Penny’s Boat
Thoughts on “Woke” Adult Animation
BoJack Horseman was a good show that had its flaws here and there. The writers took its greatest flaw and exacerbated it to the point where it ruined everything. Sexual abuse mainly. Gender specific abuse. There are key points regarding gender specific violence:
Sarah Lynn’s family situation/her entire life
Diane & Mr. Peanutbutter’s domestic violence
New Mexico/Penny on the boat
Beatrice’s Past/Honey Sugarman
I want to focus mainly on the deeply irresponsible writing that went into season 2 episode 11 of the series.
I’m asking: Why did the writers OK an episode where 50-something year olds who haven’t seen one another in 20-30 years engage in a weird back and forth. Here’s what’s wrong with this episode in particular:
BoJack appears at Charlotte’s business unannounced. Instead of sending him away or even entertaining him for a cup of coffee or lunch, she invites her back to her house. There’s an implication that she wanted him still and this would have been an opportunity to have an affair somewhere outside of her home and then again… she could send him away afterwards.
Instead she invites him, someone who she hasn’t spoken to for more than a decade, into her home.
She wanted to rub it into his face that she had a family and that he was a coward for not going after her. Either that or the writer’s didn’t think that far ahead.
Anyway, BoJack sees this as a chance and goes to her house because he thinks that being with Charlotte is the answer to his problems. Somehow, Kyle doesn’t see this random man in his house as wrong. He allowed a stranger in his house for an extended period of time and allowed him to be around his children. This visit goes on long enough that for whatever reason Charlotte gives the OK to let BoJack teach her daughter how to drive. Then she suggests he stays over. He ends up staying at their house for two months. All three adults are wrong here. Parents, what the fuck? BoJack, I don’t care how damaged you are, you’re a stranger to these people. According to the writing, he only did this to get close to Charlotte again and it worked but she didn’t commit to it. The prom fiasco happens, which is inexplicably horrendous. So much second hand embarrassment. This is the meat of the problem. Penny, the 17 year old daughter wants to have sex with this 50 year old man she barely knows and who was vaguely friends with her mother 20-30 years ago. He tells her no several times (at least two!) and she “goes to bed.” Later he goes to see Charlotte, they kiss and BoJack talks about running away together. He clearly believes he loves Charlotte and wants to be with her.
Penny being sexually forward is false advertisement so to speak. In real life, no teen girl is gunning for a middle aged man of her own volition.
BoJack is hellbent on Charlotte. Penny looks just like her, which fuels the gray area of the next scene.
Penny goes back to BoJack while he’s in his room on the boat. They almost do something. Charlotte walks in on them when both are fully clothed and Penny is approaching BoJack.
There’s so much wrong here aside from Penny being the aggressor here. The reason they use is “he couldn’t have the mother so he goes after the daughter” but this is out of character. Not once in the first two seasons did he show any sexually predatory behavior. Emotionally abusive, yes he is towards Todd and literally anyone who tries to get close to him. Now suddenly he’s going after a 17 year old? All because Charlotte turned him down? He said no at least twice before the bedroom scene. How and why is he suddenly letting Penny onto the boat. The writers are not taking sexual assault (statutory or otherwise) seriously and only use it for shock value. They drag this plot thread through seasons three and four and keep it in the back of BoJack’s mind as well as the audience’s, until season five where it comes to Diane’s attention.
This schlocky sex abuse plot gets compounded onto physical abuse, where at the beginning of the season BoJack, while in his “right” mind is all against violence against women but then after experiencing a psychotic break, loses his sense of self in his role, becomes an abuser and chokes his co-star/girlfriend. This fall of BoJack was to tell the audience not to sympathize or empathize or relate to him in any way. They gave us a character (among others but he’s the eponymous main character) who spoke honestly about depression and drug abuse literally and figuratively, but then took him away because they didn’t want anyone to relate to him anymore. They did this in the same season, where his mother’s death brought out great points about loving and hating a parental figure.
Two things:
BoJack in season five admits that he was going to have sex with Penny “nothing happened yet” he says while arguing with Diane
BoJack attacks Gina on set
What was the point of this?
If our main character crosses the line, we can no longer root for him. He cannot stay the main character. They didn’t want us to relate to him and then they did this to make it so. In the most ham fisted way, they asked us to stop and question ourselves by using Diane as a megaphone during the premiere of the Philbert series. Everything done to make BoJack unlikable was for shock and at the expense of women.
The writers fancy themselves as being “woke” to the point where women suffer for it and those seeking solace in honest discussion about mental illness feel guilty for relating to bits and pieces of their main character.
The contradictions in Diane’s character and the violence against her are for another time, especially considering her race.
