Big Mouth - Season 3
BIG MOUTH - NETFLIX
Big Mouth is, at its core, a study of the challenges of growing up and the pains of puberty filtered through the lens of a raunchy adult animated sitcom with fantasy elements. Since its premiere in September 2017, the highly popular Netflix series — created by Nick Kroll, Andrew Goldberg, Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett — has displayed a bizarre and oddly meta understanding of the conventions of its genre, while also demonstrating a certain level of sensitivity and empathy toward its characters. In its third season, the show aims for new heights and a deeper exploration of its ensemble cast, to often middling but sometimes genuinely hilarious results.
This season focuses on a wide variety of coming-of-age topics: from toxic masculinity and sexist dress codes to the spectrum of sexuality and dissolving friendships. Nick Birch (Nick Kroll), the titular Big Mouth, has been assigned a new hormone monster — a personification of the turbulent hormones that define puberty and adolescence — in Connie (Maya Rudolph), who helps him navigate his friendships, relationships and slowly-developing sexual maturity, as well as fostering a need for independence from his coddling parents Elliot (Fred Armisen) and Diane (Rudolph). Andrew Glouberman (John Mulaney) struggles with his sexual desire for his own cousin, his growing alienation from his friends and his tendency to act on his worst impulses, all the while receiving guidance from his own hormone monster Maurice (Kroll). Jessi Glaser (Jessi Klein) continues to deal with her parents’ separation and discovers new things about her body; Jay Bilzerian (Jason Mantzoukas) questions his sexuality and yearns for parental affection; Missy Foreman-Greenwald (Jenny Slate) redefines herself and learns to go after what she wants; and the Ghost of Duke Ellington (Jordan Peele) gets an entire episode to himself about losing his virginity and his relationship with his mother.
With ten episodes and a nearly half-hour runtime, the show wastes little time in investing one in the premise of each episode and the complex emotions the characters are experiencing. In contrast to the previous season, the new season strips itself of an overarching story and focuses on a more non-serialized approach, which is a return to form and works to both its benefit and its detriment. With each episode focusing on a different subject, the show lends itself to more traditional sitcom conventions, with the comedy often coming from characters reacting to and sometimes causing ludicrous situations. Though the show is often funny in its own unique way, the lack of a story arc causes the season to be quite unfocused and without a centralized theme apart from the basic series-spanning idea that “growing up is difficult and everyone reacts to it differently”. By the end of the season, the show presents the idea that change is inevitable in adolescence and is often integral to one’s maturity into the harsh realities of adulthood, but this is a theme that it hardly takes the time to explore and that feels disconnected from the rest of the season because it is introduced so late in the game. Even the comedic aspects of the show wear thin; it often leans into more broad humor and becomes less specific to the world of the show.
Standout episodes such as “Florida”, “How To Have An Orgasm” and “Duke” showcase the show’s willingness to explore its characters with grace and sensitivity and highlight an experimental side that few other animated sitcoms can match — although there are some that do it better. At its best, the show is a smart and absurd commentary on modern youth culture and how adolescence can vary across different perspectives. At its worst, it’s a messy, ill-defined and thematically dry experience, with little in the way of earned character development and far too many unimportant subplots. Big Mouth’s third season is a mixed bag of strong comedic writing but poor narrative construction, with a stellar ensemble voice cast and accurate insight into the adolescent experience but a sense of thematic emptiness and an inability to connect all of its ideas into a cohesive story.
Big Mouth - Season 3 is streaming exclusively on NETFLIX
