When I watched the first episode of Bojack Horseman, I wasn’t impressed with the show. To me, it had the potential to be a good show, but the first episode displayed a lack of confidence in itself and in the audience, which meant that I had a hard time watching it.

What separates a good show and a great show is usually how confident the show comes across in its ideas and execution. For an example of a confident show, I would point to the first two seasons of Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law.

The show is incredibly fast-paced, and the numerous references within the show are rarely ever ‘explained’ to the audience. It expects the audience to understand what it is referencing, such as Pagliacci, or The Godfather, and it never feels the need to stop the episode to allow a character to explain to the audience what the show is referencing. Even when it is basing an entire episode around a movie like Jagged Edge that most people are unaware of, it is confident enough in itself that it feels as though it doesn’t need the audience to understand the references.

In the first episode of Bojack Horseman, the show displays a lack of confidence in the audience by having a character explain the parallel between Robert Reed and Bojack Horseman, which is the moment that I decided to stop watching the show.

It’s also the moment that I realized that the show would eventually gain a devoted audience and become popular. Some of the most popular animated shows ever, like South Park and Family Guy, are notorious for explaining their references, jokes, and social commentary to the audience. To me, it’s hard to watch most jokes in Family Guy because the joke is explained before it is even told. It’s also frustrating that most episodes of South Park feature what feels like a character telling the audience what the creators of the show feel about specific issues, as though Trey and Matt are using their show to make themselves into ‘Thought Leaders’ instead of simply entertaining the audience and attempting to offer an unbiased take on current events.

To me, watching those shows is frustrating because I don’t like feeling as though the show is talking down to me. I don’t like having references explained to me as though the show thinks that I’m a dummy who can’t understand what’s going on unless the show explains it to me like a patient mother. So, the fact that it literally has a character act like a patient mother explaining things to their children feels incredibly patronizing.

But, perhaps the popularity of video essays proves that what people want is for someone else to tell them what to think. Perhaps the continued success and acclaim of South Park is evidence that this approach is the key to mass popularity and will always be the key to mas
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btbpac8oQLs