Television loves money, or rather, those that have it. The vast majority of American media portrays wealth as the ultimate goal. Shows like “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” and “Property Brothers” wholeheartedly glorify wealth and endorse materialism. ABC’s hit “Black-ish” extols the rise from poverty to the top of the economic hierarchy. Popular media has distorted the American dream by aligning success and happiness with absurd wealth.

As income inequality skyrockets, alienating the masses from the images depicted in their televisions, and politicians who argue that there “should not be billionaires” become mainstream, Americans are searching for exceptions in their media. “BoJack Horseman,” a Netflix series following the life of has-been actor and horse BoJack Horseman, is that exception that Americans so deeply crave. Through the many misadventures of BoJack, the audience sees firsthand the multitude of maladies associated with affluence in America: substance abuse, mental illness, and widespread unhappiness. The show does not promote rampant, careless spending, nor does it glorify wealth in the way that most media does, rather it displays the gross aspects of material wealth in America. Season two, episode seven “Hank After Dark,” tells the story of a reporter who is forced, for the sake of her career, to stop investigating those in power and exposing sexual assault in Hollywood. In “That’s Too Much, Man!” (season three, episode eleven), BoJack convinces a close friend, a wealthy actress, to stop being sober. Together BoJack and his friend go on a drug-fueled “adventure,” ending in the tragic death of BoJack’s friend. 

It is perhaps this honesty, this willingness to dig into the muck and grime of the American elite, this willingness to question the few who hold so much power in our society that makes the show wildly popular. The show is willing to question the legitimacy of the wealthy, and of wealth itself, and that resonates with the people of a nation of tremendous inequality, with people who are fed up with the glorification of an ever-more unattainable status. 

If you are searching for a light-hearted sitcom, a show to watch with your family, or just something to pass the time, “BoJack Horseman” is not for you. If you are, however, searching for a show to invest time into, a show to make you reflect on the merits of wealth in America, a show to astound you with beautiful animation in a complex yet realistic world complete with speaking animals, then “BoJack Horseman” is right for you.