Between Dystopia and Dreamscape

This study situates "BoJack Horseman," a Netflix original animated series, at the intersection of urbanism and metamodernism. It explores the cultural reproduction of the city of Los Angeles (L.A.) in the series as a site of tension between nostalgia and irony, authenticity and artifice, and individualism and community. Through textual analysis and literary interpretation, this study reads L.A. as a metamodern space that transcends schematic spatial and cultural definitions. It is argued that the series traces the trajectory of the city’s cultural evolution from postmodern nihilism to metamodern optimism. The findings reveal that the series offers a critical reimagination of L.A. as a complex, evolving space of potential that aligns with Vermeulen and van den Akker’s metamodern argument. This article contributes to the fields of urban spatiality and television studies by offering insights into the nuances of the cultural representations of L.A. and its potential to embrace ambiguity and contradiction, thereby providing a dynamic ecosystem for diverse urban experiences. By bridging urban spatial theory with televisual narrative analysis, the study demonstrates how metamodern aesthetics reshape understandings of contemporary urban life.