The latest season of ‘Bojack Horseman’ continues to bring on the feels

Earlier this month, Netflix released the fifth season of its hit adult animated series “Bojack Horseman.” Outside of its rough start with the first season, “Bojack” has remained one of the most consistently thought-provoking animated series in recent years. Its themes, scenarios and characters are all uncomfortably real at times, despite more than half the cast being made up of anthropomorphic animals, helping push animation to new storytelling potentials that had never been explored. Can the newest season hold up or is it as dead as a show from back in the ’90s?

This season focuses on Bojack’s transition back into the limelight as he stars as the main character in a new show called “Philbert.” On the show, Bojack grows a relationship with his co-star, Gina, believing he can heal her due to her checkered past and unconfident personality. However, as relationships and life start to weigh down, Bojack goes down a path that may change everything.

That’s the best place to leave things synopsis wise because this season, as can be expected at this point, is one that has to be seen to be believed. From the very start, it pulls no punches, focusing far more on the dramatic elements more than comedy. As the show continues, however, it does smoothly transition into implementing more humor, yet still never lets the audience forget about the dark clouds looming ahead.

The structure of individual episodes is far more creative than ever before and with fantastic results. Some examples of includes the tour guide themed “The Dog Days are Over” and “Mr. Peanutbutter’s Boos,” which plays with the passage of time very creatively.

Possibly the best example, and what may be the season’s best episode, is episode six, “Free Churro.” The episode consists almost entirely of nothing but Bojack giving a eulogy at his mother’s funeral. What may seem at first like an extended monologue turns into one of the most emotionally complex and self-analyzing episodes of the entire series that goes through just as many emotional beats as any regular episode.

As always, the characters are what makes these episodes work and their dynamics are more fascinating than ever. The show plays around with the idea of leaving behind the past and trying to drown it out with new experiences. All of our major characters do this, growing new relationships, leaving others behind and going out to try new things. Yet, something is still missing from their lives to offer them true happiness and it makes us wonder if true happiness can actually exist for these characters at times.

What makes the development of them so intriguing, however, is that, by the end, many of them not only have not gotten better but some of them have gotten way worse. This is true of Bojack, especially, who goes to some disturbing places in this season. It becomes frustrating to see this occur, but it’s clear that the series intends for it to be played out that way. We want happiness for them as much as they do, but if these people don’t change for themselves, then the world won’t change for them.

The only minor flaw to note with this season (which is a general issue with the entire series) is that the animation, while having some decent timing, creative moments and designs, still comes off largely unimpressive. A good chunk of the designs feel generic and the snappy puppet animation can prove a little distracting. While it’s hard for the show to change its art style this late in the game, it would be nice to see a little more effort put into the show’s visuals as its script.

Season five of “Bojack Horseman” succeeds where many shows that have gone on this long have failed. By taking risks in their storytelling and character development, this show has proved that it has not run out of steam, which is saying a lot for a series that stars an asexual in a relationship with a salamander. If you have not seen this monumental series yet, then this is the time to binge watch.