10 Thoughts on Bojack HorsemanChickens

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Here we go! The first Todd-centric episode of the season. And boy howdy, it’s a doozy. I was wondering when we were going to get into the uncomfortable question of whether or not these creatures eat meat. So many of them are animals, so it seems odd that anyone would be eating anything in this universe that is sentient. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

In this episode, Bojack inadvertently causes a traffic accident that allows for a chicken to escape from the back of truck belonging to the company Chicken 4 Dayz, a poultry producing company. The chicken finds her way to Mr. Peanut Butter’s house where she meets Todd, who is immediately enamored of her. But when Officer Meow Meow Fuzzyface is put on the case to find the chicken, it’s up to Todd, Diane and Kelsey Janning’s daughter Irving (Amy Schumer) to save her from the giant, evil corporation.

So off we go, into some more weird, existential territory!

1. Chicken 4 Dayz and Gentle Farms are equally terrifying

At the top of the episode, Bojack is watching a video on his iPad while driving. Of course, he ends up causing the accident that is the impetus for the whole episode. But the video he’s watching has two ads. One is for Chicken 4 Dayz, a massive chicken producing company that has no compunctions about selling its customers questionable chicken meat. The other is for Gentle Farms, which raises chicken in open fields and slaughters them humanely. The thing is, these chickens are raised by other chickens. The owner of Gentle Farms (a chicken himself) makes the argument that you can raise chickens as either friends or meat, meaning there is no moral gray area in what they do. That is a pretty flimsy rational. In the commercial, even his wife looks uncomfortable. This opens a whole lot of rabbit hole questions for this show.

2. There are photographs of butts all over Mr. Peanut Butter’s house

This must have been a running joke since last season, but I did not notice it. All over his house, instead of peoples faces, there are pictures of butts. Is this because dogs greet each other by sniffing butts? Is that that how they identify each other? Butts? I guess if that’s the case, it would stand to reason that it would be butts instead of faces displayed. I have said butts entirely too many times in this observation.

3. The word play in this episode is really strong

The only thing the chicken that Todd befriends can say is variations of “ba-gok!” As in the sound that chickens make. When officer Meow Meow Fuzzyface comes to the house to investigate, Todd has to deflect and convince him that she is his wife. When asked what her name is, she responds with something that sounds like “Becca.” When he holds out a pen, she identifies it as a “bic.” When Todd teases her, she tells him to “back off.” All of this eases the officer’s suspicion and he goes on his way. Oh, and besides being a booking agent for Kings of Lean, she also “books Beck.” Nice.

4. Is Meow Meow Fuzzyface a loose canon? A cop on the edge with nothing to lose? 

One of the best gags is when Fuzzyface goes back to the station and conversation breaks out among the officers about which cop cliche he is. They even make up a chart.

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Personally, my vote is for “hooker with a heart of gold,” but that one was ruled out, apparently. Bummer.

5. Wow, Bojack has more self-awareness than I thought

Bojack spends this episode trying to get the approval of his director, Kelsey Jannings (Maria Bamford). When she finally reaches the end of her rope and asks why he needs her to like him so much he responds with this: “I don’t need you to like me. It would be fun if you like me. Then I could prove to myself that my parents were wrong to never support me because I now earned the admiration of a surrogate authority figure, thus proving that I have intrinsic worth, but it’s not like it’s a big deal or anything, jeez.” Later, he gets everybody out of trouble with the law by reminding the officer that he’s famous. That’s pretty impressive. He may be stunted, but he really has a handle on who he is as a person. Horse. Whatever.

6. It’s Todd’s turn to get his “What is my purpose?” moment

Todd starts the episode by lazing around Mr. Peanut Butter’s house, unsure of what to do with himself. He calls Princess Carolyn twice asking for something to do, even going so far as to ask her to give him some purpose. And when he finds Becca the chicken, he puts his whole heart and soul into making sure she escapes. And when they have to say goodbye, he is genuinely heartbroken because he has lost his new found purpose in life. I feel like Todd is kind of the Kramer of this series. He has all sorts of little ventures that never really pan out, but he keeps trying. The difference here is that Todd is really struggling with what his place is in the world. Along with every other character around him.

7. This seems like a pro-vegetarian episode

At the top of the episode, the argument is made that Gentle Farms is a better place for chickens. They’ll be raised better and have a better life in general. But by the end of the episode, we find that there really is no option for raising chickens that isn’t terrible. Maybe it’s just making the argument that eating meat in the Bojack universe is morally abhorrent, but it also seems to be trying to make the case that it’s just terrible in general. I don’t know. Maybe I’m reading into too much.

8. There has to be a Drew Barrymore cameo coming

I’ve lost track of how many times Bojack has mentioned that he helped Drew Barrymore get clean. At the end of this episode, he cashes in his last favor with her making sure that Becca will leave a nice life in the open fields of Drew Barrymore’s meadows. She has been name dropped too many times for her not to be appearing later in the series. I can’t wait to see what their relationship is actually like.

9. I hope we see more of Officer Meow Meow Fuzzyface

You know what would be great? A Die Hard send up with him as Bruce Willis. Please. Please let me be right.

10. Well, that was a cynical ending

I think my earlier point about pro-vegetarianism (or at least anti-poultry farming) might have actually been accurate. As the crew is driving away, trying to figure out if they made a difference and Todd deciding that they had, they pass this.

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That has got to be a direct dig at McDonald’s and other fast food chains. And it’s a pretty bleak outlook if the point of the episode was that the sort of practices of these companies is wrong and that we should be fighting against it. Way to leave us in the lurch, Bojack Horseman.

Check out previous thoughts on Bojack Horseman below!

10 Thoughts on Bojack Horseman – After The Party

10 Thoughts on Bojack Horseman – Still Broken

10 Thoughts on Bojack Horseman – Brand New Couch & Yesterdayland

Colin is a writer and actor based in Brooklyn, NY.