For fans of the Netflix series BoJack Horseman, of which there are many, there was a nice little surprise this week when a Christmas Special of the show appeared on our “Featured” menus. BoJack was back, if only for one more episode, while fans wait for the second season to arrive.
The premise of the Christmas Special is very basic. BoJack wakes up in one of his hungover stupors, being hassled by his not-really-house guest Todd, who wants nothing more for Christmas than to watch one of the Christmas Specials from BoJack’s 90’s sitcom, Horsin’ Around.
Begrudgingly, BoJack accepts, and we are able to watch a full episode of the show that made the horse famous back in the day, with the occasional cuts to present time, where Todd and BoJack comment on the episode.
In the episode of Horsin’ Around, it pretty much follows what we would have expected from a 90’s sitcom Christmas Special: kids don’t believe in Santa, learn about him, try to make the holiday special, learn the true meaning of Christmas, etc.
Even for playing the show-within-a-show as tongue-in-cheek, it is pretty average. The best parts come from the randomly yelled out comments from the “live studio audience.” They provided the show with the best laughs in the episode.
While it is nice to see another episode of BoJack Horseman, it is not up to its usual quality, mainly because none of the secondary characters that we enjoyed so much from Season 1 make an appearance. The show-within-a-show idea is quite clever, but for much of the episode, it comes across as hastily put together, and could have been darker, or more in-depth, as the series has been known to be.
Worth a watch, since it is only 22 minutes long, but definitely not BoJack at his best.
A Gatsby Funeral 