Netflix: Horseman, obviously.

Yeah...

Netflix is evil...

I'm not going to renew it when the month's up. If I do I'll get no reading or blogging done at all (but on the other hand; there's this massive post that got done in maybe an hour so... hmmm...).
It is the great enabler; with how swiftly it all starts up, ready to pick up where you left off in under a minute, and all those handy skip-credits or skip-intro buttons, although I didn't end up much using that for the intros, come to think of it.
And you might dis their Netflix-original movies, but that quality is only set to rise (see The Ritual, I added some non-revealing pictures in that post). And for 9,99 a month, that's the equivalent of going to the movies at least once a month, and that's on top of all the rest of the stuff they already got.

Yes, I don't go to the movies. I might've mentioned that already, but I have anxiety issues. Going out is very shit for me.
So, newly released movies in high quality, with my surround sound, in optimal circumstances, tailored specifically for me, for only around 10 euros a month, is pretty much ideal, but as I've said already, It would seriously mess with my productivity, especially if I start watching series.

Case in point...

Such a very good intro song... after a while...

I spent (very) roughly 20 hours watching a show I didn't plan on viewing.

What did I watch? Since signing up, I watched only one of the three things I said I would, and you know about that one already.
So this is another thing, a new thing. And what is it?

It's Bojack... Horseman, obviously.

Just finished watching the whole 4 available seasons of it. I had heard about it, knew about its dark humour and exploration of self-destructive characters and though I figured those themes would appeal to me, I never got around to it, because outside of it being only on Netflix (I think), I also didn't go for it because... well... because it's a cartoon about a dude called Horseman... and it's a cartoon... meh, call me biased in the animation department, but these days I don't watch much of anything anymore anyway.
But I started watching it Friday evening in a more than slightly inebriated mood, after my friend selected it, I presume because the silly premise of a sarcastic anthropomorphic horse would appeal to him, à la 'let's see how long this wacky joke lasts...'

Turns out it lasted a while, and now I've watched the 5 remaining episodes this evening.

It's a great, smart and fast-paced show, packed with small details and background jokes and a surprising level of intimacy, especially in seasons 3 and 4. Which might be because you build up an affinity for these characters, but also because 3 and 4 are genuinely good television in their own right. I'm thinking now, of the Underwater episode, which is 25 minutes practically devoid of dialogue, which I've never seen done before, and it's pretty amazing how well that it works.

Or of the hard-hitting darkness of the episode that delves into the past of Beatrice, Bojack's mom, which had me staring rather horrified at what was being told, but which was unbelievably, tear-inducingly brilliant, in both how well it's delivered and in what it means for the show's plot of the season.
Other things I enjoyed were the deliriously trippy drug-trip episodes, where Bojack either gets under the influence of either drugs or alcohol, where what's on screen is surreally funny or surreally horrific depending on how bad Bojack's mental state of the moment is. Double points for that one with Sarah Lynn, which is another one of those emotional hard-hitters.
The recurring character of Margot Martindale, who was the prime reason the second season of Justified is still the best season of Justified, was also one of those bizarrely cool things the show does.

Also, actually voiced by Character Actress Margot Martindale,
And you better believe I ain't ever forgetting that name now.

The show delves into actor and Hollywood culture, which I generally despise, but when the characters are this good it's hard to hold grudges. It gets frequently intensely dark, and those moments are in the first few seasons pretty horrifying. Maybe I got desensitized to it, or swept up in the momentum of the episode-after-episode flow, but I rather think Bojack's antics got less (morally) dark in the later seasons, even though it gets plenty dark still on other levels.
But even though season 4 ended on a remarkably positive note, and in fact it's been rather a positive one overall, I'm still very much of the opinion the series as a whole will run for nine seasons and that Bojack will die in the last episode, in imitation of the show's in-universe show that gave Bojack his erstwhile fame.
Although... this season has given me the idea that there might be a good chance of things changing for the better for him... but, something-something doesn't get to change his stripes, and I would love if they dedicated themselves to the artistic resolution for this one anyway. Both would be good and whichever will be the final resolution, it's still a while off yet and I'm sure they'll nail it anyway, whatever it'll be.

Tears, man.

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And while taking screencaps to accompany the write-up I found that there's actually another episode, apart from the main series; a 25 minute Christmas special. Cool, I'll go watch that now then. If nobody has anything against that... No?... okay. Bye.

Edit: The Christmas special wasn't that good. We actually get to watch almost an entire episode of Horsin' Around and it's as awful as those old corny shows that it pastiches. But oddly enough, right at the moment when Todd claims that Bojack is 'getting into it, right?'  I felt myself there too.
We've all been lonely at Christmas at one point or another right?