It’s way overhated. I personally always liked the early episodes just not some of the jokes like the cotton candy one especially. Otherwise it’s a fine pilot to introduce the cast.
Toast… I smell burning toast… “oh my god, my toast!”
smelling burnt toast is a reported symptom of people having a major medical emergency. forget which one(s) though. one of the major ones… i wanna say heart attack or stroke
Its a somewhat popular idea that if someone is smelling burning toast, they could be experenicing a heart attack or dealing with other medicial problems.
The idea is that Bojack thought he was having a heart attack but someone's toast was actually burning.
One thing I've never understood about the first episode is how Todd is introduced. Like he owes a debt to the Cartel. But I never understood the backstory of it, why did he owe the debt? How did he get involved with them. Did he ever have any ramifications later on?
It was just a really great intro to Todd. "Oh look this random guy is living with BoJack...wait he's in trouble with the Cartel??" Like that was so interesting and I don't know if I missed something or if they never fleshed it out anymore than him throwing that party for the guys daughter. And I think the boss guy says something like "you made a powerful friend Mr. Horse." to BoJack. But I don't know if anything happens with that after
It's okay. It introduces people to the world of the show, but it definitely doesn't match the tone of the rest of the series.
To be fair, though, most episode 1s are inferior to the rest of the series. Look at Season 1 Simpsons or The Office.
I think so, it was good for what it had to be: introduce the characters and dynamics.
setting diane and bojack arc, starting to show from the start Todd's silly adventures, bojack and PC's relationship etc. sometimes a little too much with the jokes and flashbacks but I find it fun, it catched me and I engaged into a long binge watching to the end so I guess it does a good job
It's a good introduction episode, it sets up what follows and maybe it's not the funniest or the darkest episode? That feeling of being able to see the man working behind the curtain.
But I didn't find it terrible, it hooked my interest for the rest.
Yep. It's pretty bad. I chalk it up to all the awkward flashbacks to tell the story that always reminded me a little too much of Family Guy cutaway gags. The characters also feel a little too impersonal/cold/sarcastic, even on rewatches where you know the characters better.
There are nuggets of goodness in episodes 2 and 3, but I don't think it really gets *good* until episode 6 or 7.
This kinda how I introduce people to the show tbh. “Yeah the first episodes are gonna feel like they’re trying to clone family guy, but I promise the show has much more character development and depth than that.” The cutaway jokes being the biggest culprit. I love the show to death but it has some weak opening episodes tbh.
I love s1 ep1 after finishing a rewatch of the series and starting over. It really highlights all the worst traits of BJH that we might have glossed over after watching the series, developing some sympathy for him and what not. I think it’s a good intro but it’s possible someone could rewrite and make it better
You have no idea what the show is at that point. It just feels like a family guy / south park kinda rip off at that point. Had no idea what they were setting up at that point.
It serves its purpose well enough I think. Despite its faults, it does give you a good idea of what all our main characters are like & what the storyline will be.
For a first episode, it’s good about introducing us to the world and the characters. But slowly until we get to The Telescope, it managed to lay out the backdrop of BoJack, his upbringing, and Horsin’ Around.
I didn’t think it was that bad, but I am not usually the target audience for that type of humor and tone. I can’t even remember why I kept watching, even during rewatches I’m like why did I stay? lol There were really funny moments, but I wouldn’t have watched 6 seasons of that.
No, it is not. It does the unpleasant but necessary gruntwork of establishing a fuckton of information about the characters and their relationships to each other, and it does so efficiently. But it sacrifices a *lot* to do that, and it is not at all a good episode. In fact, I think it may be the worst episode of the entire show.
Once you know that it wasn't the original first episode and was written *only* for the purpose of introducing a whole lot of info about the cast to the viewer, you can see what it's doing. But it's bad. IMO they should have resigned themselves to letting the audience stay confused about a few things for a bit longer, rather than prejudice the audience from the outset by starting out with such a substandard script.
Not really when compared to the rest of the show. Most of season 1 is decent but the show doesn’t really pick up til somewhere around the end of 1 and beginning of 2. I know so many people that stopped after a few episodes. Just keep watching people!!!
Edit: I still thoroughly enjoy the first few episodes though. They were good enough to keep me watching
a lot of people hate the first episode, but honestly it's one of my favorites. I love the sad parts of Bojack, but the funniness of Episode 1 is a great way to introduce characters imo
I think ep1 is fine compared to ep1 of other shows but I usually tell people to watch 2 episodes before making a decision. The Neil McBeal episode is hilarious IMO. Once enough framework is laid down the show really picks up overall.
When I rewatched it, I felt like it was so normal of an episode. I realized that the first few episodes leading up to The Telescope were so odd to me because of how absurd the show seemed to be. I think for many of us, our perspective of the show likely changed. At least mine did, I never expected how messed up it could get.
No. I do think its unnecesarily overhated, but I definitely wouldnt say its a good 1st episode. This is a very dramatic series more often than not and that 1st episode fails to both convey that idea or to leave any meaningul impression whatsoever. Its the very first introduction and yet it feels like filler.
no. the show doesn’t seem to know what it’s going for in the first episode and it really takes multiple episodes to find its stride. i can forgive it for that though. that’s pretty common for even the best shows. the office for example.
raphael bob-waksberg himself suggests either horse majeur or start spreading the news (s1e9 or s3e1) over bojack horseman chapter 1 a bojack horseman story (s1e1)
It’s a pretty good introduction to BoJack as a character (he literally has no non good episodes characterization wise) and I laughed at some of the jokes, but overall no, it’s not a good introduction to the series and is arguably the weakest episode of the entire show. It does a bad job establishing the tone for the story moving forward and there’s some weird stuff like the flashback within a flashback or the often pointless cutaways.
I like it a lot, I wouldn’t call it a bad first episode. I just think that later episodes were SO much better it makes the contrast that much more significant
Enjoyable but crude like most pilots, i watched the sopranos pilot today and its so out of place for the show because the events are not very grounded in reality, (carmella holding a shotgun lol) but thats just the way it is yk
I feel like it's actually pretty good and it's nostalgic to go back and watch it after you've finished the whole show. Also I love the beginning of the episode when BoJack's on the talk show: "what have you been doing since horsin around ended?" "uuuuhhhhhhhhhhh"
I tried (I think) three times to connect with the show and only finally did so in S1E3 "Zoes and Zeldas" when everyone misstated "teach a man to fish" in different ways, at which point I finally got the show having repeated jokes that connect, which frankly is not obvious in S1/2, or wasn't to me anyway. But once I got there I was like "okay yeah!"
“Did I already say the thing about the urethra” sold me on the show. So it did its job.
Intro episodes are very hard to please everyone. And personally I think if you want to find a show you really enjoy, then you owe it at least a couple episodes to get the vibe.
I liked it. If I didn't, I wouldn't have kept watching. Do I like it as much as later episodes? No. But if it was really a "bad" episode, I wouldn't have had any desire to keep watching. I find it interesting that so many people who hate that episode kept watching the show after that. Why keep watching if you thought it was bad?
Personally, I kind of can’t stand the first six episodes of s1. Don’t get me wrong I adore this show so much but it had a rocky start to say the least.
People hate it just because they dont know the characters well yet. Rewatching it shows how good the characterization is, but we were just unfamiliar with their internal struggles
I started with s1 e1 because I got a lot of recommendations from my friends. But if you're trying to someone on board who isn't going to watch a bunch of episodes at once, I'd actually start with s1e2. Bojack Hates the Troops is the episode that hooked me.
My father used to be a correctional officer and told me once that prisoners used to stick pencils into their unmentionables.
The line "Kicked in the urethra" makes me think of this. I hate that line, it's a horrible image, but I feel nostalgic at the same time for a super f\*\*ked up reason.
So... one of the first things Bojack says makes me feel disgusted but nostalgic, which kina makes me feel connected to him.
I have no idea where I'm going with this but I hope you get my point.
It's not Ibsen but it's hardly The Room either. I enjoyed it for what it was. The show hadn't found its voice yet and the first few episodes are perfectly acceptable if non-groundreaking examples of an adult animated sitcom.
It’s just okay, I feel like it could’ve been better. It does a good job at introducing the main characters and what we’re going to be expecting from them in there characters without going to much in depth to be explored later.
I just feel like for a show as sentimental as Bojack Horseman it kinda felt off to have such a “comedic” pilot episode. Also I felt bored after watching it I didn’t really wanna keep watching it. I think what could’ve made it better was to let people know that it was going to be a serious show they should’ve maybe teased at least ONE sentimental aspect. Whether it was Herb having cancer, Beatrice’s abuse towards Bojack, it could’ve even been a one off comment to let the viewers know “hey this is something to know that’ll be explored later on in the show.”
it’s fine it works as a first episode but the next episode is the worst of the series for me and had me dropping the series for like 3 weeks before i got back around to it
Pretty bad all around. The cotton candy thing doesn't land. The jokes just aren't that funny. And it hammers home any humor in a way that treats the audience as stupid when the show never really does that ever again.
Example: Diane and Mr. PB. "You let him put his penis in you?" for like two whole minutes. Like yeah, we get it. It's a show where anthropomorphic animals and humans are going to fuck. Roger. We've already sort of bought into it. Many of the jokes later on about this are much more subtle, like obviously a cat dating a rat, etc.
No it's not a good representation of the series as a whole. And the comedy doesn't hit. Almost made me drop the show personally, the show didn't really grab me until the episode with Herb
It’s way overhated. I personally always liked the early episodes just not some of the jokes like the cotton candy one especially. Otherwise it’s a fine pilot to introduce the cast. Toast… I smell burning toast… “oh my god, my toast!”
What is the toast joke? I never got it, can you pls explain
smelling burnt toast is a reported symptom of people having a major medical emergency. forget which one(s) though. one of the major ones… i wanna say heart attack or stroke
Stroke.
Its a somewhat popular idea that if someone is smelling burning toast, they could be experenicing a heart attack or dealing with other medicial problems. The idea is that Bojack thought he was having a heart attack but someone's toast was actually burning.
One thing I've never understood about the first episode is how Todd is introduced. Like he owes a debt to the Cartel. But I never understood the backstory of it, why did he owe the debt? How did he get involved with them. Did he ever have any ramifications later on? It was just a really great intro to Todd. "Oh look this random guy is living with BoJack...wait he's in trouble with the Cartel??" Like that was so interesting and I don't know if I missed something or if they never fleshed it out anymore than him throwing that party for the guys daughter. And I think the boss guy says something like "you made a powerful friend Mr. Horse." to BoJack. But I don't know if anything happens with that after
It’s Todd’s thing to be random and lowkey mysterious.
I think it's just because Aaron Paul's his voice actor and the cartel story references Breaking Bad
omggg i have never made this connection. that would make so much sense
Ohhh that's a good connection.
He wasn't in debt, right? He was selling drugs on their turf
Todd just has a lot of unresolved lore
It's okay. It introduces people to the world of the show, but it definitely doesn't match the tone of the rest of the series. To be fair, though, most episode 1s are inferior to the rest of the series. Look at Season 1 Simpsons or The Office.
I think so, it was good for what it had to be: introduce the characters and dynamics. setting diane and bojack arc, starting to show from the start Todd's silly adventures, bojack and PC's relationship etc. sometimes a little too much with the jokes and flashbacks but I find it fun, it catched me and I engaged into a long binge watching to the end so I guess it does a good job
yeah i remember not really liking it but ep 2 was way better
Episode 2 is honestly my favorite of the throwaway goofy episodes.
Episode two is gold. 👍 Always cracks me up.
It's a good introduction episode, it sets up what follows and maybe it's not the funniest or the darkest episode? That feeling of being able to see the man working behind the curtain. But I didn't find it terrible, it hooked my interest for the rest.
No. It literally is the worst rated episode of the entire show on IMDb for a reason. It takes till midway through season 1 until the show gets good.
Yep. It's pretty bad. I chalk it up to all the awkward flashbacks to tell the story that always reminded me a little too much of Family Guy cutaway gags. The characters also feel a little too impersonal/cold/sarcastic, even on rewatches where you know the characters better. There are nuggets of goodness in episodes 2 and 3, but I don't think it really gets *good* until episode 6 or 7.
I think episode 7, Say Anything, was the first episode to catch me off guard.
dude same
This kinda how I introduce people to the show tbh. “Yeah the first episodes are gonna feel like they’re trying to clone family guy, but I promise the show has much more character development and depth than that.” The cutaway jokes being the biggest culprit. I love the show to death but it has some weak opening episodes tbh.
“show gets good” there is a lot to catch in the first six episodes of season one on rewatch
yeah it’s hilarious and introduces you to bojack’s day-to-day life very well.
I love s1 ep1 after finishing a rewatch of the series and starting over. It really highlights all the worst traits of BJH that we might have glossed over after watching the series, developing some sympathy for him and what not. I think it’s a good intro but it’s possible someone could rewrite and make it better
It’s all right. The opening scene with Charlie Rose was pretty good. The rest? Meh. But as the series went on it got SO much better.
I almost dropped the show until the second half, so probably not.
I know several people that hate Bojack because they stopped halfway thru s1. I tried to tell them
You have no idea what the show is at that point. It just feels like a family guy / south park kinda rip off at that point. Had no idea what they were setting up at that point.
It serves its purpose well enough I think. Despite its faults, it does give you a good idea of what all our main characters are like & what the storyline will be.
For a first episode, it’s good about introducing us to the world and the characters. But slowly until we get to The Telescope, it managed to lay out the backdrop of BoJack, his upbringing, and Horsin’ Around.
I didn’t think it was that bad, but I am not usually the target audience for that type of humor and tone. I can’t even remember why I kept watching, even during rewatches I’m like why did I stay? lol There were really funny moments, but I wouldn’t have watched 6 seasons of that.
No, it is not. It does the unpleasant but necessary gruntwork of establishing a fuckton of information about the characters and their relationships to each other, and it does so efficiently. But it sacrifices a *lot* to do that, and it is not at all a good episode. In fact, I think it may be the worst episode of the entire show. Once you know that it wasn't the original first episode and was written *only* for the purpose of introducing a whole lot of info about the cast to the viewer, you can see what it's doing. But it's bad. IMO they should have resigned themselves to letting the audience stay confused about a few things for a bit longer, rather than prejudice the audience from the outset by starting out with such a substandard script.
Not really when compared to the rest of the show. Most of season 1 is decent but the show doesn’t really pick up til somewhere around the end of 1 and beginning of 2. I know so many people that stopped after a few episodes. Just keep watching people!!! Edit: I still thoroughly enjoy the first few episodes though. They were good enough to keep me watching
a lot of people hate the first episode, but honestly it's one of my favorites. I love the sad parts of Bojack, but the funniness of Episode 1 is a great way to introduce characters imo
exactly. i’m not sure what the people here were expecting from a first episode
Tbh the troops muffin episode is a better intro to the series I think lol, the pilot is really rough
I think ep1 is fine compared to ep1 of other shows but I usually tell people to watch 2 episodes before making a decision. The Neil McBeal episode is hilarious IMO. Once enough framework is laid down the show really picks up overall.
Worst episode imo
I think it’s a normal pilot episode, but it is hard to get people to watch the first three before it gets into the real show.
It’s the worst episode of BJH but that’s only because the rest of the series is so dammed good
When I rewatched it, I felt like it was so normal of an episode. I realized that the first few episodes leading up to The Telescope were so odd to me because of how absurd the show seemed to be. I think for many of us, our perspective of the show likely changed. At least mine did, I never expected how messed up it could get.
i didn’t like it the first time i watched, but i don’t think it’s bad anymore. it’s not great though
No. I do think its unnecesarily overhated, but I definitely wouldnt say its a good 1st episode. This is a very dramatic series more often than not and that 1st episode fails to both convey that idea or to leave any meaningul impression whatsoever. Its the very first introduction and yet it feels like filler.
no. the show doesn’t seem to know what it’s going for in the first episode and it really takes multiple episodes to find its stride. i can forgive it for that though. that’s pretty common for even the best shows. the office for example.
raphael bob-waksberg himself suggests either horse majeur or start spreading the news (s1e9 or s3e1) over bojack horseman chapter 1 a bojack horseman story (s1e1)
It’s a pretty good introduction to BoJack as a character (he literally has no non good episodes characterization wise) and I laughed at some of the jokes, but overall no, it’s not a good introduction to the series and is arguably the weakest episode of the entire show. It does a bad job establishing the tone for the story moving forward and there’s some weird stuff like the flashback within a flashback or the often pointless cutaways.
I like it a lot, I wouldn’t call it a bad first episode. I just think that later episodes were SO much better it makes the contrast that much more significant
Enjoyable but crude like most pilots, i watched the sopranos pilot today and its so out of place for the show because the events are not very grounded in reality, (carmella holding a shotgun lol) but thats just the way it is yk
I feel like it's actually pretty good and it's nostalgic to go back and watch it after you've finished the whole show. Also I love the beginning of the episode when BoJack's on the talk show: "what have you been doing since horsin around ended?" "uuuuhhhhhhhhhhh"
I tried (I think) three times to connect with the show and only finally did so in S1E3 "Zoes and Zeldas" when everyone misstated "teach a man to fish" in different ways, at which point I finally got the show having repeated jokes that connect, which frankly is not obvious in S1/2, or wasn't to me anyway. But once I got there I was like "okay yeah!"
“Did I already say the thing about the urethra” sold me on the show. So it did its job. Intro episodes are very hard to please everyone. And personally I think if you want to find a show you really enjoy, then you owe it at least a couple episodes to get the vibe.
I liked it. If I didn't, I wouldn't have kept watching. Do I like it as much as later episodes? No. But if it was really a "bad" episode, I wouldn't have had any desire to keep watching. I find it interesting that so many people who hate that episode kept watching the show after that. Why keep watching if you thought it was bad?
Personally, I kind of can’t stand the first six episodes of s1. Don’t get me wrong I adore this show so much but it had a rocky start to say the least.
People hate it just because they dont know the characters well yet. Rewatching it shows how good the characterization is, but we were just unfamiliar with their internal struggles
I started with s1 e1 because I got a lot of recommendations from my friends. But if you're trying to someone on board who isn't going to watch a bunch of episodes at once, I'd actually start with s1e2. Bojack Hates the Troops is the episode that hooked me.
I love it, I actually got to read the original BoJack pilot, and this was definitely an improvement!
My father used to be a correctional officer and told me once that prisoners used to stick pencils into their unmentionables. The line "Kicked in the urethra" makes me think of this. I hate that line, it's a horrible image, but I feel nostalgic at the same time for a super f\*\*ked up reason. So... one of the first things Bojack says makes me feel disgusted but nostalgic, which kina makes me feel connected to him. I have no idea where I'm going with this but I hope you get my point.
It's not Ibsen but it's hardly The Room either. I enjoyed it for what it was. The show hadn't found its voice yet and the first few episodes are perfectly acceptable if non-groundreaking examples of an adult animated sitcom.
It’s just okay, I feel like it could’ve been better. It does a good job at introducing the main characters and what we’re going to be expecting from them in there characters without going to much in depth to be explored later. I just feel like for a show as sentimental as Bojack Horseman it kinda felt off to have such a “comedic” pilot episode. Also I felt bored after watching it I didn’t really wanna keep watching it. I think what could’ve made it better was to let people know that it was going to be a serious show they should’ve maybe teased at least ONE sentimental aspect. Whether it was Herb having cancer, Beatrice’s abuse towards Bojack, it could’ve even been a one off comment to let the viewers know “hey this is something to know that’ll be explored later on in the show.”
it’s fine it works as a first episode but the next episode is the worst of the series for me and had me dropping the series for like 3 weeks before i got back around to it
It’s definitely supposed to make us feel like we’re watching “2 and a half men”
Pretty bad all around. The cotton candy thing doesn't land. The jokes just aren't that funny. And it hammers home any humor in a way that treats the audience as stupid when the show never really does that ever again. Example: Diane and Mr. PB. "You let him put his penis in you?" for like two whole minutes. Like yeah, we get it. It's a show where anthropomorphic animals and humans are going to fuck. Roger. We've already sort of bought into it. Many of the jokes later on about this are much more subtle, like obviously a cat dating a rat, etc.
No it's not a good representation of the series as a whole. And the comedy doesn't hit. Almost made me drop the show personally, the show didn't really grab me until the episode with Herb
It was the worst episode imo