Review: There Are No Hollywood Endings in ‘BoJack Horseman’

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“BoJack Horseman,” Netfiix’s animated series about a Hollywood has-been who happens to be a talking horse, has had a storybook existence. Released in 2014 to shrugs, it caught on after its second season, becoming a fiercely loved critic’s favorite and a fixture on top-10 lists.

By the logic of the show’s world, in which success is fleeting and disaster is one ill-advised pitch meeting away, Season 4 (available to stream on Friday) represents a dangerous moment. Can it keep its momentum? Can it maintain its tricky balance, as a lovingly acidic showbiz satire that’s also a moving meditation on, and deconstruction of, the showbiz satire genre?

To paraphrase Sarah Lynn, the debauched child star who appeared alongside BoJack in the ’80s sitcom “Horsin’ Around”: that’s too much to expect, man. The 12 episodes of the new season have episodes and moments equal to the show’s best. They also have ideas that don’t pan out, and an overall lack of cohesion — the main characters seem sequestered in separate story lines that don’t really mesh. A weekend binge is still recommended, but it won’t have the impact of the second or third seasons.

For the uninitiated, “BoJack Horseman” is set in Hollywoo — so called since the D in the Hollywood sign was destroyed in Season 1 — and in a world where animals and humans coexist without comment. Ineffably silly animal jokes remain one of the show’s chief pleasures. In the opening episode, the sassy bovine waitress at the Silver Spoon Diner announces, “This cow likes getting tipped.”

There are changes, though. In previous seasons, as BoJack (Will Arnett) worked through his demons — the addictions and depression brought on by being best known for an inane, long-off-the-air sitcom — the plots were almost always organic to the entertainment industry. That’s less true this time.

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In the most glaring example, a major story line has the dog actor Mr. Peanutbutter (Paul F. Tompkins) running for governor of California, a development that doesn’t exactly parallel the political rise of President Trump — Mr. Peanutbutter succeeds because of his cuddly likability — but is clearly inspired by it. “Even though I have zero qualifications,” the dog laments after an early setback, “I honestly thought I would have been a better governor.”

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