I love that this Bojack Horseman episode is satire of real mass-shooting incidents causing movies with mass-shootings to get banned and canned, like a more severe version of the case where Sandy Hook delayed Django Unchained. It's just as funny as Bojack accidentally causing all assistants of Hollywood to go on strike two seasons later, when he tells one of his own that she needs to have some self-respect and not just be glad to be part of something. Speaking of movies with guns, I also noticed that Courtney Portnoy looks like the woman from the Basic Instinct movie poster. I wonder if that was intentional. When Todd devised a plan to save people from gun violence with shoes to outrun bullets, and bullet-proof sunscreen, I thought "they should put that in Ms. Taken and re-film it without the gun violence!" But this episode's writer didn't already have the same idea.
Another hilarious incident of a real-world disaster shutting down a movie in BoJack Horseman was Sandra Bullock's Hurricane Sandy film, when 2012 had a real Hurricane Sandy. Lenny Turtletaub and Carolyn devise a different marketing strategy for Courtney Portnoy's Ms. Taken, the niece of Liam Neeson's character in Taken: Since men are the culprits of all the mass-shootings they have seen on the cell phone news so far, they could sell Ms. Taken to endangered women who would feel safer knowing that they can defend themselves and do not have to be afraid anymore. Ms. Taken inspired Courtney to carry a gun around in real life, and when someone acted misogynistic to Diane, she took Courtney's gun without noticing. Diane was shocked by how quickly she subconsciously carried around a gun without realizing it. "Did I drive all the way home without realizing I was holding a gun? No wonder that guy at the gas station didn't charge me for the red vines. Did I rob a gas station?" Diane was glad to carry a gun around and have a way to protect herself from men who make the world unsafe for women.
Meanwhile, BoJack Horseman is taking his newfound daughter, Hollyhock Horseman (because I refuse to memorize her long eight-part last name), to Walnut Springs to see her grandma Beatrice, whom Bojack really hates, but reluctantly visits every week for Hollyhock's wishes. Unfortunately, Beatrice has dementia, and Bojack asks "If I'm not even getting credit for coming here, what's the point?" The demented Beatrice thinks Bojack is her maid Henrietta, yet she recognizes him in Horsin' Around. Bojack and Hollyhock put on a live Horsing Around episode where Hollyhock plays Olivia, for Beatrice to recognize Bojack, yet she still thinks he is Henrietta and wants to change the channel. Beatrice shoves down the old man next to her who wanted to watch the live Horsin' Around episode. Beatrice gets banned from Walnut Springs for her violence, and Hollyhock and Bojack take Beatrice to Bojack's house for her remaining days alive. Bojack is sad that he won't get to tell his mom how much he hates her, and all the other things he wanted to say to her, but Hollyhock assures Bojack that since Beatrice lives with them now, she might eventually recognize him before she passes away.
Sadly, Ms. Taken gets put out for good when Lenny gets news of a woman mass-shooter, which combined with the later scene of Beatrice assaulting a man who wanted to keep "Henrietta's" Horsing Around on, proves that women can be just as violent as we think men out to be. Diane starts a gun control debate which, to her misfortune, leads to all guns getting banned in California. While I am not one of Bojack Horseman's biggest fans, I enjoy plots like this which manage to be silly and relatable at the same time, and the mild chaos that ensues from mass-shooter news and Beatrice trying to turn off the live Horsin' Around performance. It was also an interesting twist that for once, Bojack himself gets to drop the one angry F-bomb per season that irrevocably destroys a relationship he had with someone, rather than someone else he wronged saying it to him in the other four seasons. As a man who supports women's rights, I must say to Diane Nguyen herself - you are right to want us men to create a society where women are not only safe and equal "when the men around you allow you to be", but you need to learn that guns are not the right answer to that problem. If no one can carry a gun, at least no one needs to protect themselves from another person with a gun. That is one step in the right direction, even though it happened for the wrong reasons when the men thought that women could not use guns properly. Tell me what you want out of society to be safer for women like yourself, and I will be there for you.
I never usually know what to expect with how seriously or silly a Bojack Horseman episode takes itself. This is why I do not like the Bojack Horseman episodes where Mr. Peanutbutter and Todd make a floorless Halloween in January store (not Halloween all year long?) and a rickety, unsafe Yesterdayland, or when Todd creates a dentist clown business with Carolyn at the end of Season 4 and abandons them in the forest with no consequences after they go rabid and motivate people to exercise their running skills. Those plots just clash with Bojack Horseman's normally introspective, comically serious tone. However, one thing I truly admire about Thoughts and Prayers on its own, is that it knows how to find the subtle, down-to-earth humor in panicky situations. Like Carolyn and Lenny figuring out how to market Ms. Taken in a positive way, and Beatrice's dementia making her think Bojack was Henrietta and mishear death as Beth.
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