Week Eleven: Long Form Television

For this blog post, I decided to binge watch BoJack Horseman. This is a story about a washed up celebrity who's trying to get his horse foot back into the spotlight.

Regarding media effects, there has been an enormous change in the themes that the twenty-first century television brings, and that's anti-heroes. Anti-heroes are protagonists that aren't the kindest, only interested in themselves and have sociopathic tendencies. BoJack Horseman easily fits this role. Though these characters seem super unlikable from the outside, audience members normally sympathize and even identify with anti-heroes because of one or two universal and positive qualities. In BoJack's case, he's insecure and wants everyone to like him again. Who doesn't want to be loved? Who isn't self-conscious about something? While the episodic goals usually put him in a bad light, the series goal is to show that BoJack Horseman isn't such a bad guy in the inside.

It's intriguing to think why anti-heroes are all the rage in long-form television these days. Here are some similar shows with characters like these: The Office, Sherlock, Rick and Morty, House of Cards, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and more.

Here's my theory on this subject. The majority of the millennial generation were taught that we're special and we can do anything we set our minds to. So we go to college, get a degree in whatever we choose to do and expect to make an impact. We expect so much of ourselves and don't get the results that match. Therefore, generally, we're insecure that we didn't end up as great as our parents said. Maybe we're depressed and disappointed, so if we see character's that are washed up like BoJack, we don't have to feel so alone in our failures.