BoJack Horseman: The Old Sugarman Place
September 11, 2017 9:35 AM - Season 4, Episode 2 - Subscribe
BoJack goes off the grid and winds up at his grandparents' dilapidated home in Michigan where he reflects on his family legacy and befriends another soul haunted by the past.
Get ready for a few 'oh I recognize this trope and it makes me feel like things are going well for [character]' moments that will pull the rug from under you this season.
posted by Space Coyote at 10:17 AM on September 11, 2017
posted by Space Coyote at 10:17 AM on September 11, 2017
I really like how they blended the two time periods together. The scene where they steal the weathervane juxtaposed with Bea's inability to cope with her grief. The whirlwird of zany madcap antics overlayed with genuine despair and how that despair continues to influence Bojack even in his "wackier" moments.
posted by miss-lapin at 11:12 AM on September 11, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by miss-lapin at 11:12 AM on September 11, 2017 [1 favorite]
Really enjoyed this episode, although I'm not sure if enjoy is the right word for anything concerning BoJack.
posted by Fence at 11:13 AM on September 11, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Fence at 11:13 AM on September 11, 2017 [1 favorite]
The decision to flesh out Mrs. Horseman, heretofore mainly a stock archetype, is pretty awesome.
And also devastating.
posted by Sys Rq at 12:26 PM on September 11, 2017 [8 favorites]
And also devastating.
posted by Sys Rq at 12:26 PM on September 11, 2017 [8 favorites]
This was incredibly intense. They usually save the real gut-punch for the 11th episode, so I wasn't expecting this so soon! Matthew Broderick and Jane Krakowski were great as Bojack's grandparents. "As a modern American man, I am woefully unprepared to manage a woman’s emotions. I was never taught, and I will not learn." Jesus.
That was Lin-Manuel Miranda as Crackerjack (and the bartender, I think?). "Okay folks, this is for posterity, so don't forget to look faraway sad!"
The story with the dragonfly widower shows Bojack still kind of thinks difficult things can have neat, sitcom endings. If he just shows the dragonfly he can still fly, he'll get better!
I binged the series and the line that still makes me shiver is "Why I have half a mind..."
posted by lovecrafty at 12:36 PM on September 11, 2017 [11 favorites]
That was Lin-Manuel Miranda as Crackerjack (and the bartender, I think?). "Okay folks, this is for posterity, so don't forget to look faraway sad!"
The story with the dragonfly widower shows Bojack still kind of thinks difficult things can have neat, sitcom endings. If he just shows the dragonfly he can still fly, he'll get better!
I binged the series and the line that still makes me shiver is "Why I have half a mind..."
posted by lovecrafty at 12:36 PM on September 11, 2017 [11 favorites]
Don't they normally save the real heartbreak for the penultimate episode?
uh...
posted by ifjuly at 12:42 PM on September 11, 2017 [8 favorites]
uh...
posted by ifjuly at 12:42 PM on September 11, 2017 [8 favorites]
So they're bracketing us now? *sigh*
I finished episode 9, and will finish the season before trying to sort my thoughts, except for [this is good].
posted by maudlin at 12:52 PM on September 11, 2017
I finished episode 9, and will finish the season before trying to sort my thoughts, except for [this is good].
posted by maudlin at 12:52 PM on September 11, 2017
I guess this is the right episode to drop in my favorite tweet ever about BoJack:
Me: I like the funny horse cartoonposted by General Malaise at 1:40 PM on September 11, 2017 [35 favorites]
Bojack: you inherit your parents' trauma but you will never fully understand it
Me: haha the cops a cat
"As a modern American man, I am woefully unprepared to manage a woman’s emotions. I was never taught, and I will not learn."
Yeah, this one got me pretty hard.
posted by corb at 2:38 PM on September 11, 2017 [5 favorites]
Yeah, this one got me pretty hard.
posted by corb at 2:38 PM on September 11, 2017 [5 favorites]
While sincerely affecting, I think the old time speech is incredibly stilted and even slides into parody. It bums me out because generally the writing is so taught, and the attempt to capture another time's vernacular just seems so forced.
posted by Going To Maine at 3:41 PM on September 11, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Going To Maine at 3:41 PM on September 11, 2017 [1 favorite]
Unlike the incredible subtlety of the flashbacks to the eighties, nineties, and 1999.
posted by DoctorFedora at 10:04 PM on September 11, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by DoctorFedora at 10:04 PM on September 11, 2017 [1 favorite]
Unlike the incredible subtlety of the flashbacks to the eighties, nineties, and 1999.
The flashbacks to the eighties and nineties weren’t subtle because they deliberately name-dropped a bunch of things from the time-period; that’s a pretty standard joke thing that we’ve seen about a million times before. But the writing generally sounded real. I could believe that characters would say those things.
By contrast, the scenes set in the forties sounded unnatural and forced. I didn’t mean the writing was “parodic” in the sense that “ha, ha people back then sure did like jazz and were concerned about the war so let’s make a lot of jokes about jazz”, but parodic in the sense that it doesn’t sound (to me) like real characters having real conversations, but rather a joke on how people in that era related to each other. If you’re going to feature an extremely melodramatic turn of the sort that anchors this episode, I think the writing needs to be equal to it. Indeed, the big reveal scene itself was handled well. The scenes leading up to it, however, I think generally clunked. (I’d also contrast this as well with some flashbacks later this season which I think are handled just fine.)
posted by Going To Maine at 11:58 PM on September 11, 2017
The flashbacks to the eighties and nineties weren’t subtle because they deliberately name-dropped a bunch of things from the time-period; that’s a pretty standard joke thing that we’ve seen about a million times before. But the writing generally sounded real. I could believe that characters would say those things.
By contrast, the scenes set in the forties sounded unnatural and forced. I didn’t mean the writing was “parodic” in the sense that “ha, ha people back then sure did like jazz and were concerned about the war so let’s make a lot of jokes about jazz”, but parodic in the sense that it doesn’t sound (to me) like real characters having real conversations, but rather a joke on how people in that era related to each other. If you’re going to feature an extremely melodramatic turn of the sort that anchors this episode, I think the writing needs to be equal to it. Indeed, the big reveal scene itself was handled well. The scenes leading up to it, however, I think generally clunked. (I’d also contrast this as well with some flashbacks later this season which I think are handled just fine.)
posted by Going To Maine at 11:58 PM on September 11, 2017
Perhaps by reading too much into it, it's memories that are mediated by the lobotomy. It has that "snappy His Girl Friday dialogue" thing, which could be a shoehorning of the actual memories into the movies (which were of that era!) a girl of that age might see a lot of as a result of only having two halves of parents. I think it's that all of the memories are filtered through stories Beatrice told Bojack, and that's the only info he has. It's all stereotype, down to the "We're gonna get beers after shooting some Natzis!", which I think makes it a parody.
posted by rhizome at 12:09 AM on September 12, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by rhizome at 12:09 AM on September 12, 2017 [3 favorites]
Yeah, it was supposed to feel like a 1940s movie. Possibly starring Bing Crosby.
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 8:29 AM on September 12, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 8:29 AM on September 12, 2017 [3 favorites]
Perhaps it was BoJack's imagination of his grandparents as young(er) adults, so much like James Stevenson's Grandpa stories, where his grandkids imagine him as a kid with his typical grandpa mustache. Of course they sound old-timey!
posted by filthy light thief at 12:55 PM on September 12, 2017
posted by filthy light thief at 12:55 PM on September 12, 2017
^ Favorite line of this episode. Maybe of the entire season.
posted by Brittanie at 8:24 PM on September 14, 2017
posted by Brittanie at 8:24 PM on September 14, 2017
I binged the series and the line that still makes me shiver is "Why I have half a mind..."
A more chilling exchange, when seen in retrospect:
"Honey Sugarman, how did such a sweet face end up with such a smart mouth?"
"I don't know, but I've got half a mind to kiss you with that smart mouth."
"Well, that half you can keep."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:50 PM on September 17, 2017 [15 favorites]
A more chilling exchange, when seen in retrospect:
"Honey Sugarman, how did such a sweet face end up with such a smart mouth?"
"I don't know, but I've got half a mind to kiss you with that smart mouth."
"Well, that half you can keep."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:50 PM on September 17, 2017 [15 favorites]
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posted by mrjohnmuller at 9:47 AM on September 11, 2017 [3 favorites]