Big Mouth Season Two (Spoiler-Lite) Review

While Netflix continues to bombard subscribers with insurmountable mountains of content (seriously, I spend my time writing about TV and even I can’t keep up with the amount of content Netflix is churning out), the streaming service still manages to provide far more misses than hits. Which is why it’s a bit surprising to me that the two best shows on Netflix don’t star flashy names or big-budget set pieces, but rather are adult-focused cartoons that tackle some of life’s most complex issues in incredibly smart and layered ways. I’ve already written about one of these great shows, BoJack Horseman, but the other is Big Mouth– a show I didn’t expect to love, but one that has quickly climbed the ranks into my favorite shows on television.

What, exactly, is Big Mouth? Well, it’s the story of several middle schoolers navigating the trials and tribulations of puberty. And it’s unflinching in depicting just how tumultuous that time is, whether you’re a boy or a girl. And I’ll admit that when I initially heard about the series last year, I was skeptical. The marketing campaign indicated that the series would be a typical gross-out comedy centered around boys jerking off and objectifying girls. And, initially, that’s what it seemed. But then things took a turn, and the series proved itself to be more than jokes about genitalia. It became an empathetic exploration of how we all, male or female, gay or straight, just want to fit-in and be comfortable in our own bodies. And it explored those complex themes with heart and a heavy dose of humor. Oh, and it brought the always excellent Maya Rudolph into the fold as the female Hormone Monster, and absolutely killed it.

So, when season two dropped, I was stoked to see what would happen with our favorite youngsters and their Hormone Monsters. And I was not disappointed. I didn’t think Big Mouth could build on what it did in its first season, but it managed to do just that while delving even deeper into the emotional turmoil of this time in life. Spending more time with Jessi as she attempts to sort out just why she feels so angry all the time helped to balance the large swaths of time spent with Nick and Andrew, as they duo spend most of the season taking baby steps forward in their storylines (to be fair, as Andrew was the de facto lead in season one, there wasn’t much further for his story to go without getting him completely through middle school). It was also nice to see Jay’s character fleshed out a bit more this season. While he’s still willing to hump anything and everything around him, allowing Jay to explore his adolescent sexuality with Matthew was a nice surprise, and the show’s choice to shade the relationship as nothing to freak out about was a great touch (and a sign as to how far we’ve come on TV since back when I was in middle school and Ellen came out).

Big Mouth isn’t just an empathic look at adolescent sexuality and puberty; it’s also uproariously funny. Rudolph is the show’s clear standout (there’s something about her ability to deliver a simple line with such unexpected relish that you never see her line readings coming), but the series manages to use its excellent cast in just the right doses and play to their strengths. Jason Mantzoukas (an actor who exemplifies the mantra “less is more”) is allowed to push the character Jay to just beyond the bounds of good taste, only to bring him back into the realm of confused and unsure kid moments later. It’s a delicate line that Big Mouth consistently walks without going so far over that the series becomes unwatchable. I don’t know how Nick Kroll, Andrew Goldberg, Mark Levin, and Jessica Flackett (and the show’s additional writing team) manage it, but I remain impressed.

A show about the horrors, triumphs, and tribulations of middle school and puberty can’t go on forever (this isn’t a series built like The Simpsons where the kids won’t age for decades and there will be many a tale to mine from their age range), but I’m eager to see where things take us in season three. These smart, kind, and complicated kids have more growing to do.