The animated drama BoJack Horseman from Netflix just released the first half of its sixth season, and the reviews are starting to come in. This will be the final season for BoJack, a show which has been known for both its irreverent humor and its ability to tackle complex topics such as mental health and addiction.
The news of BoJack’s cancellation came back in September when the official trailer for the sixth season dropped, along with an announcement that the season would come to Netflix in two parts. An article from The A.V. Club mentions that the animated show’s cancellation is “the sort of bad news most Netflix subscribers have learned to brace themselves for in recent months,” given that several other critically-acclaimed or popular shows from Netflix have been cancelled or have concluded this past year. Most notably was BoJack Horseman’s sister show Tuca & Bertie, created by Lisa Hanawalt, who is also one of the writers and artists on BoJack. In an interview about Tuca & Bertie, Hanawalt explained that she “wanted to make weird, surreal, warm, silly show about female friendship,” but the show was cancelled after just one season by Netflix. Other shows cancelled by Netflix while seemingly in their prime include One Day at Time and The OA (though One Day at a Time was later picked up by Pop TV). In a recent interview with Polygon, creator of The Dragon Prince Aaron Ehasz expressed his hope that Netflix would “see past the weird distorted data that they’re gathering” and stop cancelling shows before their second or third season.
Unlike many of Netflix’s recently cancelled shows, BoJack creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg and the writers of the show got plenty of advance notice to prepare the story for their final season. The final season follows the titular BoJack Horseman as he goes through therapy and attempts to resolve the negative character traits we’ve seen portrayed throughout the series. The characters surrounding BoJack all have their own host of personal problems, from Princess Carolyn experiencing motherhood to Mr. Peanutbutter confronting his own mental health. All of this is relatively par for the course for BoJack Horseman, which has never shied away from serious topics. The 2016 episode “Brrap Brrap Pew Pew” made headlines for its blunt yet poignant portrayal of abortion, and the show made history in 2017 for having one of the first openly asexual characters on television.
The first half of season 6 of BoJack Horseman is available on Netflix now. The second half will premiere on January 31st of 2020. You can watch the season 6 trailer below.