It was written by series creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg and directed by Amy Winfrey, and was made available for streaming, along with the rest of season five, via Netflix on September 14, 2018.

He struggles with how to talk about her, considering the abuse that he suffered in his childhood, and digresses into dark humor, television anecdotes, and a story of a cashier who gave him a free churro.

He begins with a story of how he stopped at Jack in the Box on his way to the funeral, and the cashier gave him a free churro when BoJack explained where he was going.

[9][10] The creative team worried that it would be "boring to watch a guy talking for a half hour," and considered replacing some of the animation with flashback sequences set to Arnett's narration, similar to the re-enactments in the Comedy Central series Drunk History, but the idea was dismissed in favor of rendering the episode "purely.

"[16] The Guardian's Rebecca Nicolson praised the execution of the episode's concept, saying that it is "a rare series that can dedicate 30 minutes to a monologue and not test viewers' patience.

"[17] Writing for the Observer, Lester Fabian Braithwhite said that the tragicomic balance struck by BoJack's eulogy "encapsulates what makes Raphael Bob-Waksberg's animated Netflix series one of the best shows on television.

"[18] Some reviewers directly mentioned the episode's approach to its dark subject matter, with Rebecca Patton of Bustle saying that "Free Churro" "nails" the experience of mourning an "awful person" like Beatrice Horseman,[19] while Vulture's Daniel Kurland voiced his approval for the way that the episode "eloquently comments on how nobody really has the answers when it comes to death.

"[22] Emily VanDerWerff of Vox took things a step further, saying it would be "a bigger travesty than usual" if Arnett did not win an Emmy Award for his performance.

Club's Les Chappell gave the episode an "A" grade, stating that one "can hear every last bit of forced levity, resentment, and genuine pain as BoJack tries to find some way to come to terms with Bea's death, and his feelings or lack thereof about the matter.

"[24] "Free Churro" appeared on several publications' lists of the best television episodes of 2018, with John Maher of Paste calling the episode "absolutely magnificent,"[25] Time's Judy Berman referring to it as "wistful, bitter, funny and profoundly meta,"[26] and Caroline Framke of Variety describing the plot as "a winding, surprising road that never once loses sight of where it's headed.

He beat Debi Derryberry (F is for Family), Juliet Donenfeld (Pete the Cat), Patrick Warburton (Skylanders Academy), and Tara Strong (Unikitty!)