Netflix’s animated dramedy series BoJack Horseman is one of the best shows on the air. The title character is one of the most human characters in the history of television – and he’s a horse! It’s rare that a show can make you feel as much as it makes you laugh, which makes BoJack such a rare beast.
There’s no show quite like it, but there are some with similar elements – storytelling or animation styles or characters – that will appeal to its fans. So, while you wait for the next season, here are 10 shows to watch if you like BoJack Horseman.
Updated by Ben Sherlock on April 5th, 2020: Since we first published this list, BoJack Horseman has ended its run with its sixth and final season. As expected, the series’ conclusion brought us heartache and hilarity in equal measure, with an honest reflection on the characters. As with all the best TV endings, it left fans satisfied with where all the characters ended and how much closure they got, while still longing for more. So, we’ve updated this list with a few new entries to quench that BoJack thirst.
Tuca & Bertie
From the mind of BoJack Horseman’s production designer, Lisa Hanawalt, Tuca & Bertie takes place in a very similar world populated by anthropomorphized animals.
Beloved standup comics Ali Wong and Tiffany Haddish star as the titular duo, a pair of 30-year-old birds, with strong support from The Walking Dead’s Steven Yeun and jack-of-all-voices Nicole Byer. Unfortunately, Netflix canceled this series after just one season, but you can still check out that one season.
The Office
BoJack Horseman was a very flawed individual who faced those flaws and spent six seasons trying to improve himself. In that sense, he’s a lot like Michael Scott, the regional manager of Dunder Mifflin’s Scranton branch in the mockumentary series The Office.
Like BoJack, Michael has meaningful, if tumultuous relationships with the people around him (his assistant Dwight, his receptionist Pam, his on-off girlfriend Jan etc.), and like BoJack, his shortcomings make him vulnerable. Although the first season made some major missteps with characterizing Michael, the later seasons made him a deeply sympathetic figure.
Wilfred
Like BoJack, Wilfred has a lot of animal-based jokes and a pitch-black sense of humor. Elijah Wood stars as Ryan, a suicidal ex-lawyer suffering from depression, while Jason Gann co-stars in a dog costume as the titular character, Ryan’s neighbor’s dog.
The series always struggled in the ratings, but it was a cult hit that managed to survive for four seasons with a dedicated audience that was fortunate enough to discover it hiding in the weeds of the FX (and later FXX) schedule.
Fleabag
Launching Phoebe Waller-Bridge to international acclaim, Fleabag has emerged as British TV’s greatest sleeper hit in the past couple of years. Waller-Bridge created the series and stars in the title role. Like a certain horse, Fleabag has self-destructive tendencies and is forced by circumstance to face her darkest issues head-on.
The series has aired two seasons of six episodes each, so it’s a breezy binge that could be done in its entirety in an afternoon – and there’s a lot packed into each of those episodes.
30 Rock
If your favorite thing about BoJack Horseman is its lampooning of the ridiculousness of the Hollywood entertainment industry and its rapid-fire gag rate, then look no further than 30 Rock.
Inspired by Tina Fey’s stint as the head writer of Saturday Night Live, 30 Rock revolves around Liz Lemon (Fey), the head writer of an NBC sketch variety show, butting heads with Jack Donaghy, General Electric’s chauvinistic Vice President of East Coast Television and Microwave Oven Programming, played by Alec Baldwin.
Extras
Satirizing show business is just a small part of what makes BoJack Horseman great, but that sort of humor is all over Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s follow-up to the original version of The Office. Extras is a sitcom about a pair of struggling actors who are desperate to get noticed from the backgrounds of movie sets.
Each episode has a big star playing a ludicrously exaggerated version of themselves. Ben Stiller plays himself as a loud-mouthed jerk, David Bowie sings a song about Gervais’ character called “Little Fat Man,” and Patrick Stewart brags about a screenplay full of nudity that he is writing. It’s like all of BoJack’s hilarious Hollywood moments (or Hollywoo moments) rolled into one.
Archer
BoJack Horseman’s title character has the same acidic wit and ice-cold attitude as Sterling Archer, the gentleman spy played by H. Jon Benjamin in this James Bond spoof on FXX. In fact, BoJack creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg has acknowledged the influence of Archer on his own series: “The caustic style of Archer was really on my mind when I was first doing BoJack – perhaps too much!”
Archer has been experimenting with an anthology series format in the past few seasons, giving its characters roles in a parody of a different genre each year, but it’s still just as sharp and funny as it ever was.
Flaked
Flaked is another Netflix original comedy series starring Will Arnett. It’s a live-action series about a self-help guru who has a lot in common with Arnett’s animated role. The joke is that this character is a self-proclaimed self-help master whose life is more of a mess than his clients’.
The show reunited Arnett with Arrested Development creator Mitchell Hurwitz, who acts as an executive producer here. With two seasons and just 14 episodes, Flaked isn’t much of a commitment, and it’s very entertaining. The critics weren’t too kind to the show – and okay, it’s not as good as BoJack – but it’s amusing enough.
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Aside from the talking animals, Curb Your Enthusiasm and BoJack Horseman have more or less the same premise. They’re both about a rich Hollywood socialite who used to work on a popular sitcom in the ‘90s and now spends his days making people hate him across Los Angeles.
While BoJack has much more drama and genuine interest in its characters, it shares the same satirical target as Curb, and as a result, the two shows also share the same subject matter and sense of humor. You won’t feel as much, but fans of BoJack won’t be disappointed by Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Daria
Daria is an animated sitcom that works as both a character study and a portrait of ‘90s culture. It’s about a Generation X teen rolling her eyes all the way through high school. It’s the cynical answer to shows like Dawson’s Creek and Beverly Hills 90210, taking those shows’ sentimentality and schmaltz and flipping them on their heads for satire.
Raphael Bob-Waksberg, the creator of BoJack Horseman, has mentioned Daria as a strong influence on the way the show portrays its characters: “It did a good job of showing that smart people aren’t always right and stupid people aren’t always bad.”
Californication
This half-hour dramedy series stars David Duchovny as a New York author who moves out to California to deal with a bad case of writer’s block. He’s a heavy drinker, a drug addict, an entitled celebrity, a womanizer, and he has a complicated relationship with everyone he knows. Sound familiar?
It doesn’t hit as close to home as BoJack, but it is enjoyable and the lead characters have a lot in common. The show ran for seven seasons between 2007 and 2014 – a total of 84 episodes – so there’s a lot to chew on for those who enjoy binge-watching new shows.
South Park
Some of the best episodes of BoJack Horseman handle political issues in a satirical way. The season 2 episode “Hank After Dark” is often referred to as “the Cosby episode,” the season 4 episode “Thoughts and Prayers” is all about the gun control debate, and the whole of season 5 tackles the #MeToo movement.
These kinds of episodes are also what South Park does best, except they also tackle these social issues on the hour. Most animated series satirize current events six months after they happen, whereas South Park episodes are written and animated the week they air, meaning it’s always current.
Final Space
Final Space is an animated sci-fi comedy series on TBS about an astronaut named Gary who befriends Mooncake, an incredibly powerful alien that a bunch of bad guys are after. The show has a beautiful blend of comedy and drama, with characters that you genuinely care about.
While the jokes don’t always land and the humor is often juvenile, the moments of pathos and drama will hit you right in the feels. There are some moments that will move you, break your heart, or even make you cry. Final Space, whose second season is coming up later this year, is must-see viewing for any fan of BoJack Horseman.
F Is For Family
Much like BoJack Horseman, F is for Family is an animated Netflix original series with characters that feel like real people, gags that never fail to land, and moments that get way too real. Created by standup comic Bill Burr and former Simpsons writer Michael Price, F is for Family follows the trials and tribulations of an all-American nuclear family in the 1970s.
Its serialized story arcs mean it can take situations that a show like The Simpsons and Family Guy might have, but give them actual consequences, which is where the drama comes from. It’s an awesome show with three seasons already released and a fourth on the way.
Rick And Morty
If you’re looking for a cartoon that, like BoJack Horseman, has both moments of mind-boggling absurdity and moments that humanize its characters in a brutally honest way, then look no further than Rick and Morty. Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland’s dimension-hopping sci-fi comedy series is virtually unparalleled in terms of storytelling and character development.
Every character is set up as a trope, then slowly deconstructed and put back together. The humor in Rick and Morty is a little more improvisational and crude than that of BoJack, but the show as a whole has the same spirit of silliness meets humanity.
