The Search for Sincerity in the Contemporary Metamodern Sitcom BoJack Horseman (2014-2020)

Amer, Nehal

doi:10.21608/ttaip.2023.331313

The Search for Sincerity in the Contemporary Metamodern Sitcom BoJack Horseman (2014-2020)

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Nehal Amer

Department of English, Faculty of Al-Alsun, Ain Shams University, Egypt

10.21608/ttaip.2023.331313

Abstract

As early as the 1980s, many artists and critics have declared that postmodernism as a cultural paradigm is in its final throes, although the question of what comes afterwards has remained a hotly debated one. Metamodernism is one of the many proposed answers to this quandary, describing an emerging cultural sensibility that oscillates between postmodern and modern sensibilities, ultimately creating something completely new. This paradigm shift from postmodernism is most apparent in sitcoms; a new wave of American television shows has started destabilising the typical image of postmodern sitcoms that heavily relied on cynicism, ironic detachment, self-reflexivity, and parodying the limitations of the medium itself. Drawing upon Timotheus Vermeulen and Robin van den Akker’s, and Alexandra Dumitrescu’s conceptualisation of metamodernism, this paper examines Netflix’s BoJack Horseman (2014-2020) as a case of metamodern synthesis that combines the conventions of postmodern sitcoms with a more sincere interiority. The paper argues that instead of completely breaking from such conventions, the show employs them to subvert the viewers’ expectations and eventually transcend them to provide a critique of celebrity culture and the extreme individualism and lack of sincere connection plaguing contemporary American society.

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