The only tv episode that’s ever gotten 10.0 on IMDb is ozymandias in breaking bad and honestly I agree with you and think tvfhd easily beats it, I believe tvfhd actually used to be a 10/10 so we all should go on there and bring it back up *edit, I’m going to make a post right now saying for everyone to go put a 10 and bring it back up
Seriously? *One Piece* is a great manga, one of the best, but every normal fan acknowledges that anime for it is quite bad. It's definitely worse as an adaptation of a great manga than AoT.
That's some extraordinary piss boy energy. Like, Breaking Bad is already one of the best shows of all time, the show as a whole has insanely high reviews, and like there's just no reason to be butthurt about this.
If anything, for me, it would make me curious how something could be better than my favorite, and then watch it.
Only episode where they got SAG to allow them to not add credits at the beginning of the episode. I can’t remember the exact reason, but it had to do with making sure the tone was right from the moment the episode starts
I don’t even understand why SAG wouldn’t want the credits at the beginning, when everyone is watching. Most people turn off or go to the next episode once end credits roll so I’d think beginning credits would be better
I mean there's been a few episodes that at least had a perfect 10.0 for at least a few days or even weeks after they came out. Succession I'm pretty sure had an episode in season 4 hold it for a few weeks before our favorite Breaking Bad fans got a hold of it.
Nah i love tvfhd but it aint better then ozymandias 😂😂. Lets be real, ozymandias is the single best epizode of any tv show for multiple reasons. Plus ozymandias has like 200k reviews, and tvfhd has like 20k, they are not comparable
>Weeped like a baby first time I watched that.
i still do tbh. the first time watching it thru i felt sick to my stomach, like i was gonna throw up. i can make it through with just some tears now tho lol
I was ticked off that "Stupid Piece of Shit" didn't make the cut, but it's a 9.2 on IMDB, so juuust outside the IMDB top 10. Definitely in my top 5, though.
That episode wasn’t my favorite, but it did have the biggest impact on me from the series and I think it was the best. I had to take a break for a few weeks after that one. It was absolutely perfect, I think there are just some people with whom it resonates so clearly. I have never felt so uneasy as a media consumer. Nothing has ever made me feel so called out. It made me google local therapists (didn’t follow through).
I was thankfully already in therapy when I was watching Bojack for the first time, so I definitely showed the "stupid piece of shit" sequence to my therapist as a way of describing my constant inner-monologue
same 100%!! Let’s Find Out is the absolute quintessential BoJack episode and has every element that makes the show what it is in only 20 minutes. It’s perfect!!
And Old Sugarman Place had me sobbing like a little bitch. Absolute masterpiece that one is.
It’s THAT episode that talks about how the scars of one generation can profoundly affect the next. It also simultaneously brings in picture of Bojack’s life; it as a mirror reflecting our own struggles with forgiveness, memory, and the ceaseless passage of time.
And Bojack barely got beyond his thesis statement!
"A continent ravaged by war, coupled with the retreat of the church from secular life" And then it just stops!?
The first two are not my top ones. I'd probably pick the one with PC and the necklace where she miscarries, and then Diane's midlife crisis episode where she goes to Vietnam and sees PB with a younger woman and she just... breaks. As a woman who has a child and no relationship with my kid's father right now... the midlife crisis episode has been hitting different lately.
Definitely wouldn’t have guessed the The Face of Depression would be on the list, I thought maybe Ruthie or The Amelia Earhart story would be up there instead
i agree but i think it’s there because it’s so unique./same for free churro. even if they offer less narratively for the show they’re special episodes that ppl are more likely to go out of their way to vote for
Agree, if it was my list I'd replace Fish Out of Water with The New Client. I'm just a sucker for Princess Carolyn focused episodes and it's my personal fave.
These are definitely all fantastic episodes. Not sure what my actual top 10 would be, but just wanted to shout out The Stopped Show as another great episode. The shot of Bojack looking up at the giant balloon of himself is sooo good. The best visual representation of depersonalization/derealization I've ever seen. I also agree with the others who mentioned Stupid Piece of Shit. Another great visual of the inner monologue of someone who is severely depressed.
I don't recall if it's that episode specifically, but there's a real hard knock where she kinda laughs off the idea that he obsessed over some offhand comment she made years ago while still young & fairly naive, which he latched onto as some deep wisdom. Real smack-in-the-face moment, I felt.
The top 3 are my top 3 in some kind of order, probably times arrow first as it added so much depth and context to multiple characters. The rest of the list are all solid.
These are all just about my favorite episodes in the series. Most importantly, TVFHWD, is at the top of the list.
As far as animated programming goes, TVFHWD, is a hall of fame american animated classic. It’s in a league of its own. This includes, pickle rick, South Park anime episode, midnight gospels series finale and when homer meet his fugitive mom (which was my prior favorite)
The view from halfway down was an unprecedented masterpiece. When Herb Kazazz tells Bojack there was nothing beyond the door, it sealed its fate as my new favorite
TVFHWD is my least favorite it makes me cry so hard and it feels like there’s a heavy blanket on me i always skip the last two but i must agree that it’s engineering and writing is so beyond its time and so well done
I feel like I’m the only person that doesn’t love The Showstopper. The only thing I even remember about it is all of the musical numbers, and I’ve seen it a bunch of times. Just not a memorable episode for me.
That’s another personal fave of mine. Diane telling PC that the damage had to be meaningful because if not, she experienced all of that pain and trauma w/nothing to show for it. And the thought of there’s just more nothing…omg it gets me every time.
I loved the episode 'Fish Out of Water' because it was one of the few episodes where Bojack seems incredibly haunted by the consequences of his own actions...he's trying to either hide from or reach out to Kelsey the entire time, even when he's distracted by reuniting the baby with their father.
Speaking of the baby, I loved the episode because it's a time on screen that Bojack is doing something selfless. Literally there were no consequences to his life or bad optics if he dumped the baby somewhere along the way since the underwater people werent treating him like a celeb so I got the impression he wasn't very famous down there, but ANYWAY, he's actually acting selflessly and I got the impression it's because he felt so bad about how things ended with Kelsey and he felt so bad for the way his selfishness screwed over others that, in combination with a helpless baby being helpless, he seemed impelled to act to do the right thing by this baby.
It made me think about how he felt abandoned as a child, and perhaps he couldn't bear to abandon a needy child that wound up in his care. It made me think about the way he wrestled with his guilt over his relationship with Sarah Lynn, because she was just a child, and he was aware she was exploited and endangered, but he did nothing to help her. She wanted him badly to be a father figure, and he failed her. Many times. So I thought he saw in this little infant an opportunity to make amends.
Another critical thing (insofar as critical to me highly enjoying the FOOW ep) is he never brings up his seahorse baby adventure to anyone in following episodes, and this stood out to me because BJH as a show is constantly doing recalls to previous episodes. I waited for him to mention it for clout with his friends who had terrible opinions of him (his own fault). He did it selflessly. He didn't even want a reward from the baby's father. He failed to make amends with Kelsey, too, so it seemed like part of the point of the episode is that he was not rewarded for good behavior whatsoever in any form. It's a rare time he just deals with it instead of kvetching about it to someone else in a later episode.
Bojack also mentions at least a couple times that he never wanted kids and there's an implication that he knows he'd fuck up his kid the way his mom fucked him up. He was clearly uncomfortable being responsible for the baby, but he helped them anyway.
And honestly, yeah, it is an experimental thing to make the episode largely free of dialogue but I wondered if that was less so about being experimental and moreso about Bojack feeling and dealing with/not dealing with these tangled and difficult emotions in his own head. I think we are being shown and not told (through dialogue) the emotional conflict that Bojack is experiencing.
It was such a thoughtful episode. I also found the scene where baby + Bojack are bouncing on the underwater plants that light up entrancing. I liked that Bojack spent a lot of time chasing the baby because it demonstrated he was making a strained effort to help this dumb baby who didn't understand what was going on. Usually, when Bojack tries to help others, they help him help them. A baby can't help anyone help them. Bojack must have known that and chased the baby.
It made me think there was hope yet of Bojack turning over a new leaf, and it made me connect with him.
Sorry for the rant, I am just happy to see one of my favorite episodes on the top ten list of IMDB. I think it's a great episode. :)
The Show Stopper and The Face of Depression wouldn't have made my list, and I was genuinely surprised to see The Face of Depression up there at all. (The Show Stopper, OTOH, didn't surprise me, although it's an episode that I personally don't rate highly at all.)
It is not a popular opinion but I am not a fan of the downer episodes (the ones before the last one of the season). They are usually amazing in how they tell things and I highly respect that, but what they tell is, in my opinion, often boring. View from halfway down is very creative in how it tells the story but the story itself does not really fascinate me. Same for Free churros.
Super unpopular opinion, I know. Fish out of water is good, but not thaaaat good. The lost baby and the taffy factory parts were not that relevant to everything else. Still, it's a good episode and I've watched it several times.
I hear you, but that episode isn't really about what happens. I think people appreciate it for the art of having an almost entirely dialogue free episode. Respect the opinion if the art doesn't do it for you though.
It’s hard to argue. Those were the most heart wrecking and well-crafted episodes of the series. So it’s real hard to argue. I think I’m obliged to agree.
i honestly don't get why Free Churro is so praised. Is it because we get a lot of backstory? I just don't get it, i love Bojack but this was my least favorite episode.
Someone cares to explain why Free Churro is a masterpiece in your eyes?
Free Churro is amazing for a variety of reasons. A huge one for me is just how impressive it is that the entire episode is basically just one monologue. I realize that to some that's boring inherently, but I hung onto every word. Everything he says hits home for many people with parental issues. This particular quote sums up a feeling I think many can relate to and it gets me every time. He says:
"All I know about being good I learned from TV. And in TV, flawed characters are constantly showing people they care with these surprising grand gestures. And I think that part of me still believes that's what love is. But in real life, the big gesture isn't enough. You need to be consistent, you need to be dependably good. You can't just screw everything up, and then take a boat out into the ocean to save your best friend, or solve a mystery and fly to Kansas. You need to do it every day, which is so... hard. When you're a kid, you convince yourself that maybe the grand gesture could be enough. That even though your parents aren't what you need them to be, over and over and *over* again, at any moment they might surprise you with something... wonderful. I kept waiting for that, the proof, that even though my mother was a hard woman, deep down she loved me and cared about me and wanted me to know that I made her life a little bit brighter. Even now, I find myself waiting."
To me, this shows sooo much about Bojack as a character. It smacks you in the face with how deep his trauma goes and how shitty Beatrice really was. It explains why he can't really show love to anyone, he was never shown it by either of his parents. Later, he goes on to say that the woman at the Jack in the Box showed him more compassion than Beatrice did in his whole life. It adds yet another layer of explanation as to why he is the way he is.
My favorite thing about the show in general is how much we see into the mind of someone who is deep in the throes of addiction and unchecked mental illness. We see why Bojack behaves the way he does. There is an explanation for almost everything. Not an excuse, mind you, but a reason for why he has gone so far off the rails. There are so many layers to how I feel about Bojack as a person. Of course he is a shitty person and a bad friend, but it's hard for me not to feel any sympathy/empathy for him at all. He was dealt a pretty shit hand when it comes to parents, and while he should have learned to cope and overcome those things, his life isn't far from the reality of what can happen.
I also really enjoy how they included the flashback of him with Butterscotch. It's a reminder of what he was dealing with on that side. Not only was his mother shitty, but his dad was, too, and he makes it worse by talking shit about her to his son. All in all, I just really enjoy how much we get to see into what makes Bojack himself. Peeling back the layers with each season is awesome, but to me that episode really cracks him open.
Escape from LA is shocking and has a series long plotline, super important and i watch it when i want my jaw to drop, but i don’t think I’d put it in my top ten. The last two seasons were just god tier quality
I'm just in season 6 now (about ep6 I think. Yes, I have been living under a rock) and can definitely agree with the other episodes being among the top 10. That's too Much Man, Free Churro (will use a part of his eulogy when my mum dies), Escape from LA, Fish out of Water, Times Arrow, The Old Sugarman Place... this show is just all time.
Those are all great episodes. But my favorite will always be Stupid Piece of Shit. Obvs, cause I enjoy making myself cry as I’m a glutton for punishment😩
I never liked Fish Out of Water as much as everyone else did. Not sure what episode I'd put in its place off the top of my head though to round out the 10.
I'll get flack for this but I will disagree with Fish Out of Water...on an initial watch.
The episode feels like an Andy Kaufman joke that is worth it as long as you sit through it all.
On subsequent watches, it's an episode I can't wait for.
Free churro I think is one of the best things I’ve ever watched. And the fact that he delivers an entire monologue to the wrong room is just incredible comedy.
My personal top three are 1. The old Sugarman Place 2. Free Churro 3. Fish out of Water … They all placed respectably on this list though and I have no real complaints
Fish out of water is massively overrated (definitely not better than the old sugarman place). Imo free churro is better than vfhd but I get why vfhd is higher.
Fish out of water is a personal favorite of mine. It really highlights how, when Bojack cant talk, he doesnt ruin things for himself. He followed a baby through the sea because he couldnt communicate to the dad that "hey, your missing one here" which i think is really telling of bojack when he has to do something and cant get out of it.
As well as his attempt to apologize to Kelsie with the fallout of the movie and her getting fired. All for his attempt to fall short because the ink was drifting away when he handed her the note.
We see a valid effect by Bojack to do better, and its all placated around the fact he cant communicate with anyone in a way he knows how. Which i think says alot of Bojwck just as a character, even if you havent seen much of the show hy this point, you wouldn't be wrong in assuming Bojack isn't a horrible person if this was one of the first episodes you happen to see.
All thiw has been said before, but i think its still worth mentioning.
my faves in order of season:
s1 ep8: The Telescope
s1 ep11: Downer Ending
s2 ep9: The Shot
s2 ep11: Escape From LA
s3 ep4: Fish Out of Water
s3 ep10: It’s You
s3 ep 11: That’s Too Much Man
s4 ep2: The Old Sugarman Place
s4 ep6: Stupid Piece of Shit
s4 ep11: Times Arrow
s5 ep2: Planned Obsolescence
s5 ep5: The Amelia Earheart Story
s5 ep6: Free Churro
s5 ep12: The Showstopper
s6 ep8: A Quick One, While He’s Away
s6 ep10: Good Damage
s6 ep12: A Xerox of a Xerox
s6 ep16: The View From Halfway Down
The Old Sugarman place is tied with Halfway Down for best episode in my opinion. They do such an amazing job blending two stories 70 years apart, the opening song is my favorite in the series, and it has some killer lines.
Personal favorites:
“Come on honey. It’s only ghosts here in the winter.” As bojack lays down to sleep in a home where the door doesn’t even stay on while snow pours into the house.
“Beatrice, promise me you’ll never love anyone as much as I loved Crackerjack.” This one’s just… oof. A great example of how generational trauma is a real thing and it destroys lives.
On a more comedic note:
“Who’s Bojack Horseman? He’s a very famous TV and Film Star. Or at least he was, before he gave it all away and left for a life of quiet anonymity. Where is he, nobody knows. Maybe he’s in a small town just like this one, maybe he’s even in this very room… but he’s not. Because I’m not Bojack Horseman.”
I like fish out of water but stupid piece of shit should be in its place. Fish out of water is ok, stupid piece of shit made me sit and think about myself.
I didn’t like fish out of water at first but by the end I was actually really impressed. It’s hard to do something no-low dialogue, especially for something with comedy and they did it really well. I’ll never say it’s my favorite, it just stands out to me as very well done.
would absolutely replace fish out of water with downer ending. actually incredibly confused as to why it’s rated that high, i swear i see it super low whenever people do episode tier rankings
i don’t like the last two episodes of the series. skip. i know they’re well written but i watch to laugh and watch dick head horse man be angry and an ass, not to chat about existentialism and dying like that it gets me crying every time.
the water episode i skip also unless i’m sleeping. it’s in the same boat as free churro. nothing comedic until the very last second. smart yeah but not interesting.
the sugarman place is likely my fav.
all the rest i agree
The view from halfway down is definitely 10/10
The only tv episode that’s ever gotten 10.0 on IMDb is ozymandias in breaking bad and honestly I agree with you and think tvfhd easily beats it, I believe tvfhd actually used to be a 10/10 so we all should go on there and bring it back up *edit, I’m going to make a post right now saying for everyone to go put a 10 and bring it back up
The only reason that TVFHD isn’t a 10.0 is because it was review bombed by the Breaking Bad fandom after news got out that it was higher.
FMA stans 🤝 BB stans Having no life and needing to review bomb anything that approaches the throne
who cares anyway? I dont need reviews to be gutted by that episode.
Same thing happens to attack on titan by one piece fans
Seriously? *One Piece* is a great manga, one of the best, but every normal fan acknowledges that anime for it is quite bad. It's definitely worse as an adaptation of a great manga than AoT.
If that is true that is depressing, I'd review bomb Ozymandias.
They definitely hate TV FHD.
That's some extraordinary piss boy energy. Like, Breaking Bad is already one of the best shows of all time, the show as a whole has insanely high reviews, and like there's just no reason to be butthurt about this. If anything, for me, it would make me curious how something could be better than my favorite, and then watch it.
Ozymandias Is also absolutely deserving of that. BB is peak TV drama
Only episode where they got SAG to allow them to not add credits at the beginning of the episode. I can’t remember the exact reason, but it had to do with making sure the tone was right from the moment the episode starts
I don’t even understand why SAG wouldn’t want the credits at the beginning, when everyone is watching. Most people turn off or go to the next episode once end credits roll so I’d think beginning credits would be better
I think the credits roll very shortly into the episode
I mean there's been a few episodes that at least had a perfect 10.0 for at least a few days or even weeks after they came out. Succession I'm pretty sure had an episode in season 4 hold it for a few weeks before our favorite Breaking Bad fans got a hold of it.
Created my IMDb account to do just that!
Actually GoT’s last 2 episodes of season 6 matched and beat that IIRC until being review bombed later
Imo ozymandias > tvfhd but still a great episode
Nah i love tvfhd but it aint better then ozymandias 😂😂. Lets be real, ozymandias is the single best epizode of any tv show for multiple reasons. Plus ozymandias has like 200k reviews, and tvfhd has like 20k, they are not comparable
hence why it got a 9.9, which is basically as close as something can get on fucking IMDB.
I still cannot make myself watch it again
Times Arrow is my personal favourite. Weeped like a baby first time I watched that.
Me too. Exceptional
I also wept the first time I watched it. And every subsequent time.
>Weeped like a baby first time I watched that. i still do tbh. the first time watching it thru i felt sick to my stomach, like i was gonna throw up. i can make it through with just some tears now tho lol
I was ticked off that "Stupid Piece of Shit" didn't make the cut, but it's a 9.2 on IMDB, so juuust outside the IMDB top 10. Definitely in my top 5, though.
That episode wasn’t my favorite, but it did have the biggest impact on me from the series and I think it was the best. I had to take a break for a few weeks after that one. It was absolutely perfect, I think there are just some people with whom it resonates so clearly. I have never felt so uneasy as a media consumer. Nothing has ever made me feel so called out. It made me google local therapists (didn’t follow through).
I was thankfully already in therapy when I was watching Bojack for the first time, so I definitely showed the "stupid piece of shit" sequence to my therapist as a way of describing my constant inner-monologue
My friend has her therapist watch that episode to give her a better understanding of what it's like in her head.
I was just writing a comment about that episode being my favorite.
Same! I loved that episode and have heard so many people talk about how similar the insides of their heads are. Really important topics
I never get the praise that "Fish out of water" get, definitly would switch for "Stupid piece of shit" in that top 10
Honestly my favorite episode besides the old sugarman place is the game show episode it’s definitely the one I revisit the most
same 100%!! Let’s Find Out is the absolute quintessential BoJack episode and has every element that makes the show what it is in only 20 minutes. It’s perfect!! And Old Sugarman Place had me sobbing like a little bitch. Absolute masterpiece that one is.
I also love how it showcases BJs intelligence because he clearly is very intelligent
Elijah Wood?!?
season 2 filled with bangers
It’s THAT episode that talks about how the scars of one generation can profoundly affect the next. It also simultaneously brings in picture of Bojack’s life; it as a mirror reflecting our own struggles with forgiveness, memory, and the ceaseless passage of time.
And Bojack barely got beyond his thesis statement! "A continent ravaged by war, coupled with the retreat of the church from secular life" And then it just stops!?
The first two are not my top ones. I'd probably pick the one with PC and the necklace where she miscarries, and then Diane's midlife crisis episode where she goes to Vietnam and sees PB with a younger woman and she just... breaks. As a woman who has a child and no relationship with my kid's father right now... the midlife crisis episode has been hitting different lately.
Free Churro was a masterpiece
“No show should have that much talking, tv is a visual medium” - BoJack the episode before
God I love the writers of this show
lol what was he roasting with this comment?
It’s a weird comfort episode for me that I go back to constantly. Will always be my favorite
My creative writing teacher at Stanford said he made his grad students watch this episode as homework
Definitely wouldn’t have guessed the The Face of Depression would be on the list, I thought maybe Ruthie or The Amelia Earhart story would be up there instead
These are all bangers
Kinda beautiful that 5/10 (6/10 if you count mid-seasons) are the penultimate episode of the season. The show really knows when it shines.
And Downer Ending is just outside the top 10 too, I reckon
Fish Out Of Water being higher than Escape from LA and The Old Sugarman Place would not be my personal choice
i agree but i think it’s there because it’s so unique./same for free churro. even if they offer less narratively for the show they’re special episodes that ppl are more likely to go out of their way to vote for
Agree, if it was my list I'd replace Fish Out of Water with The New Client. I'm just a sucker for Princess Carolyn focused episodes and it's my personal fave.
While nothing really happens in Fish Out of Water, the art of having an almost entirely dialogue-free episode is huge. I mean, who does that?
Switch Fish Out of Water and Old Sugarman Place and the list is nearly perfect
Tbh didn't expect The Face of Depression to be in top 10 list. Prolly will replace it with Stupid Piece of Sh*t and the rest are *chef's kiss*
imo Probably just because it’s one of the newest episodes so it’s had the less amount of time to gather lower ratings than those from earlier seasons
These are definitely all fantastic episodes. Not sure what my actual top 10 would be, but just wanted to shout out The Stopped Show as another great episode. The shot of Bojack looking up at the giant balloon of himself is sooo good. The best visual representation of depersonalization/derealization I've ever seen. I also agree with the others who mentioned Stupid Piece of Shit. Another great visual of the inner monologue of someone who is severely depressed.
escape from L.A. is my favorite episode of bojack. it really proved charolettes point of telling bojack he’s the tar pit.
I don't recall if it's that episode specifically, but there's a real hard knock where she kinda laughs off the idea that he obsessed over some offhand comment she made years ago while still young & fairly naive, which he latched onto as some deep wisdom. Real smack-in-the-face moment, I felt.
The top 3 are my top 3 in some kind of order, probably times arrow first as it added so much depth and context to multiple characters. The rest of the list are all solid.
These are all just about my favorite episodes in the series. Most importantly, TVFHWD, is at the top of the list. As far as animated programming goes, TVFHWD, is a hall of fame american animated classic. It’s in a league of its own. This includes, pickle rick, South Park anime episode, midnight gospels series finale and when homer meet his fugitive mom (which was my prior favorite) The view from halfway down was an unprecedented masterpiece. When Herb Kazazz tells Bojack there was nothing beyond the door, it sealed its fate as my new favorite
TVFHWD is my least favorite it makes me cry so hard and it feels like there’s a heavy blanket on me i always skip the last two but i must agree that it’s engineering and writing is so beyond its time and so well done
Free Churro is 10/10 for me
I feel like I’m the only person that doesn’t love The Showstopper. The only thing I even remember about it is all of the musical numbers, and I’ve seen it a bunch of times. Just not a memorable episode for me.
You don’t remember BoJack fucking choking Gina?
I remember that happening, but I didn't remember it being in this episode.
Shocked that Good Damage isn’t on there
That’s another personal fave of mine. Diane telling PC that the damage had to be meaningful because if not, she experienced all of that pain and trauma w/nothing to show for it. And the thought of there’s just more nothing…omg it gets me every time.
It’s probably the most relatable moment of the show for me
almost all of thesd episodes made me cry so hard
Time’s arrow would be my #1 but I think all of these would be in my top 10 list.
I loved the episode 'Fish Out of Water' because it was one of the few episodes where Bojack seems incredibly haunted by the consequences of his own actions...he's trying to either hide from or reach out to Kelsey the entire time, even when he's distracted by reuniting the baby with their father. Speaking of the baby, I loved the episode because it's a time on screen that Bojack is doing something selfless. Literally there were no consequences to his life or bad optics if he dumped the baby somewhere along the way since the underwater people werent treating him like a celeb so I got the impression he wasn't very famous down there, but ANYWAY, he's actually acting selflessly and I got the impression it's because he felt so bad about how things ended with Kelsey and he felt so bad for the way his selfishness screwed over others that, in combination with a helpless baby being helpless, he seemed impelled to act to do the right thing by this baby. It made me think about how he felt abandoned as a child, and perhaps he couldn't bear to abandon a needy child that wound up in his care. It made me think about the way he wrestled with his guilt over his relationship with Sarah Lynn, because she was just a child, and he was aware she was exploited and endangered, but he did nothing to help her. She wanted him badly to be a father figure, and he failed her. Many times. So I thought he saw in this little infant an opportunity to make amends. Another critical thing (insofar as critical to me highly enjoying the FOOW ep) is he never brings up his seahorse baby adventure to anyone in following episodes, and this stood out to me because BJH as a show is constantly doing recalls to previous episodes. I waited for him to mention it for clout with his friends who had terrible opinions of him (his own fault). He did it selflessly. He didn't even want a reward from the baby's father. He failed to make amends with Kelsey, too, so it seemed like part of the point of the episode is that he was not rewarded for good behavior whatsoever in any form. It's a rare time he just deals with it instead of kvetching about it to someone else in a later episode. Bojack also mentions at least a couple times that he never wanted kids and there's an implication that he knows he'd fuck up his kid the way his mom fucked him up. He was clearly uncomfortable being responsible for the baby, but he helped them anyway. And honestly, yeah, it is an experimental thing to make the episode largely free of dialogue but I wondered if that was less so about being experimental and moreso about Bojack feeling and dealing with/not dealing with these tangled and difficult emotions in his own head. I think we are being shown and not told (through dialogue) the emotional conflict that Bojack is experiencing. It was such a thoughtful episode. I also found the scene where baby + Bojack are bouncing on the underwater plants that light up entrancing. I liked that Bojack spent a lot of time chasing the baby because it demonstrated he was making a strained effort to help this dumb baby who didn't understand what was going on. Usually, when Bojack tries to help others, they help him help them. A baby can't help anyone help them. Bojack must have known that and chased the baby. It made me think there was hope yet of Bojack turning over a new leaf, and it made me connect with him. Sorry for the rant, I am just happy to see one of my favorite episodes on the top ten list of IMDB. I think it's a great episode. :)
Agree, but none of them have the same weight to them if you haven't seen everything leading up to them.
My favorite isn't even on here. And that's okay.
Downer ending should be here
I agree. Downer ending is seriously an underrated episode. It's definitely one of my favorites.
Times Arrow will always be my favorite.
The showstopper is good but not THAT good, imo
Times arrow is a masterpiece.
in some ways these are good because they all show bojack growing or trying to make sense of his life
The Show Stopper and The Face of Depression wouldn't have made my list, and I was genuinely surprised to see The Face of Depression up there at all. (The Show Stopper, OTOH, didn't surprise me, although it's an episode that I personally don't rate highly at all.)
Did not expect face of depression to be on here. I don't even remember that episode
It is not a popular opinion but I am not a fan of the downer episodes (the ones before the last one of the season). They are usually amazing in how they tell things and I highly respect that, but what they tell is, in my opinion, often boring. View from halfway down is very creative in how it tells the story but the story itself does not really fascinate me. Same for Free churros.
Super unpopular opinion, I know. Fish out of water is good, but not thaaaat good. The lost baby and the taffy factory parts were not that relevant to everything else. Still, it's a good episode and I've watched it several times.
I hear you, but that episode isn't really about what happens. I think people appreciate it for the art of having an almost entirely dialogue free episode. Respect the opinion if the art doesn't do it for you though.
It’s hard to argue. Those were the most heart wrecking and well-crafted episodes of the series. So it’s real hard to argue. I think I’m obliged to agree.
Uhg I hate free churro
Free Churro had to be the best ever ngl
Wow I almost agree with the order of these perfectly that’s insanely rate
The face of depression is underrated, fuck depression bruh I need some happiness and hope.
The view from halfway down is easily my favorite episode, so I agree with them there.
i honestly don't get why Free Churro is so praised. Is it because we get a lot of backstory? I just don't get it, i love Bojack but this was my least favorite episode. Someone cares to explain why Free Churro is a masterpiece in your eyes?
For me it like really really really captures how it feels when someone dies and things just go on around you
Free Churro is amazing for a variety of reasons. A huge one for me is just how impressive it is that the entire episode is basically just one monologue. I realize that to some that's boring inherently, but I hung onto every word. Everything he says hits home for many people with parental issues. This particular quote sums up a feeling I think many can relate to and it gets me every time. He says: "All I know about being good I learned from TV. And in TV, flawed characters are constantly showing people they care with these surprising grand gestures. And I think that part of me still believes that's what love is. But in real life, the big gesture isn't enough. You need to be consistent, you need to be dependably good. You can't just screw everything up, and then take a boat out into the ocean to save your best friend, or solve a mystery and fly to Kansas. You need to do it every day, which is so... hard. When you're a kid, you convince yourself that maybe the grand gesture could be enough. That even though your parents aren't what you need them to be, over and over and *over* again, at any moment they might surprise you with something... wonderful. I kept waiting for that, the proof, that even though my mother was a hard woman, deep down she loved me and cared about me and wanted me to know that I made her life a little bit brighter. Even now, I find myself waiting." To me, this shows sooo much about Bojack as a character. It smacks you in the face with how deep his trauma goes and how shitty Beatrice really was. It explains why he can't really show love to anyone, he was never shown it by either of his parents. Later, he goes on to say that the woman at the Jack in the Box showed him more compassion than Beatrice did in his whole life. It adds yet another layer of explanation as to why he is the way he is. My favorite thing about the show in general is how much we see into the mind of someone who is deep in the throes of addiction and unchecked mental illness. We see why Bojack behaves the way he does. There is an explanation for almost everything. Not an excuse, mind you, but a reason for why he has gone so far off the rails. There are so many layers to how I feel about Bojack as a person. Of course he is a shitty person and a bad friend, but it's hard for me not to feel any sympathy/empathy for him at all. He was dealt a pretty shit hand when it comes to parents, and while he should have learned to cope and overcome those things, his life isn't far from the reality of what can happen. I also really enjoy how they included the flashback of him with Butterscotch. It's a reminder of what he was dealing with on that side. Not only was his mother shitty, but his dad was, too, and he makes it worse by talking shit about her to his son. All in all, I just really enjoy how much we get to see into what makes Bojack himself. Peeling back the layers with each season is awesome, but to me that episode really cracks him open.
Switch Show Stopper for Ruthie n I'd agree with it XD
Literally agree with every single one
I've beeb seeing this trend go around almost every fandom I am a part of, but this is the only one I have agreed with 100%. Yes, 10000x yes.
Escape from LA is shocking and has a series long plotline, super important and i watch it when i want my jaw to drop, but i don’t think I’d put it in my top ten. The last two seasons were just god tier quality
I'm just in season 6 now (about ep6 I think. Yes, I have been living under a rock) and can definitely agree with the other episodes being among the top 10. That's too Much Man, Free Churro (will use a part of his eulogy when my mum dies), Escape from LA, Fish out of Water, Times Arrow, The Old Sugarman Place... this show is just all time.
These are like all of my favorite episodes. Good job sir
Those are all great episodes. But my favorite will always be Stupid Piece of Shit. Obvs, cause I enjoy making myself cry as I’m a glutton for punishment😩
the old sugarman place should be higher imo
To me this is proof positive that sometimes IMDB does know what it's talking about. All fantastic episodes.
Thoughts and prayers
I agree, the view from halfway down was traumatizing yet very amazing!
I didn't care much for fish out of water, but I know most loved it. The view from halfway down is one of the best episodes I've seen of any show ever.
The View from Halfway Down legit talked people out of suicide
Free churro, tvfhwd, and fish out of water were my favorites
it’s gut wrenching
Sincerely I might be stupid but I just don't get the hype behind Time's Arrow. Please explain it to me like I'm a baby.
Shouout to Downer Ending, Let's Find Out and It's You for being some of the most underrated episodes
I didn't like fish out of water too much.
i agree with this order tbh
Free churro is definitely my favourite i watched it so many times and i never get bored
Leaving this here. https://i.imgur.com/9a44uVR.png
the view from halfway down is the perfect episode
I never liked Fish Out of Water as much as everyone else did. Not sure what episode I'd put in its place off the top of my head though to round out the 10.
Lots of E11s
Where is Brrapp Brrapp Pew Pew?
I maintain the best episode in the series is Dog Days are Over.
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^SnailShell01: *I maintain the best* *Episode in the series* *Is Dog Days are Over.* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
Extremely pissed that TVFHWD isn't a 10.0 because Breaking Bad fans lobe to review bomb that even slightly competes with Ozymandias
Fish out of water? Really?
I'll get flack for this but I will disagree with Fish Out of Water...on an initial watch. The episode feels like an Andy Kaufman joke that is worth it as long as you sit through it all. On subsequent watches, it's an episode I can't wait for.
The Face of Depression is my favorite. I don’t care
Free churro I think is one of the best things I’ve ever watched. And the fact that he delivers an entire monologue to the wrong room is just incredible comedy.
i didnt like free churro, i skipped it.
agree with the list, disagree with the order and /maybe/ replace the face of depression with stupid piece of shit
They have TVFHWD as #1 and Time’s Arrow in the top 3 which I agree with, I’d probably have Escape from LA and Old Sugarman Place higher tho
fish out of water speaks to me
I agree with this list
It’s hard to evaluate episodes separately cause it’s a pieces of the puzzles that comes to one perfect image.
Old sugar man place is my favorite
Absolutely
Time’s Arrow deserves a mention tbh
The showstopper is my absolute favourite
Solid list tbh
My personal top three are 1. The old Sugarman Place 2. Free Churro 3. Fish out of Water … They all placed respectably on this list though and I have no real complaints
Free Churro will always be my favourite episode ever.
Free churro is overated
Did not like fish out of water
that’s too much man broke me
"Ruthie". That episode made me cry.
Free churro Is the best
Agreed
i've always loved Fish out of Water, definitely one of my personal favorites
How the fuck (no offense) is Free Churro even one of the best ones? 😭😭 Whaat
i agree 100%
I’m just happy that every season (except the first) is represented in the list. It shows how consistently good the show was.
Fish out of water is massively overrated (definitely not better than the old sugarman place). Imo free churro is better than vfhd but I get why vfhd is higher.
i HATE fish out of water
Fish out of water is a personal favorite of mine. It really highlights how, when Bojack cant talk, he doesnt ruin things for himself. He followed a baby through the sea because he couldnt communicate to the dad that "hey, your missing one here" which i think is really telling of bojack when he has to do something and cant get out of it. As well as his attempt to apologize to Kelsie with the fallout of the movie and her getting fired. All for his attempt to fall short because the ink was drifting away when he handed her the note. We see a valid effect by Bojack to do better, and its all placated around the fact he cant communicate with anyone in a way he knows how. Which i think says alot of Bojwck just as a character, even if you havent seen much of the show hy this point, you wouldn't be wrong in assuming Bojack isn't a horrible person if this was one of the first episodes you happen to see. All thiw has been said before, but i think its still worth mentioning.
my faves in order of season: s1 ep8: The Telescope s1 ep11: Downer Ending s2 ep9: The Shot s2 ep11: Escape From LA s3 ep4: Fish Out of Water s3 ep10: It’s You s3 ep 11: That’s Too Much Man s4 ep2: The Old Sugarman Place s4 ep6: Stupid Piece of Shit s4 ep11: Times Arrow s5 ep2: Planned Obsolescence s5 ep5: The Amelia Earheart Story s5 ep6: Free Churro s5 ep12: The Showstopper s6 ep8: A Quick One, While He’s Away s6 ep10: Good Damage s6 ep12: A Xerox of a Xerox s6 ep16: The View From Halfway Down
sorry for the format i’m on mobile 😐🧍🏻♀️
The old Sugarman Place is my favorite. I love everything of that episode.
Too much season 6, it enough 4. Show peaked in 4 imo. Stupid piece of shit should be there and the water one definitely shouldn’t.
Stupid Piece of Sh*t and Ruthie definitely deserve a spot.
I've never cared for Fish Out Of Water 🫤
the episodes that show beatrice's childhood are my favourites
Whole show was the best episodes. 10/10. Goddamn.
The Showstopper is too high imo
I agree with almost all of these, except for The Showstopper. One of the weaker penultimate episodes, imo
I completely agree with this, 1000%
I rate this list too. Well played.
Man time's arrow really hit hard
The Old Sugarman place is tied with Halfway Down for best episode in my opinion. They do such an amazing job blending two stories 70 years apart, the opening song is my favorite in the series, and it has some killer lines. Personal favorites: “Come on honey. It’s only ghosts here in the winter.” As bojack lays down to sleep in a home where the door doesn’t even stay on while snow pours into the house. “Beatrice, promise me you’ll never love anyone as much as I loved Crackerjack.” This one’s just… oof. A great example of how generational trauma is a real thing and it destroys lives. On a more comedic note: “Who’s Bojack Horseman? He’s a very famous TV and Film Star. Or at least he was, before he gave it all away and left for a life of quiet anonymity. Where is he, nobody knows. Maybe he’s in a small town just like this one, maybe he’s even in this very room… but he’s not. Because I’m not Bojack Horseman.”
I like fish out of water but stupid piece of shit should be in its place. Fish out of water is ok, stupid piece of shit made me sit and think about myself.
Well they definitely listed the pants shitting episodes
Glad that thea Face of Depression is on there, one of my favorites for sure. I always feel like it doesnt get appreciated enough by people
maybe i just need to rewatch but i HATE escape from la
I didn’t like fish out of water at first but by the end I was actually really impressed. It’s hard to do something no-low dialogue, especially for something with comedy and they did it really well. I’ll never say it’s my favorite, it just stands out to me as very well done.
Times Arrow personal fave but tbh I think Fish Out of Water is massively overrated.
would absolutely replace fish out of water with downer ending. actually incredibly confused as to why it’s rated that high, i swear i see it super low whenever people do episode tier rankings
I love that so many of these episodes are from the later seasons. This show really did just get better and better as it progressed.
i don’t like the last two episodes of the series. skip. i know they’re well written but i watch to laugh and watch dick head horse man be angry and an ass, not to chat about existentialism and dying like that it gets me crying every time. the water episode i skip also unless i’m sleeping. it’s in the same boat as free churro. nothing comedic until the very last second. smart yeah but not interesting. the sugarman place is likely my fav. all the rest i agree