BEST OF 2017: BOJACK HORSEMAN

1.  BOJACK HORSEMAN (NETFLIX)

Streaming services and DVRs have abounded in recent years with so-called “sadcoms” - half hour explorations of depression, ennui and the pretensions to artiste-ery of people who resent having made their names in the low arts of comedy.  I’ve repeatedly ragged on these shows for being full of themselves, and there’s something perfect about how the funniest show on TV is a half hour exploration of the depression, ennui and pretensions to artiste-ery of a cartoon horse who resents how he made his name in the low art of comedy. 

It’s also better at exploring that depression and ennui than just about any show on TV (last year, I compared it, favorably, to Mad Men more than its more direct cartoon peers).  Despite being entirely consistent in both its comedic and emotional ethos for 4 seasons, it still surprises that some of the most affecting things I saw this year revolved around the disintegrating marriage between a woman and a deranged golden retriever, or the mid-life crisis of a workaholic cat racing against her biological clock with the help of a fertility app voiced by Harvey Fierstein (the voice you want to hear rasping “Let’s put a baby in you!”).  And as I puzzle over why that is, I am struck by the idea that it is the animation that makes not just the jokey jokes, but the heavier emotions hit harder.  With the auteur-driven “sadcom” – a Louie, a Maron, an Insecure, a Master Of None (takes breath…), a Better Things, a One Mississippi,  a Girls, even some I really enjoy like Atlanta – the examinations of despair, addiction, prejudice, grief and other Real Issues can seem to carry an inescapable whiff of self-indulgence.  And I think a lot of that is related to how we know the face on the screen, our guide through this exploration of Real Issues, also belongs to the creator, writer, executive producer and possibly director of this particular exploration, playing an at-best thinly veiled version of themselves that probably shares their first name.  It feels like they are, to use Bojack’s vernacular, “fetishizing their own sadness”.

So the “heavy” sitcoms that work best for me tend to be the ones that have the auteur/stars playing roles that may be recognizable as their sort of character, but are definitely characters – like Baskets or Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. They also tend to have a slightly larger cast to mitigate the solipsistic nature of the more autobiographical material.  Bojack’s animated nature works at once to obscure those autobiographical (and thus potentially self-aggrandizing) elements by adding another layer to the performances, and to sprawl the scope past the myopic perspective of the main character, and to embrace the abject silliness that helps cut through any hints of pretension or treacle.  I know I’ve said some similar things about Brockmire, Rick And Morty, and The Good Place throughout this list, and in other pieces before it, but I am adamant about this point:  comedy should be funny.

And Bojack Horseman is really, screamingly funny.  The grim psychological, and cultural*, insights at the base of the show never get in the way of delivering constant laughs, or drown the basic, hard-won hope  - as opposed to optimism - at its deepest core.  There are certain fundamental truths that Bojack never loses sight of, no matter how bleak an episode’s final punchline may be.  That the unfairness of life is both unrelenting and also really silly. That happiness is possible but really, really hard.  And that stupid puns paradoxically get more worth it as their setups grow increasingly tortured and byzantine.  It can be devastating, but it’s also the only sadcom where I always want to see the next episode right away.

Watch It For:  “Popular actor and soundtrack artisan” Zach Braff being burned alive and eaten by Jessica Biel.  Although it is a refusal to eat an avocado, rather than said act of cannibalism, that derails her campaign for governor of California.

*This season had an entire episode called “Thoughts And Prayers” all about a bunch of disingenuous cartoon ghouls using that meaningless phrase to ignore any inconvenient fallout from constant mass murders, which was released months before Las Vegas saw everyone calling out GOP lawmakers for that exact thing

BEST OF 2017: BROCKMIRE

 2.  BROCKMIRE

If you're like me and laugh your ass off at Danny McBride characters’ raunchy shenanigans on Eastbound And Down or Vice Principals, but can’t find it in you to care about whatever scrap of personal growth they have allegedly found at the end of the season, then Brockmire is the show for you.  Hank Azaria’s washed up baseball announcer is similarly depraved, but his antics mainly serve to hurt himself rather than constantly sprawling out to devastate everyone around him.  Which makes it much easier to invest in the emotional underpinnings of his meager redemption story and surprisingly sincere romance with Amanda Peet’s minor league team/bar owner. 

Peet has spent the last few years quietly developing into the most underrated actress on the small screen.  Her Jules is a tricky role, initially appearing to be merely the straightwoman to ground Brockmire’s more cartoonish aspects and a rote romantic interest.  But the writing quickly, unfussily moves her past that, and Peet’s razor sharp comedic chops and a natural, playful intelligence makes her as interesting and fun to spend time with as her dulcet beau. And while I was initially wary of the romance angle, the show surprised me by skipping the will-they-won’t-they or Sam-and-Diane combative shenanigans and diving directly into a quite sincere, adult love story between a couple of unabashed, uninhibited drunks. 

One of the best things about that relationship, and by extension the show, is the attitude toward sex. It reminds me of another Schwartzblog favorite (and near-miss for this list) You’re the Worst.  Both shows manage to be non-judgmental and sneakily mature about sex, in a way that involves acknowledging its puerile absurdity, but also just how fun and integral to a relationship it can be.  There is a simple truth about romance that most cinematic love stories either ignore or just don’t get, but Brockmire (and YTW) do: when you’re with someone who still likes you at your most absurdly puerile, that’s when shit just might be real. 

I could go on in more high falutin' terms, about, say, the cinematography, which is not as flashy as that of Legion or Handmaid’s Tale, but it is distinctive and quite pretty in its own muted, sepia way.  But mainly the pleasures of Brockmire are as basic as that of getting a light buzz on at the ballpark on a hot afternoon.  It is not "redefining what a half hour comedy can do" or built to provoke hot takes on the social issue du jour.  It's a comedy that has a heart, a pair of great performances, and is really, really funny and even a little wise. Jim Brockmire may be a degenerate fuck-up, but he did teach me about the fundamental differences between the three types of people ("Rich People are just Poor People with money, the only truly worthwhile thing is being Famous!") and knowledge and assumptions ("like Loggins and Messina - they seem similar, but time reveals one to be completely worthless.")  It didn't look like much, but it turned out to be the nicest surprise of 2017.

Watch It For:  It's all in just the quality of the performances and joke-writing.  Transcribing it here won’t do it justice, but Brockmire’s exchange with a Japanese translator about an unfortunate, offscreen child resulted in the  hardest laugh and longest corresponding DVR pause I had all year.  With his ill-advised attempt to "pre-game" an abortion a close second.

BEST OF 2017: RICK AND MORTY

4. RICK AND MORTY (ADULT SWIM)

It’s unfortunate that the narrative around Rick and Morty’s long-delayed third season has revolved to such a degree around how some of its most devoted fans are mean-spirited, entitled morons, because the show itself had its best year yet.  To think that you are some sort of intellectual ubermensch because you learned the proper way to interact with the world from a farcical cartoon is rather pathetic to start with.  And that is only compounded by the gross misunderstanding of the text required to view it as a straightforward endorsement of Rick’s misanthropy.

But leaving the fanbase aside, this season was wildly original and relentlessly, riotously, scabrously funny from top to bottom.  There are jokes that Rick and Morty does that only Rick and Morty could do, which is one of the things I appreciate most in a comedy.  Maybe some other Adult Swim show could wring its biggest laughs from a child accidentally murdering his sister, or the heroes’ hyperviolent pissing match with the POTUS.  But I can’t think of another that could build some of its most affecting emotional moments from its hero turning himself into a brutally homicidal pickle to avoid family therapy, or an imaginary land ruled over by a deranged refugee cannibal that sustains himself by impregnating the wildlife to produce his own incestuous livestock.  And there damn sure isn’t any that could even attempt the insane nesting doll of the Citadel Of Ricks spotlight episode, which layers a Stand By Me coming-of-age parody into a Dog Day Afternoon hostage standoff into a Training Day gritty cop drama into a Face In The Crowd political allegory, with the entire cast consisting of only two characters, but not the versions of those characters we actually "know".  That all that comes out mildly coherent is stunning.  That it is top-to-bottom hilarious is just incredible.  And that it is actually somewhat thoughtful about the attendant sociopolitical underpinnings of all the tropes it is subverting is just phenomenal. 

And that may not even be the best episode of the season, not with the surprising pathos of “Pickle Rick” and the loopy clip-show that revealed added layers to the central relationship even as it sprayed out insane and hilarious gags at a Gatling gun pace.  For as much as the ugly fringe of the fanbase might wax egotistical about the philosophy and conceptual fuckery as the source of the show's brilliance, they have it twisted.  It brings to mind an aside in the "Vindicators" episode where Morty is justifiably angry at Rick's drunken pettiness getting several of the titular heroes killed, and Rick uses the fact that he saved the universe the day before as a deflection.  Morty insists that isn't the issue, to which Rick shrugs "eh, would've been if I hadn't."

I hope you're proud of yourself.
Uh, I kind of am.
I saved the God damn universe.
That's not the issue, Rick! Ahh, it would've been if I hadn't! 

Read more: https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/view_episode_scripts.php?tv-show=rick-and-morty-2013&episode=s03e04

I hope you're proud of yourself.
Uh, I kind of am.
I saved the God damn universe.
That's not the issue, Rick! Ahh, it would've been if I hadn't! 

Read more: https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/view_episode_scripts.php?tv-show=rick-and-morty-2013&episode=s03e04

The sci-fi in a sci-fi comedy is not the issue.  If the jokes aren't working, none of the rest matters. And the this season had at least three episodes that could stack up competitively with any other half hour of comedy you could find as the funniest ever on a minute-per-minute, joke-for-joke basis.

Watch It For:  Pickle Rick.  The promos had me thinking it might be where I jumped off the series for good, but it may be the best episode of the entire run.