"we need more complex female characters" you guys can't even handle diane nguyen.

An Optimistic Season of ‘’Bojack’’ isn’t All That it Seems. (Bojack Horseman season 6A review.)

When watching the first episode of Bojack Horseman season sic (part 1) entitled “A Horse Walks Into a Rehab,” my best friend turned to me and said, “You know if all the characters in this show were human it would be unbearable.” We all know this, it’s one of TV’s most somber shows. But this new season, split in half so there’s still half a season left, does so much to help its characters heal in realistic, cathartic ways. It’s still heavy, it’s still irreverent and whacky, but there’s definitely a feeling the show is barrelling towards its end. Or more like doomsday prepping towards its end, as the first half of the season seems to do more prep work for the end than actually pushing new stories forward.

We opened on a flashback to Bojack explaining to cops what may have happened to Sarah Lynn, while avoiding his role in her tragic demise, lying about where she got the drugs. This is some foreshadowing, as a thin storyline involving her mother bubbles up, believing there was foul play, before two fast-talking newspaper reporters in the last episode promise to get to the bottom of things. Paget Brewster as Paige Sinclair, a newsie fast talker in an old frill wedding dress is one of the new characters that has me very excited, and although she’s only in one episode it’s got me pumped to see more of her.

Anyway while that story simmers, Bojack is in rehab. At first resistant to any kind of change, dragging everyone in the place down with him including a young mother who he helps break out, he makes the first real steps towards healing himself. He starts absorbing the lessons taught to him by the lovely Dr Champ, a horse rehab doctor voiced by Veep's Sam Richardson. Champ is one of my favourite Bojack characters ever but predictably gets his life ruined by just knowing Bojack. The difference is that, after months in rehab, Bojack has learned some responsibility and knowledge and does everything in his power to help Champ. There’s this idea that champ is the only positive horse role model Bojack has ever had, the shows first dip into the connections between species race and racism, which is a very intriguing concept.

You see glimpses of his history with alcohol as well, from his father giving him bourbon to make him forget something he doesn’t want his son knowing, to needing some Dutch courage on the set of Horsin’ Around, to him getting a hairdresser on the show fired after Sarah Lynn finds one of his bottles of vodka. It’s interesting and moves past the regular trope of just a douche with a drinking problem into a very damaged man who’s taken one too many hits.

Champ isn’t the only person Bojack helps this season, and it’s through these small acts of kindness, like indulging Mr Peanutbutter in a little crossover fantasy on the old set of Mr. Peanutbutters house, that we see how much Bojack has grown. It’s one of the show's biggest tragedies that after all of this change things will turn for him again, but more on that in a bit.

The other major players in the show get some lovely plotlines as well. Princess Caroline, a new mother to a lively baby porcupine that she names Ruthie, learns slowly but surely how to juggle responsibility and delegate. It’s a rough start though; in the second episode “The New Client” she worries she’s a bad mother, as the show represents her frazzled new life and mindset by showing a hundred different Carolyn’s trying to do so many things at once. She slowly get’s the hang of it, you see her blossom into motherhood, although the exact parameters and titles of the other things she’s working on are murky and unclear, she’s just a very busy lady. There’s a very cute moment where she bonds with Ruthie over the lunacy of one of her amazing tongue twisters, you know the ones Amy Sedaris hates reading. (Side note, the season’s best one? “Your dumb drone downed a tower and drowned downtown Julie browns dummy drumming dum dum dum dum, dousing her newly found goose down, hand me down gown?”) She then rehires my absolute favorite character of all time Judah!! Oh how I’ve missed his monotone, no-nonsense professionalism.

Dianne finds a kindred spirit in her Girl Croosh cameraman Guy the bison (voiced by Lakeith Stanfield) that is more emotionally compatible than MR Peanutbutter. He’s smart, socially conscious, a good dad, his only problem is he lives in Chicago, and Dianne lives in Hollywoo. She, like Bojack, has a bit of a wakeup call, as Guy helps her release it’s okay to be a bit of a mess, so long as you take steps to look after yourself. In a touching final shot, after having a conversation about taking antidepressants, that she says make her gain weight and feel less driven, we see a slightly bulkier Dianne, hair grown out, waiting for Guy so they can live together in Chicago.

One of my favorite episodes of the season, episode four “Surprise!” focuses on Mr. Peanutbutter and Pickles's new lives together. Their friends decide to throw them a surprise party for their engagement. But when the couple arrives at their house they are fighting up a storm about Mr. Peanutbutters infidelity with Diane last season. I cared so much more about Pickles feelings at this point because MPB has shown a general disregard for the feelings in his life, and has the impulse control of, well, a golden retriever. But the beauty of the episode came from the surprise party guests still being in the house, scurrying under furniture and hiding behind picture frames in order to not be seen (which actually works!) as they try and catch baby Ruthie. It was an episode where the tension was perfectly balanced with the typical Bojack witticism and visual gaggery.

The seasons midseason finale “A Quick One While He’s Away,” is the season’s crown jewel, as after a season of moving forward, we take a look back into the lives of some of Bojack's victims in his path of self-destruction. While Bojack is healing, Hollyhock, Gina, and Kelsie are still scrambling to repair the damage that he’s done. Kelsie’s career is in a spin after Bojack getting her fired and pulling out of her project. Gina has become a diva, a drama queen of the highest order whose unreasonable behavior is just a cover for the deep trauma she experienced on the set of Philbert last season. Hollyhock has trouble being a normal college student with PTSD. It’s a solid reminder that while characters are getting closure, the show's dark history is going to come back in a big way in the final eight episodes.

As Hollyhock is told about Bojack’s time in New Mexico from one of the kids who was there at the time, and the reporters quickly move in on the Sarah Lynn story, I’m predicting a final season fully fitting of the devastating horse cartoon we all know and love. Will Bojack get his happy ending? More importantly, does he deserve it?