BoJack really opens the discussion that everyone is essentially struggling with the idea of not only not being the person that they think they are, but also that nobody is as good as they think they are either. One of my favorite episodes this year is a flashback journey to 2007. The episode acts as a pivotal tool in providing another piece in the puzzle that is BoJack and his career, but it’s also used as a great way to juxtapose who these people were ten years ago to where they are now. BoJack might have figured out how to play a role as layered as Secretariat, but he still has no idea how to play himself.

This detour in time feels like the show is finding its voice even more this year as it confidently tackles more of these stylistic, ambitious installments. For instance, one of the biggest structural gambles comes in the form of the season’s fourth episode which takes BoJack to the underwater locale of Pacific Ocean City and due to his mouth-breathing status the episode is ostensibly done entirely without dialogue.

The results are some brilliantly efficient storytelling that truly blows me away. It legit should win the Emmy for Best Writing in an Animated Program next year. It might not be BoJack’s best episode (it’s definitely my favorite though), but it embraces its concept so thoroughly, and with such charm, it deserves infinite points for pulling this off successfully. Also, for such an internal, methodical show, this sort of entry puts you in BoJack’s tortured head in such a smart way. One scene shows him repeatedly writing letters, trying to figure out the right way to apologize to someone, with all of his emotions manifesting through writing rather than dialogue. It’s incredible.

Another episode employs an inspired structure that feels like it’s being done for no other reason than because it can, but these “dares” that the show puts itself through continually pay off. There’s one episode that’s a scathing take on essentially the dangers of being an addict, but the entire thing is told through blackouts. It’s a concept that had me thinking of one of my all-time favorite Futurama episodes, “Time Keeps On Slippin’,” where tremendous humor is being mined from the non-linear structure of the blackouts, but they’re also being justifiably incorporated due to the dark place the characters are in.