For instance, it was pretty clear that as soon as the Male Feminist™ elements came up that they were going to tackle #MeToo and Bojack's misdeeds - Hell there's even a few jabs at the useless band-aids that Hollywood types throw on these issues like giving randys useless "consultant" positions or the Forgivee awards - but it doesn't seem like the most the show actually has to say about these issues is that they exist. And it's definitely not for a lack of material, the season certainly raises some interesting questions about the matters, but this season didn't feel like it explores those questions as deeply as previous ones have. The end result just leaves the question of "why do people, particularly women, defend or enable despicable people in the industry" only half answered at best, and even then the answers it does give seem kinda half-assed.
Then there was the premiere where it seems like they decided they were trying to preemptively cut off the possibility of receiving an influx of Rick and Morty Intellectuals with the premiere episode. Everything Diane says seems to be direct commentary about Bojack the show and the fan reaction to it but it comes off as more hypocritical and preachy than presenting any real insight. The combined scenes of Diane giving a lecture about "media normalizing bad behavior" and later wanting to cancel the premiere because "assholes will use it to justify their behavior" made me ask aloud "Well then why the fuck did you make a show like Bojack Horseman?"
There was also something kinda off about how the whole strangulation thing is tackled. It seems like the writers wanted to make a point about accountability with how they parallel Bojack with Vance Waggoner in how he goes from "Don't choke women" to attempting to strangle his co-star near the end of the season, but that's kinda where the parallel's end. One thing I always kinda admired about Bojack that I sometimes found to be missing from similar shows coughRick&Mortycough is that it often didn't pull any punches when examining the terrible things that Bojack does and the fallout from them, and Todd's "It's you" scene is still probably my favorite moment of the entire series, but I didn't get that from what has to be the darkest moment of the season - maybe even the whole show. There isn't really time given to show the consequences of these actions compared to scenes like Sarah Lynn's overdose or Penny being scarred by Bojack or his betrayel of Herb, and Gina's interview scene kinda detracts from one of the major points I really liked about the show: suddenly, it's now no longer Bojack's fault that his actions aren't coming to the public light because Gina, the victim, doesn't want such a scandal to overshadow her career. Which might've been an interesting topic to explore - a lot of starlets do keep quiet about these sorts of things if it means climbing the social ladder - but we aren't even given time to explore that since Gina's career seems to be cut short by Philbert getting cancelled anyways. And even when Bojack wants to be held culpable he gets rather uncharacteristically blocked by Diane, whose only reasons for not doing so seem to be that she thinks her being an accomplice in Mr. Peanutbutter cheating on his girlfriend and Bojack assaulting a woman are somehow on equal grounds.
Even the bits about workplace harassment seem kinda confused. The whole arc about Todd's sex robot being made a CEO ends with it turning into a scandal when it inevitably comes on to a female employee, but then undermines itself when one moment it takes a shot at people who criticize #MeToo for generating unnecessary witch-hunts as being a defense of real harassment... while simultaneously having the whole punchline for that plot being that everyone's too stupid to realize that they're dealing with a robot that can only spew out per-programmed catch phrases, and then goes a step further by making it a joke about how the scandal coming to light damaged more women than it helped by putting them out of work. If they were trying to be nuanced, it didn't really come through.
