……………………………………………………….

Top Ten BoJack Horseman Characters

BoJack Horseman doesn’t have that big of a roster of characters, so making this list was quite easy for me. I chose the ten either most important or most complex or funniest characters on this tonally varied, very rich in personalities series.

10. Pickles Aplenty

Yes, Pickles only appeared very late in the show’s run, but this girlfriend of Mr. Peanutbutter’s did not just lie in his shadow, but was a genuinely interesting character in her own right. I loved their cheating subplot of season six, and in particular her lively, ditzy nature made her such a fun character. She is actually a perfect fit for Mr. Peanutbutter as both are suitably silly.

9. Beatrice Horseman

Beatrice is a giant bitch. In fact, she might be the most detestable person on this entire show, and that says a lot. But she’s hugely important for BoJack’s journey. She was genuinely a terrible mother, but still she had a tragic backstory herself. That revelation made her richer and much more complex than she had been previously.

8. Paige Sinclair

Yes, Paige Sinclair only appeared in a couple of episodes in the last season, but she made an indelible impact not just on the very important storyline of outing BoJack for what he did to Sarah Lynn, but also with her magnetic, hilarious presence. Pig-headed literally, but so energetic and incredibly fast-talking, she is a fantastic parody of screwball comedy heroines.

7. Sarah Lynn

Sarah Lynn has always been a doomed case, but still what happened to her was immensely tragic. Her heartbreaking spiral out of control was difficult to watch whereas her relationship with BoJack was downright painful, but complex too. The show used her effectively as a dangerous showcase of what can happen when a person is neglected from childhood onward.

6. Character Actress Margo Martindale

Margo Martindale appeared sparingly throughout the show’s run, but she continuously made a great impact on the show’s comedy, being one of the funniest characters on the show. They perfectly lampooned the forgettable actor phenomenon with her, and her crazy hijinks were just so darn entertaining every single time.

5. Todd Chavez

Todd is the weakest of the main five. I did like some of his stories, in particular the one with the sex robot. His relationship with BoJack is complicated and so well done, and his asexuality is so well explored and groundbreaking for television. But no matter how fun some of his adventures were, they still never tied into a coherent whole, and he never was important in any shape or form. His subplots almost act like detours in my opinion.

4. Mr. Peanutbutter

The much better part of these two sidekicks is Mr. Peanutbutter. This silly dog is so endearing and difficult not to love. Yes, he’s had his fair share of troubles and growth, most importantly in his tumultuous relationship with Dianne, but at the end of the day, he was the bright spot of the show, the one sidekick who always countered the show’s very dark, nihilist approach at storytelling, and he never ceased to make you laugh.

3. Diane Nguyen

This is where we get to the serious characters, but this series is mostly a drama instead of a comedy, so I had to include to most important, deepest characters on the top of the list. Diane is a complicated person, and I loved that about her. You never know where you are with here, and her relationships with everyone else are usually rich and complex. She’s such a fascinating, complex character with whom I personally empathized with the most.

2. Princess Carolyn

But Princess Carolyn is even better. She just might be the most realistic character on the show. She has her issues, but she also continued to make the right choices throughout the show, which is why her many sad endings proved to be difficult to watch. But eventually, she got there with the wedding and the kid and the career, and I was so happy with her. She’s the one I personally rooted for the most to find happiness, which just goes to show how great her development is, and the emotional investment of her stories.

1. BoJack Horseman

And the best character, the most important one is the protagonist himself, the titular BoJack Horseman. Never before have I seen a more complex, more troubled, more broken central character in a television series, and this is what makes him and the entire show authentic and different. His story is ultimately so difficult, so heartbreaking and so infuriating that you can’t help but root for him, even though he did so much terrible shit throughout the seasons. He is the quintessential example of a problematic, tortured, real human being who most certainly isn’t a good person, but is not so easy to simply vilify either.

You can get the first two seasons of BoJack Horseman on Amazon.