difficult.
Such a powerful portrayal of generational trauma, how the scars of tragedy and abuse can outlive any memory if their cause. Much of Bojack's pain and antisocial behavior traces directly to these events, but he can't understand or process the pain he inherits, can't confront the source of it, because he never even learns what happened.
I’ve never seen Bojack Horseman, and now I’m crying over a fly. This is great writing. I never thought I would relate to a horse women, now I have. Thank you for this commentary! Thank you also for explaining the misinformation about grief.
Man, season 4 is so heavy, but so damn good.
0:39 I constantly live in that state. Just last night I had an ugly crying breakdown talking to my best friend on the phone because I wanted so badly to talk to her about what was bothering me but I almost felt physically unable to say anything to her
me too except it was my boss and i ended up getting fired 3 months ago
@@timothy-gi1rz *winces* That sucks, sorry you have to deal with that
I understand how you feel, please push yourself to tell someone you trust. I know how difficult it is and it can feel so scary and awful but in the long run escaping the vicious cycle will help you a lot more. You’re very strong for surviving feelings like this and I fully believe in you and your ability to reach out for the help you need ❤️ stay safe and let me know if there’s anything I could do to help
I feel that, my solution is writing it down, and then giving it to the person you trust, easier for me to do that than open up verbally
The words feel so buried deep, and it takes time to dredge each up after the friend asks the question. And then my voice comes out dull and cracked. Fun times./s
I hadn't thought of BoJack having BPD before but it definitely feels like it could fit. While it's not definite trauma is believed by some to cause BPD and BoJack growing up with parents not giving him affection feels very similar to how a friend of mine who has BPD speaks about her childhood.
Having parents that are emotionally neglectful can be traumatic.
I think a really cool analysis that you could do would be the movie Perks of being a Wallflower. It's a cinematic masterpiece, a timeless depiction of depression and post traumatic stress disorder wrapped into this narrative of a highschool student trying to fit into school. From a sociology perspective it really tells a lot about how society treats certain aspects of people and the result of those actions, so it would be really cool to hear a psychiatrist perspective as well. Plus i haven't seen many people do analysis' of it
Watching Honey progress from this bright, vibrant character to a grief stricken and broken down person was incredibly sad to see.
Like you can really see an entirely different outcome in not only her life, but Beatrice's and Bojack's life as well if there was some kind of actual support structure in her life beyond what was available.
Really hammers home the idea of inheriting your parent's trauma by proxy.
This episode was by far the most emotionally raw and triggering for me out of all the episodes because it’s not really fiction, it’s 100 percent accurate. You can pin point the exact moments where poor Beatrice changed as a person forever. She probably would have grown up to be a very loving mother otherwise. Beatrice was the most misunderstood and complicated character of all. This episode really hit the nail on the head in regards to trauma being passed down through the generations and how it effects, children, great grand children ect.
"I can't be with people and I can't be alone". I really feel that.
I love this episode!! These writers are top notch at subtle depth…one of my favorite shows ever.
I love how he’s looking at the house in so much detail, when the show that’s usually super deep for once had a “he’s just there cuz he has nowhere else and is lazy lol.”
Great content, loving your insight so much. I hope you'll do more episodes in the future! 😊 Time's Arrow is a personal favorite that delves into more generational trauma, the effects of dementia... very interesting and so tragic.
Eddies scene makes me cry every time I see it
8:49 WHOA!! Did Joseph just...try to comfort Honey by saying the same "Time's arrow" line that she laughed at earlier?
Damn. That's the most compassionate gesture we see from him the entire show.
"Why I've got half a mind..." was a brilliant callback, something the show did very well on a regular basis.
I absolutely love how u went out of our way and explained historical! I love the humor!
Can this be a series?!! Automatic subscribe! ☺️
I never noticed but the doll that Beatrice carries around as a kid looks just like the one that Bojack threw off of the balcony….damn the details in this show
« What we loose in this situation is our ability to tolerate ambivalence and sit with our sense of gray ». I needed to pause the video and reflect on the universe after hearing this. I will most probably use that in my futur (since I will soon graduate and become a therapist too). Just discovered your channel, and so far, I think this is wonderful
A breakdown of the episode “free churro” would be amazing!
I see you've done a few episodes on Bojack, if you like it you should check out Moral Orel. Its basically like Bojack, but from the perspective of a child who's being abused and neglected. Each episode is only 10 minutes so you can watch them relatively quickly.
"Nature, part 1 & 2" These episodes have the dad (Clay) taking his kid (Orel) hunting and it turns very sour and dark. Lots of projection and trauma dumping on the dads part.
"Passing" Shows the dads upbringing and sheds light on his childhood trauma
"Sacrifice" Clay gets drunk at a bar and exhibits the behaviour he learnt as a child
"Numb" Shows what Bloberta was doing at home during her husband/sons hunting trip.
And my personal favourite (Because i relate to it the most out of every episode) "Dumb"; Where the child of a dementia ridden old man is being neglected. This episode has themes of absent and neglectful parents, trauma induced age regression and the fear of growing up to be like your parents.
You *gotta* to watch it :O
Another great episode concerning mental health is “Good Trauma” from season six of Bojack. I would definitely give it a watch
The portray of the psychological status in this cartoon is so *REAL*
Dude! So on point with every.... thing. Appreciate you and keep the videos coming! Sharing right now with so many ppl! Much luv from Colorado!
It's been so insightful to further extend the assessment this series gives into grief, depression, and generational emotions through your remarks. It's like engaging in a conversation with someone knowledgeable after seeing something in itself intriguing. and: it's very rare to cry watching a "reaction" video...!
You robbed us of your reaction the mom saying "Why I have half a mind..." in the end like she did before in the episode.
Happy to see you continue to cover Bojack Horseman. I feel it's a good show for the message the creator's tries to create.
Ahhhh I'm so excited you're doing BoJack!!!! I hope you do more!!!
This was so good man, thank you
LOVE the bojack content from Dr. Elliott!!
Just speading some love in the comments. Couldnt agree with yours more.
Amazing video and analysis. Pleaseee do more BoJack reviews, there's so much material to analyse, I particularly recommed reviewing episode S05E06 Free Churro
I appreciate your taking the time to review several additional episodes.
It should also be said that a good number of the people that got referred for lobotomy were often women/girls. I saw a 1950s report and later did a research paper about it. Not really, shocking though, kinda falls in line with most other things in history.
If I remember correctly, one of the Kennedy daughters got a lobotomy simply because she was deemed “too wild.”
I just stumbled upon this channel now and loved both of the Bojack vids. Need to explore more, but having a soothing and grounding voice to help digest what's going on makes Bojack so much more palatable and interesting. I already enjoyed Bojack, but I had to gauge dosage carefully and could not always tell why it elicited the emotional reactions it did from me.
14:20 I think Honey got Beatrice to drive was because she got drunk fast (chugging a pint of beer that fast CAN'T be good for being sober)
it's that "why I have half a mind..." that just kills me every time
Could Bojack’s family carry some gene sequences that make them more susceptible to certain mental illnesses?
Potential spoilers ahead
I think it’s pretty much confirmed that Bojack’s dad and his half sister Holly, all have some sort of anxiety disorder.
But his mother’s side, might have something that makes them more vulnerable to depression as well. All three of them seem to have some sort of stress induced impulsive tendencies. Perhaps ADHD? Might just be me projecting, but it would also explain their tendency to get depression and develop drug addictions.
There are links between tendencies to develop mental disorders and genetic inheritance, that, while we can proof a connection, isn’t very well understood. So, it might be interesting to think about.
I have BPD and I’ve heard psychologists on here “diagnose” Bojack with BPD as well. So much of what was said here really backs that up, once again.
Ohh, I was having a bad day, but this cheered me up! Thank you so much ♥
I’d like to thank you for introducing me to bojack that show became a huge comfort for me. I have depression and so finding this was probably one of the best things that happened to me. My favorite episode is stupid piece of shit. Also you are f*cking awesome
Love to see a video for 'INT SUB' when you get there!
Great reaction video. I resonated with the way Bojack went to his old family house to remember happy memories.
Another great video! A thought for the future: the intersection of substance use disorders and the LGBTQ communities. I'm a therapist in the states working on substance use within queer populations, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on the topic.
By far one of the best 'doctor reacts' episodes I've watched! Great choice of episode, and loved your insight and commentary!
I only just found your videos, these BoJack ones are especially interesting to me. I absolutely adore BoJack Horseman and am really disappointed that it's gone, It helped a lot to explain certain things to people in my life who didn't really understand certain aspects of mental illness because they themselves hadn't experienced any of it. It was like giving a visual from the inside, something they could watch and go "ohhhh now I get it" because they weren't just seeing it from the outside.
Would definitely love more vids of reacting to Bojack Horseman! You are doing great!
Thank you for having this channel and taking your time to make videos like this!
I'd really like to see you talk about the episode where Todd goes off on bojack "It's you." I believe, or the final episode because I feel like it'd be interesting to see a professionals take on someone's "support" group falling apart, or when those struggling with issues like bojack lose their connections. But ALSO talking about, knowing when to leave (in Diane, Todd, and Princess Carolyn's case) and setting boundaries.
Could you do a Princess Carolyn related episode once? A lot of people really connect with her character and I'd love to see your insights
One thing to also note about the part of the episode when Bojack tries to "help" Eddie, is that it shows what happens when we might want to help people but not be the right person to help. Without the right tools or understanding of trauma, we can actually end up re-traumatizing the individual we want to help. And if someone is not ready to heal, they cannot truly begin that journey, especially if it's on our own timelines.
Great video as usual and I love seing my favourite show analyzed.
A bit disappointed you didnt discuss Bojack's "solution" of tearing down the Sugarman House in an (vain) attempt to erase his past and emancipate himself from it.
Sooo many good episodes to choose from. Even if it isn't the episode most focused on mental health specifically, I'd wish for a video on 'Free Churro' most of all.
I think one of the more chilling aspects of this episode is in the “I will always think of you” duet.
These are two people from completely separate times, singing only one part of the duet. The other half of the song being completely silent for them, only allowing us to hear the full song.