BOJACK SEASON 3 RUMINATIONS

Bojack Season 3 is one of the strongest season outings of this show with this being the show's breakout season with large amounts of success when it comes to tone balance, experimental storytelling television, character development, animation, and its darker tone.

This show is free to play at its sandbox this season with experimental episodes like "Fish Out Of Water" and delivering darker stories with twisted gut-punches in the season finale "That's Too Much Man" and each character on the show gets powerful and meaningful stories which have beautiful payoffs and trials for the audience and for the show itself.

On a production value, the show is at its strongest under supervising production designer Lisa Hanwalt with a singular vision in its art style and animation. The anthropomorphic creations through the mixture of hand-drawn animation and beautiful CGI lend to dazzling and successful results as the show continues to push its production quality up by several notches.

The episodes I want to highlight for this season are:

Fish Out Of Water: An ambitious episode with influences from Lost In Translation and Fanastasia it is a crowning achievement for the show with every element clicking in place. From Matt Hollingsworth's direction to Jordan Young and Elijah Aron's silent film script to Lisa Hanwalt and her team's gorgeous reimagining of the undersea world with surrealism and flavor. It is poignant, heartbreaking, funny, and clever at the same time.

That's too much Man: The penultimate episode of this season which shatters the status quo for the show and has major effects for Bojack and his character arc throughout the show. A bender episode with a slice of road movie themes with Bojack confronting his guilt about Sarah Lynn and Penny. It's a darker and a powerful episode ending in one of the biggest heartbreaks of all time while packing a punch to the audience.

It's You: Another Bojack-centric episode that deals with fame and its hollowness. We see Bojack getting his Oscar nomination and it leads to him being toxic to his closest friends (Todd and Diane) with him celebrating a party at this house. Another bender episode with some of Will Arnett's best voice acting and performance with him conveying BoJack's emotions and headspace which leaves him crashing down to his inherent darkness and depression. A stunning half-hour of Bojack Goodness.

Best Thing that ever happened: A bottle episode for the show and it's one of the best installments of the show. It focuses on the show's strongest characters Bojack and Princess Carolyn and their tumultuous relationship which are comical and rip-roaringly hilarious but the darker and sadder moments hit hard on the face with stunning performances from Will Arnett and Amy Sedaris. It's a standout installment for a season loaded with great installments.

Overall Season 3 of the show is a giant stride for the show as well as for the adult animation industry with its tonal balance of raw humor and character-driven storytelling with darker nuances and dealing with subjects like depression, alcoholism, drug abuse and self identity.