The ‘Bojack Horseman’ Christmas Special: a charming and profound take on all things Christmas

Courtesy of Netflix

Bojack gives the iconic “What is Christmas?” speech to Sabrina.

When I finished the final episode of “Bojack Horseman” last year (the series had six seasons and ran from 2014-2020), I found myself drowning in the show’s unwaveringly personal depictions of substance abuse and mental health. In desperate need of something to cheer me up after this especially gloomy binge-watching session, I turned to the only episode of the show I hadn’t watched — the Bojack Horseman Christmas Special, released in December of 2014. 

Although the special was made just as a joke to fill the space between the first and second seasons of the show, it maintains all the important themes of the original show, including the effect of parental issues and the value of tradition. All the while, it twists classic tropes to present a Christmas tale that makes it a perfect watch for the holidays.

The special follows Bojack Horseman and his roommate Todd as they watch one of the Christmas specials from Bojack’s old sitcom “Horsin’ Around” in an attempt by Todd to get Bojack into the Christmas spirit. 

For those unfamiliar with the show, Bojack, an anthropomorphic horse and struggling actor, rose to stardom 20 years earlier with his role on “Horsin’ Around,” a sitcom about a horse (played by Bojack) and his three adopted children, the youngest of whom is named Sabrina. After “Horsin’ Around” was canceled, Bojack quickly spiraled into substance abuse and that’s where the viewer catches up with him in “Bojack Horseman.”

This layered storytelling in the Christmas special already allows for many funny moments, like Bojack yelling at Todd to stop interrupting the episode while denying that he enjoys (or believes in) any of what he’s watching.

Bojack, after all, says that Christmas specials are nothing more than “cynical cash-grabs by greedy corporations looking to squeeze a few extra Nielsen points out of sentimental claptrap for mush-brained idiots who’d rather spend their Christmas watching a fake family on TV than trying to have a conversation with their own dumb families.”

But the real heart of the special comes from the episode of “Horsin’ Around” they watch, titled “Sabrina’s Christmas Wish,” which quickly takes a serious turn when Sabrina wishes for Santa to give her dead parents back as her reward for being good, much to her adoptive father’s (Bojack’s) surprise.

The purposefully cheesy sitcom style in which this conflict is presented, complete with awkward jokes and unruly audience members, makes the whole plot all the more ironic yet painful to watch. But underneath the snarky one-liners in the sitcom and questionable comments made by Bojack and Todd, the show provides multiple thought-provoking and surprisingly deep ideas.

In particular, after Bojack fails to convince Sabrina that Santa is both omnipresent and all-good (as he’s unable to prevent her parents’ death or bring them back to life), he confesses that jolly old Saint Nick — and, more subtly, God — isn’t real, explaining that “you can’t be good just because you think some fat guy in a red suit is gonna bring you presents. You have to be good just to be good.”

Bojack is no stranger to presenting philosophical themes in unexpected ways such as this, doing so often in the show through charged rants similar to this one. However, the Christmas special uses the cheery and disconnected tone of a sitcom like “Horsin’ Around,” which contrasts with the usually bleak depths that the rest of the show goes to, to further commentate on Bojack himself. 

By cutting from the cartoonish story on screen to Bojack sitting in bed, surrounded by bottles of bourbon and drunk out of his mind, the show depicts just how far Bojack’s addiction has gone, and how watching his own show has essentially become a coping mechanism. More than anything, we realize that the lessons his character preaches on screen apply directly to himself.

These insights extend past the screen as well. When Bojack decides to watch another of the eight remaining Christmas specials at the end of the episode “just to see how stupid it is,” we are reminded of the ways we intentionally watch cringey and old movies and shows just to relive them together, a tradition emphasized during the holiday season.

Taking a step back and letting that nostalgia take over, just as Bojack and Todd do, is what makes Christmas specials “special” and what makes the Bojack Horseman Christmas special remarkable. Combining ridiculous gags with a genuine message, it’s a reminder of what makes stories amazing and why we love telling them, all in the style of my all-time favorite show.