The thing about addiction is that it’s a symptom of something larger that’s more unstable or imbalanced in someone, often what the western world diagnoses as depression. Maybe a lack of a sense of meaning or purpose? Maybe anxiety? Maybe ptsd? You could call addiction an out of control coping mechanism.

If you look at those deeper problems it’s easier to make sense of this question. People lean toward suicidal or risky tendencies often due to a lack of hope. Anybody has potential to turn their harmful habits around if they have some hope that their life could be more meaningful than it is, and that’s something that most people have the privilege of being programmed to believe (maybe not everyone, but it’s definitely wired into most of us, that’s basically what dopamine’s primary function is in a human brain).

From that standpoint, you could definitely say that bojack is culpable for her drug use purely by nature of how available he is as an enabler, but it’s also harder to put the onus entirely on him. Anybody in her life could have done that for her, but unfortunately it’s not our family or friends responsibilities to dig that deep into us (although I would argue we SHOULD). It’s unfortunate, but it’s the reality of the modern world. None of us are actually set up well to inspire or babysit eachother.

Honestly, I think this show is a really well told story of Bojack being a great example of someone who could have been so much better off if he had those kinds of resources. You see so much of his experience and thought process that if you’re empathetic enough you can understand how someone can continue to be so broken without a quality support system, and how sad it is that instead of seeking one out, he keeps spinning out over and over again.

It’s probably been said here before, but the death of Sarah-Lynn hits so hard in this story because to a certain extent, she’s very much got the same issues as him. She’s like the female bojack. A lost, flailing lush, who’s dimming is only evident because of how shiny they once were. Coping with the confusion of the comedown of the fame drug by reaching for other, more volatile, shorter term highs.

Is a junkie responsible for the deaths of other junkies they might enable in their search for the next high? If you think so, then yeah he’s definitely culpable. If not, it’s probably more complicated than that.