BOJACK HORSEMAN - Season 2

This second time around, the season does not end with a punch to the gut. But by the time we get to its tenuous, hope-inflected sign-off we’ve watched 12 episodes in which the characters have become so enriched and “fleshed out”, it’s almost beside the point that it’s animated. Except, of course, for the wonderful animal/human jumble that makes up the cast. Among the terrific new characters, a triumphant return to cable by Lisa Kudrow as Wanda the Owl, Bojack’s love interest, which he inevitably fucks up; Charlotte the Deer, Bojack’s other love interest, which he fucks up even worse; ego-crazed NGO swashbuckler Sebastian St. Clair, who throws a wrench into Diane’s marriage to Mr. Peanutbutter; and Rutabaga the Rabbit, with whom Princess Caroline hooks up to form a new agency (and who strings her along with a tepid promise to divorce his wife). Not to mention one of the most evil mothers in television history, whose self-hating, hate-inflicting bitterness is shown to be at the root of Bojack’s dysfunction. (The scenes of young Bojack in his little sailor suit being psychologically abused are the most heartbreaking of the series’ many pitch-dark moments.) Netflix put the entire season online at once, and this is the first show I’ve ever binge-watched. I could not get enough of it, but the downside is that instead of having an episode to look forward to each week, I now have to wait until Season 3. It can’t come soon enough. — Jeff Schultz