By Will McCurdy
Staff Writer

Long before this new Netflix series called “BoJack Horseman,” there was a show called Mister Ed that debuted in the 1960’s about the hijinks of a talking horse and his owner.

The program ran five years garnering a massive television following until its ending in 1966, paving the way for human and animal duos that would attempt but never quite succeed to capture the same magic of the original show. The Netflix original series is one such attempt to revitalize this concept with a modern light and while not a complete failure, it does leave one disappointed.

In the world that is inhabited by a mix of human and anthropomorphic animals, the lead BoJack Horseman (voiced by Will Arnett of Saturday Night Live) is the washed up star of a hit television show called “Horsin’ Around” which since left him with few acting opportunities. This is not entirely due to his lackluster acting ability, but rather BoJack is an unrepentant narcissist. Each episode focuses on how unlikeable his narrow world view makes him, being reasonably upset with others when he reacts to situations in a like manner. An example of this is his attempts in the earlier episodes to destroy the potential union of Diane Nguyen (Allison Brie of Community), a ghost writer compiling his memoir and Mister Peanutbutter (Paul F. Tompkins), an anthropomorphic golden retriever who is more of an oblivious narcissist than actually harmful to those around him.

The show does make up for these points by having an astounding vocal cast made up mostly of Patton Oswalt who voices at least two characters per episode from BoJack’s contact at Penguin Publishing (as a penguin) to a navy seal (literally) and various other extras.

Yet with several guest stars and a universe that combines the old plot of a washed up actor with the modern insanity of mid-twenty cartoons, BoJack Horseman can simply not shake off the fact that it is a flat comedy. There is a good laugh here or there and the drama they put in is very convincing save for one thing: it focuses on BoJack. The drama involves him doing terrible things to others or making bad decisions while the comedy almost exclusively relies on the audience taking enjoyment from watching him suffer. It is only worsened by the animals being walking jokes, their mannerisms are still animalistic and yet they have humanoid forms as if to say to the viewer, “Hey, we didn’t want to put in effort, but look at this vaguely human cat doing cat things. That deviates from the normal, so it’s funny.”

Thus we have an unlikeable protagonist, voice talent so clearly wasted on visual puns and random coincidences within the show and a universe that only exists for the sake of nonsensical humor that is not even executed well. If it’s late at night and there’s nothing on, it’s a show to pass the hours, but it isn’t recommended for normal viewing. Just watch Futurama.