By David Wiegand
From the San Francisco Chronicle
BoJack Horseman: Animated sitcom. 12 episodes releasing Friday on Netflix.
Watching the new animated Netflix sitcom, “BoJack Horseman,” is not unlike being invited to a party at a well-appointed home by people you don’t really want to spend time with.
The 12-episode series, dropping Friday on Netflix, has wonderful background details, but never really lives up to the potential of its premise or, worse, its terrific voice cast, which includes Will Arnett (“The Millers”), Aaron Paul (“Breaking Bad”), Amy Sedaris (“Strangers With Candy”), Alison Brie (“Community”) and Paul F. Tompkins (“Bob’s Burgers”).
Created by Raphael Bob-Waksberg (“The Exquisite Corpse Project”), “BoJack” is about a has-been ’90s sitcom star who is, in fact, a horse named BoJack Horseman. The faded star of “Horsin’ Around” lives in a big house in the Hollywood Hills, has a semipermanent houseguest named Todd (Paul) and an agent and frequent overnight bed partner named Princess Carolyn (Sedaris), who is a cat. He has promised a memoir to Penguin, whose editor is an actual penguin, desperate for BoJack to turn in a manuscript since publishing isn’t the most lucrative business these days.
The show’s episodes include BoJack getting caught on camera insulting a Navy SEAL who is, of course, a seal of the flippered variety, and trying to keep his former co-star, a once-gifted child actress, from self-destructing in a haze of cocaine, booze and sex.
All of the setups are promising, and there’s nothing really wrong with the idea of repurposing the has-been-sitcom-star template by making the lead character a horse. What’s wrong is that it’s not well written. You get the sense that Bob-Waksberg figured just taking a well-worn premise and populating it with animated animals is somehow funny enough to sustain us for 12 episodes. In addition to an A-list voice case, he also figured guest voices such as Wendie Malick, Patton Oswalt, Melissa Leo, Stanley Tucci and Keith Olbermann would seal the deal. He was wrong on all counts.
Oddly enough, although the dialogue is rarely funny, the show is rife with background details suggesting how much potential is wasted here. Callers to Princess Carolyn’s office, for example, are subjected to “Jellicle Cats” from “Cats” on an endless loop when they are put on hold. Look closely at the painting behind BoJack’s desk and you’ll recognize David Hockney’s “Portrait of An Artist (Pool With Two Figures),” recast with a horse standing at the end of the pool. BoJack heads East with his new ghostwriter (Brie) by taking a plane from Air Bud Airport. And what’s that floating in the sky over BoJack’s home? Why, it’s Winnie the Pooh, suspended by balloons. That’s exactly the kind of loopy creativity that’s missing from the writing. But because it’s there in those little details, you can’t help wondering why it isn’t in the script as well.
Netflix deserves most of the credit for the recent inclusion of the term “binge-watching” in the Oxford English Dictionary, but not every show can be “House of Cards” or “Orange Is the New Black.” Truth is, some of the Netflix shows are just going to be “Hemlock Grove” or “BoJack Horseman.”
David Wiegand is The San Francisco Chronicle’s executive features editor and TV critic.