Top 5 Best Episodes
For me...
Free Churro
Fish Out of Water
Nice While It Lasted
Stupid Piece of Sh*t
Ruthie
Honorable Mentions: Thoughts and Prayers, Stop the Presses, The New Client.
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MovieChat Forums > BoJack Horseman (2014) Discussion > Top 5 Best Episodes
Horse Majeure - Vincent Adultman cracks me up.
Escape From LA - Best visual moments in the series.
That Went Well - Such a memorable ending.
The Old Sugarman Place - When Bojack seemed most like a real, fleshed out person.
A Quick One While He's Away - Kind of a sobering episode.
You already mentioned Ruthie/Free Churro so I hate to repeat. But both were great & deserve a 2nd.
The View from Halfway Down
Free Churro
Time's Arrow
Fish Out of Water
Escape from L.A.
Stupid Piece of Sh*t - this uses the medium of animation so well to dive into Bojack's inner life, it highlights the relentless grind of depression so well, and it still manages a lot of humour. Great writing, perfect execution - my top pick.
That's too Much, Man - no spoilers, but it's one of the biggest turning points in the show. Plus, the bender of all benders is as hilarious as it is nail-biting while you watch Bojack spiral. It's pretty much classic Bojack.
Fish Out of Water - is it gimmicky to do one with no talking? Maybe, but the silent movie works so well, and they throw in quite a bit of heart, too. Plus, the tragicomic punchline is terrific.
Free Churro - maybe another gimmick to just hold the eulogy, but it's impressive work, reasonably funny throughout, and top-writing. It's like an ultimate bottle episode. Plus, when animators do micro-expressions like his reaction look at the end, that's real mastery of the craft, and that look is HILARIOUS.
Downer Ending - the drug sequence is intense and hysterically funny. The ending "Am I a good person?" is a brilliant brick to the face.
Why not The View from Halfway Down? It's my number six. It misses out because I feel it sacrifices comedy for bleakness, and it didn't have to. I think they could have gotten some big laughs in there, too, and they just didn't. When comedies go dark, it's often great (as with TVFHD) but they're most impressive when they can still deliver big laughs. I'm not saying it's bad, I'm just saying that's why it misses my top five.
And, truthfully, Bojack Horseman is such a consistently brilliant show that making any "top X" list is nigh-impossible and I'd probably shift it from day to day. My list of "didn't quite make the top 10" is about half of the episodes. How do you pick between Thoughts and Prayers and Bojack the Feminist? It's impossible.