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

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