If I were to rank the dramas I've watched over the past 30 years, I would rank Ma Nan first or second. Some dramas will sink when thinking of the name after watching them for many years, such as "Hana", swallow the pain of growing up, give up the ideal and accept the mediocre self. Some dramas have mixed feelings when I think of them, such as "Better call saul", the most delicate, the deepest affection, but also can't escape the parting. There are also some dramas that make people feel like putting everything into perspective, such as "In treatment", through the dark maze, there are mirrors on the other end that reflect their true face.
The above elements can be found in Ma Nan's drama. Ma Nan can even see the shadow of Don, the protagonist of the American drama "Dream of Red Mansions" and "Mad Man". On the surface, this is a light comedy of a fast-paced mocking era. But since the end of the first season, I have dig deeper and deeper, and it has properly turned into an adult-oriented psychological drama. I often watch the author's keen insight and accurate grasp of psychological trauma, which makes several characters have a strong sense of resonance, even to the point of reality. Kind of way too hardcore. But if I were to recommend it to someone, it would be difficult to explain in two sentences how good it is. After all, in this era of short videos, attention is scarce and scattered. How many people have time to calm down and watch six seasons of dramas, only to find out may they fall into deep-rooted depression than before they didn't watch them?
Sarah Lynn
Sarah lynn is the most tragic character on the show. She was sent to the entertainment industry by her mother since she was a child. She became famous as a child star in the Horsing around drama when she was young, and the lack of the role of the family father made her regard Ma Nan as her father. Ma Nan is obviously not a good Father figure. During a certain shooting, Sarah lynn tasted the wine in the mineral water bottle that Ma Nan left in the dressing room for the first time, which opened the way for the terrible and short life in the future. After Horsing around became famous, Sarah Lynn changed her naive child's character and turned into a pop star and sex idol. Ma Nan once found her when she was in her prime. She told Ma Nan happily and a little sadly that everyone wanted her but no friends cared about her. In the end, she just found out that Ma Nan wanted to invite her to star in his new drama. Years later, Ma Nan's conscience found out that he wanted to play the role of a father well, and gave her the trophy she won, but she exchanged the trophy for money to buy drugs. The two had a fight but end up having sex. This maybe the worst female version of oedipal story I've ever seen.
After Herb, the screenwriter of Horsing around, died of cancer, Sarah Lynn also tried hard to quit drinking for a year, but she broke it immediately after a phone call from a party in Ma Nan, a journey of alcohol, drugs and redemption. In a messy motel bed, Sarah lynn saw that her song won an award on TV, and her excitement immediately triggered her existential panic attack, she wondered if life was doomed to fail like this. If this is just a journey of self-destruction of a Hollywood actress, sold by her mother to the entertainment industry as a commodity, sexually assaulted by her father, consumed by the entertainment industry, and condoned by a horse man, it may be just a story of cliche. But the last episode of her life made it hard for those who watched it not to worry about it. At the observatory, Sarah Lynn looked at the starry sky, leaned against Ma Nan and said the last words of her 31-year life. Her childhood dream was also a foreshadowing that was repeatedly planted in previous seasons: I wanna be an architect. Sarah lynn 3 He became an actor at the age of 2, and his growth has never been his choice since then. After 30 years old, she still feels self-loathing even after seeing her award on TV, because she wants to live her own life and choose what she likes, like being an architect.
The last thing the horse man said to her was See Sarah Lynn, we are not doomed. In the great grand scheme of things, we're just tiny specks that will one day be forgotten. So it doesn't matter what we did in the past, or how we'll be remembered. The only thing that matters is right now, this moment, this one spectacular moment we are sharing together, right Sarah Lynn? Sarah lynn? Sarah lynn?
A star has fallen, Sarah Lynn once said that she doesn't need to grow up, her career has been suspended all her life, except for singing, she only needs to lose herself in alcohol, parties, and drugs without thinking and die young. Well guess what, in the end, she did die young, and maybe here “to be an architect” just means to rebuild her broken life. Maybe if she was given the chance to look properly at her feelings and her life, she won' t have to use alcohol and drug to run away from the problems and eventually destroy herself with it.
Princess Caroline
PC is a pink cat, she is Ma Nan's manager and ex-boyfriend, she is positive, positive, hardworking, always has a can do attitude, is passionate about her work, and has a tongue-in-cheek tongue, nothing she can't sell. Countless times, the horse man fell into a shit hole, and the PC came to the rescue. Ironically, her motivation to help others solve problems was precisely to avoid looking directly at herself.
Princess Carolyn was born into a poor family, her mother was a servant, and she always believed that the PC should accept her fate. When her daughter applied for UCLA, she persuaded PC to keep her own feet. When her daughter fell in love with the fox son of a noble family and became pregnant, her mother was overjoyed: that boy's stuck with you, and gave her the "heirloom" necklace (which was rejected by PC many years later) found to be just a fake). And when the PC suffered a miscarriage, the mother's reaction was you blew it! we were this close and you blew it.
After work, PC became a star agent from a secretary. It can be said that most of his life revolves around the horse man. Fall in love with Ma Nan, help Ma Nan find scripts and movies, and solve troubles. After the age of 30, Ma Nan repeatedly expressed the idea of not wanting children and the increasingly blurred boundaries between personal and work, which made PC decide to break up, but even after breaking up, PC still couldn't help but want to help Ma. Man, makes her feel good. PC is diligent and ambitious at work, because it is what she does best and is most proud of.
Although the mother had 12 children, PC suffered 5 miscarriages and broke up with her boyfriend Ralph because of an argument. Even if she can't be a mother, she is the most maternal character in the entire show, and actually plays the role of the mother of many people, including Todd the horse boy Diane. After unremitting efforts, she got what she wanted and adopted a baby hedgehog in the fifth season, but she fell into a difficult balance between career and family. The choice between career aspirations and mother-son bond makes PC wonder if she'll be a good mother.
On the couch in the office, Princess Carolyn said to the man on the other end of the phone who was complaining as usual
-PC: Hey you wanna know what I do when I have a really bad, awful, terrible day? I imagine my great-great-great granddaughter in the future talking to her class about me. She's poised and funny and tells people about me and how everything worked out in the end, and when I think about that, I think about how everything's going to work out. Because how else could you tell people.
-BJ: But it's... fake
-PC: Yeah well...it makes me feel better.
(the background sound is playing oh heart oh heart stop making a fool of me)
Bojack Horseman
The protagonist Bojack horseman is a horse. The protagonist of the popular sitcom Horsesing around in the 1990s, indulged in his past fame and lived in Berverly Hill. He is selfish, hypocritical, vulnerable, saves face, likes complaining, cheating, betrayal, a collection of all shortcomings and traumas, but from time to time he reveals the most authentic self-reflection, profound insights, which resonate with people and make it hard to hate him. Maybe this show is to tell everyone that there are no hateful people (including Ma Nan, Beatrice), only poor childhood.
As a child, the horse boy was abused by his alcoholic, rude, cheating father and his bitter, mean, world-weary mother Beatrice. He was abused by his mother, PUA, who gave me a great deal of pain to give birth to you. You better make this pain worthwhile. Even though Ma Nan's works are loved by fans, Beatrice, as always, never gave him any encouragement. When she found out that Ma Nan secretly smoked when she was a child, she forced Ma Nan to finish the whole cigarette. The most heartbreaking childhood scene is when Beatrice was on the TV and fell asleep on the sofa drunk, Ma Nan secretly took a sip of vodka left on the table, and then got into Beatrice's arms, pretending to experience maternal love of warmth. Growing up in such an environment, TV was a comfort to the small number of horses and men when I was a child. He was inspired by Secretariat, a generation of TV idols, and planted the seeds of becoming an actor.
If analyzed according to Jung's Archetype theory, the adult horse man should belong to Jester, which is represented by the imitation of margaret Keane's paintings in his childhood murals and the Last Supper in S06. The performance is the mask of the horse man, which he uses to please those around him and to protect his insecurities and vulnerabilities. Of course, this is also the character given by Beatrice. When Ma Nan hid under the table in the crowd when he was a child, Beatrice once scolded him and asked him to perform lollipop songs in public. To use the Mad man analogy for this painting, some say it is Dick Whitman holding Don Draper's mask.
Ma Nan's lifelong trauma caused by his mom affected his life, and all this did not change because of his mother's death, he said: Losing a parent is like: Suddenly you realize you'll never have the good relationship you wanted, and as long as they were alive, even though you'd never admit it, part of you, stupidest goddamn part of you, was still holding on to that chance. And you didn't even realize it until that chance went away." My mother is dead, and everything is worse now." Because now I know I will never have a mother who look at me from across a room and says "Bojack horseman, I see you." But I guess it's good to know. It's good to know that there is nobody looking out for me, that there never was, and there never will be. No, it's good to know that I'm the only one that I can depend on.
The harm that Ma Nan has caused to others in his life is indescribable.
- He betrayed Herb, a screenwriter friend who made him star
- In order to escape from reality, he went to Herb's ex-girlfriend penny's house, took penny's underage daughter to a party, caused her classmate to get drunk in the hospital, and almost had sex with her
- In Horsesing around, the alcohol he brought brought Sarah lynn's first exposure to alcohol as a child, and from then on began her life of alcohol and drug addiction and an untimely death
-He hired actors to ruin Todd's musical dreams with games
All the people he's been intimate with repeat the same pattern, "You didn't know me, then you fell in love with me, and now you know me." He tried to fill it up with movies, alcohol, drugs, women His own life, but he couldn't fill the emptiness in his heart, and he couldn't help but always hurt everyone close to him. I want to be loved, but I'm afraid of taking responsibility. Self-loathing, inability to change, and finally relying on alcohol and sex, a vicious circle.
The opportunity for his change may be when the PC introduced Diane to him to write his autobiography. Since then, Diane has become the soulmate who knows him best, and can even be said to be the female version of the horse man. Since then embarked on a long journey of self-understanding and redemption. Ma Nan also flew to Chicago to thank Diane for "believing in me when I didn't, and for encourange me to accept the help I needed."
The drama of Ma Nan is mourning. It allows you to see how the mental trauma inherited from three generations is vividly displayed on him, and the toxic impact spreads to the relationship with everyone around him. Ma Nan is also a healing drama. The audience finds their own shadow from Ma Nan's mental trauma. Even a damaged protagonist like Ma Nan has the ability to become friends with Diane, PC and Todd, and finally slowly find himself.
Maybe a little glimpse of the gist in the last episode of Diane and the horse man: -Life's a bitch then you die right? -Sometime. Sometimes life's a bitch then you keep living.
Maybe its everybody's job to save each other.
Diane Nguyen
Diane's character should be a second-generation Vietnamese immigrant, writing for a living, and the queen of golden sentences. The original family is very similar to Ma Nan and it is also a mess. She was bullied by four brothers and laughed at by her parents. When she was a child, the Horsesing around starring Ma Nan on TV was her little comfort. 30 minutes a week can make her happy and make her forget the reality. Oops. Writing a biography for Ma Nan can be said to be a dream come true for her to write for her childhood idol, and it is also the beginning of the whole drama. Possibly similar childhood, Diane finds a soulmate who can resonate, no matter how irresponsible the horse man, Diane act as Bojack's superego, moral compass, best friend or even a mirror that reflects Bojack's worst of herself, and do her best Force the horse man back on track.
My Peanutbutter, the first boyfriend in Diane's play, is a naturally optimistic, simple-minded, and very happy Labrador. Diane likes him probably because Pb's simplicity, cheerfulness, and stability are just the opposite of Diane's deep, sad, and fickle. They finally got divorced because of such "complementary" characters and the gap between the three views.
Diane is a person who is restless in reality and always wants to make a change. The first attempt was to leave Pb and go to a war-torn country to follow Sebastian St Clair to save war-wounded refugees. However, contrary to Diane's expectations, she gradually found that Sebastien just wanted to ask her to write a heroic story of her own, and did not care about the life and death of refugees, and often taught Diane to don't get attached. Disappointed, Diane returned to LA and did not dare to face the failure of pursuing her dream. She was resigned in Ma Nan's house and did not want to return to PB's house to face failure.
Diane's sense of justice has been shown in several incidents. Even if it will damage Pb's career, he will expose Hank's sexual assault of his assistant, liberate all the chickens to be slaughtered on the farm, and expose the dark side of the international whitewhale with her boyfriend Guy. However, the dissatisfaction with reality, the desire for justice, the passion for feminism, and the hatred of sin did not seem to help Diane find the meaning of consistent life, but produced some kind of division. She wants to make a change in the world with her pen, but she devotes herself to online media, making a living by posting online celebrity posts and managing her twitter account.
Diane didn't like people putting on posturing, even to please her. When Peanutbutter brings her the D from Hollywood on the Hill, or goes to great lengths to plan her surprise birthday party and decorate the room as a library, she gets angry and even quarrels. Pb only knows how to express his love for Diane in his own way. When the kindness of others can only bring harm to himself, this means that this relationship is over. In this regard, Diana has a precise description in S04e12: You know sometimes I feel our mariage is like a magic eye poster, and it's messy, and at first glance, it doesn't seem to make any sense. And it's hard to figure out. But sometimes if you squint at it just right, everything lines up, and it's the most perfect... beautiful, amzing thing. But..I'm so tired of squinting.
After coming back from Vietnam, Diane accepts loneliness: The real reason you go to Vietnam, is because you accidentally see your soon-to-be ex-husband kiss someone else. At first you think, "Oh it's a fling. Whatever, they' re drunk, it's a party." But then he puts his hand on the small of her back exactly the way he used to do to you. It means "I've got you," and when it did to you, it made you feel safe. And you realize he will never do that to you again. And it breaks your heart, again...after your heart is so broken that you thought it could nevet get any more broken. You thought it was safe, but it still, somehow, finds a new way to break. Because, even though, you're the one who asked for this, now that you've got it, you are completely adrift with no compass, or map, or sense of where to go to, or what to do. So you go to Vietnam.You think you might find community, a connection to something bigger, but... you don't. In fact, you feel even more alone than you were before you left. But... you survive. You learn that you can survive being alone.
PC encouraged Diane to write her own memoir in season five. She wanted to give meaning to the trauma of her life, but the more she tried to write, the more anxious she became, because if she couldn't write down her experience, all the The pain, the trauma, the ridicule of those childhood homeschools seemed to be meaningless. She is afraid that she is worthless. When she lifts up her appearance, there is nothing underneath. When she lifts up on nothing, there is still more nothing. "you keep thinking under all that nothing, there got to be something, but all you find is nothing." Dissuaded by her boyfriend Diane started taking antidepressants, and finally changed the original intention of changing the world, and wrote a detective deciphering Internet celebrity novel and sold it.
Even though everything seems to be different than expected, Diane finds her own home, marrying Guy. After Ma Nan was released from prison, Diane sat on the roof with him and shared his insights:
"I think there're people that help you become the person that you end up being and you can be grateful for them, even they were never meant to be in your life for ever. I'm glad I knew you too."
In the finale, the two old friends returned to the roof as in the first season. Diane, a middle-aged anti-depressant and fat, is sitting on the side and is married. Ma Nan, who was released from prison, sat on the other side, his hair was no longer black and shiny, and he was wearing a suit and tie, as if the unruly and unruly Ma Nan finally tamed this social rule. This would be the last time the two met. This is a dialogue-based animation. Every character can speak well and is extremely good at self-expression. However, at this time, the two of them stared at the starry sky silently for two minutes. Two minutes of music was given to this six-year drama. Pull down the perfect prelude, leaving only inner peace.
This is a great work, which gave me some company on the bumpy road in my 30s. I look forward to new insights after the third brush in the coming year!
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