BoJack Horseman: Seasons One & Two

Will Arnett voices the lead character in the Netflix animated series BoJack Horseman, a show business satire set in a world where anthropomorphic animals coexist with humans. BoJack Horseman (who is, in fact, a horse) was a sitcom star in the 1990s, but now he's a rich has-been living with optimistic human idiot roommate Todd (Aaron Paul) and working with a biographer (Alison Brie) in the hopes of making a career comeback. At once attention-hungry and wracked with self-doubt, BoJack is far more complicated than one might expect from the premise and the show charts the evolution of his character as he confronts his past, questions whether he's a good person, and tries to figure out how to be genuinely happy. But while the series takes these issues seriously, they are explored in an absurdist animated comedy in which BoJack's feline agent (Amy Sedaris) dates a man who is actually a couple of children in a trenchcoat, character actor Margo Martindale (herself) happily becomes a career criminal, and legendary author J.D. Salinger (Alan Arkin) comes out of retirement to produce a celebrity game show. The jokes come fast and furious and are both clever and goofy, even as the series sneaks in some genuinely painful moments of personal insight and emotional honesty. Compiling all 24 episodes from the 2014-15 first and second seasons, extras include episode commentaries, animatics, and a brief music performance. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)