The Cutprice Guignol

So, the next season of Bojack Horseman is right around the corner, and, this being one of my all-time favourite shows ever in the history of television, I’m pretty fuckin’ excited! I wrote about last season’s dealings with perfect bottle episodes here, and the history of misogyny here, but this time I’m going for something a little lighter – well, as light as I can get while talking about this show, at least. With the new trailer (below) freshly released, let’s shoot some guesses for what the newest season of Bojack Horseman might hold!

1. Mr Peanutbutter Goes Off The Rails

Now, it’s not that I don’t love our little bundle of Labrador joy and pure doggish optimism, but we’ve had four seasons of Mr Peanutbutter as the eternal ray of sunshine for this show – and if I know anything about Bojack Horseman, it’s that everyone’s facade is going to crack at some point or another. And, with the apparent break-up of his third marriage, now is prime time for Bojack Horseman’s resident furry-bait (someone had to say it) to take a turn for the worse.

What form will this breakdown take? It’s hard to say, given that we’ve only really seen him carefully pushing down his emotions in the last few seasons, but I’d predict something explosive, wherein he turns his internalised disappointment and dissatisfaction out on the people around him in profoundly damaging ways. Many fan theories have predicted that Mr Peanutbutter will attempt or succeed at suicide at some point in the show’s run, and it would be precisely the left-field, brutal-reality choice a show like this one might lean in to.

2. Bojack and Diane

Bojack and Diane Nyugen have always had a curious relationship that has balanced on the edge between platonic and romantic over the course of the four seasons so far, and, now that she’s likely single once more, it’ll be interesting to see what direction they take them in. Getting them together is the obvious choice, given their kindred depressed spirits and desperate bent towards self-destruction, but given the better place Bojack has found himself in at the end of the last season, will he be able to see the nature of their inevitably destructive partnership before it kicks off?

I’m more inclined to think the two of them will give in to their long-time attraction, forcing them both into a downward spiral of negativity – in the trailer, Diane repeats the “You want to get better, but you don’t know how” refrain a number of times, but is this directed at herself or at Bojack, and will they be the key to each other’s recovery or the obstacle to it? I think their relationship will be central to this season, but how exactly that will come to pass is I’m not certain yet. Probably badly for both of them, if the history of the show is anything to go by.

3. Todd and Emily

Now, okay, bear with me on this one, because the trailer just had to throw in a fucking sex robot to pique my interest, but I have some thoughts about this. At the end of last season, we saw Todd – newly out of the closet as asexual – being asked out by a fellow ace. But a brief clip in this trailer shows him with Emily, his girlfriend from his pre-coming-out years, and a robot with various sexy, sexy accoutrements attached to it (and honestly I have had sex with worse lovers than this robot). And I think he’s going to try to make things work with her after his relationship with his fellow asexual doesn’t work out, hence the sex robot, to fulfil the needs he can’t. And personally, if that is a plotline they’re going for, I’m deeply here for it – the rep for Ace people on TV is pretty much just this one character on this one show, so any new ground they break is new ground for asexual representation as a whole. Depicting a relationship between an asexual person and a person who isn’t would be pretty bold, and also it involves a homemade sex robot so I’m totally in.

What do you think the next season of Bojack holds for us? I loved the way the trailer seemed to blur the lines between reality and the fiction of Bojack’s new show, and also Rami Malek is going to be in it so yes, bloody, please. Drop your predictions in the comments below!

(header image courtesy of Vulture)