6x05 A Little Uneven, Is All

[7.2/10] This is the first episode of the season I haven’t really loved. There’s some good bits here and there, and a few solid throughlines, but it’s pretty scattered.

BoJack’s story gets the most time in the episode, which is right for something his struggle to leave rehab. I like that note for the character. He’s found a safe place where he knows he can be successfully sober and is worried about both the threat of relapse in the outside world and the people whom he might hurt. The episode also deals with the double-edged sword of his sense of specialness, one that both makes him jealous that somebody else could be getting a sort of special treatment and esteem he isn’t, but also guilty of the blame and suffering he managed to avoid for so long based on who he was.

My problem is that the show is pretty thuddingly obvious on all fronts here. BoJack’s efforts to stay in rehab are pretty broad. His comments to Todd’s assistant about specialness and reminders are all pretty on the nose. And even the flashback, where BoJack is complicit in his hairdresser being made to take the fall for Sarah Lynn getting ahold of his booze, is a little blunt in what it’s trying to do. I do like the idea that more than an active causer of harm, BoJack is someone who let harm happen by neglect, by an attitude of “not my problem”, and through things that he could have prevented if he’d just take responsibility. But the show communicates that idea a little too overtly for my tastes.

The other storylines barely have any time to breathe. Again, there’s a good idea here about Diane finally getting to write about herself for once, only to discover that it leads to self-reflection and pressure that she’s not necessarily ready for. Still, it’s a little too plain in how that’s dramatized, even if I like Princess Carolyn managing to sell Diane’s book while she was blathering about the title.

Similarly, there’s the germ of a good idea with Todd being so wrapped up in looking after Ruthy that he can’t get into his usual Todd hijinks. But the bevy of assistants, and their eventual revolt, is mild stuff that feels out of place in the episode. (Though Todd’s hold music was outstanding!)

Lastly, Mr. PB being a pariah and checking in on the “make it right” scheme with Pickles still just feels really weird. I trust the show to be using this to build to something worthwhile (presumably a “there’s no way to just make it right” point), but in the interim, the whole exercise just comes off odd, and not in an especially entertaining way. That said, Princess Carolyn trying to make Mr. PB a “Sad Dog” meme a la “Sad Keanu” is a laugh.

Overall, this is an episode full of solid ideas that tries to do too much too bluntly for it work as well as it could.