Big Mouth Season 1 (2017)
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Big Mouth Season 1 Review
Big Mouth is a coming-of-age adult animated comedy series created by Nick Kroll. The first season premiered on Netflix in 2017 and it’s very good.
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“You lean your head back,
arch your crotch in the air
and say, “Dinner is served“
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The show is all about puberty and how both boys and girls handle so many changes and their sexual awakening. Having in mind that it centers on a bunch of 13-year-olds discovering sex and masturbation, I was scared at first that it would be inappropriate. But it’s animation, so the medium is better for this subject matter and easier to handle, plus the show is mostly tasteful.
I like the animation a lot, I love the designs of the puberty monsters and the show’s sometimes surreal imagery is excellent. It can get pretty crazy and the musical scenes are usually among the best, but unfortunately the second half ditched those elements too abruptly. The opening is good, too, and the voice acting is excellent throughout.
The dialogue is strong and the humor can be great. Sometimes it’s too on-the-nose, but mostly it is so much fun and it made me laugh a lot of times. The characterization is excellent. The monsters are all terrific, especially Maury who is absolutely hilarious and the funniest character of the whole show. Nick is very relatable and sweet, Andrew is incredibly well developed with his problems all being well handled, Jessi is also among the best realized characters and Jay to me was very funny, especially in his pillow sexcapades. All of the adults are also very well developed and their relationship drama was superbly realized.
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The first of the ten episodes is Ejaculation. It explores Jessi and Nick’s relationship so well while emphasizing that sometimes boys and girls should just be friends and not partners. The friendship between Nick and Andrew is already perfectly established in this premiere and it’s the heart of the entire show. This is one of the best episodes of the season for it explores so potently the many insecurities of pubescent boys.
Everybody Bleeds is all about the female puberty, focusing on Jesse’s first period. It’s very well handled and quite mature. Am I Gay? is the only episode so far extensively focusing on homosexuality and the best part about it is that it signifies that some boys during this period may show some gay tendencies, but are actually heterosexual at the end of the day. That Freddy Mercury song was hilarious.
Sleepover: A Harrowing Ordeal of Emotional Brutality is all about this party that Jay throws to torture Nick and Andrew. He’s at his most unlikable here, but overall I continue to find his character the most realistic of the bunch as there are so many fools like this in school. The girls are also great here and Missy is wonderful. She’s such a goofy, lovable kid.
Girls Are Horny Too explores female sexuality truthfully. It is all about how women are different than men and how they find books, romance and erotica more pleasurable than full-on pornography. It’s such an insightful episode. Pillow Talk is hilarious in Jay’s relationship with his pillow. It’s the funniest and most realistic episode for sure.
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Requiem for a Wet Dream is somewhat forgettable, but The Head Push deals very well with the creepy, overly pushy boys. I Survived Jessi’s Bar Mitzvah is all about the adults’ drama and it works as the build-up for it was great. The Pornscape features terrific world building and the animation is superb here. It’s a fun episode that also benefits from a very interesting Jessi and Jay developing relationship.
The first season of Big Mouth has its weaker parts, but most of the episodes are very strong. The show is at its best when exploring the many teenage anxieties and insecurities about sex and their bodies while the humor and animation are great as is the characterization.
Worst Episodes: Sleepover: A Harrowing Ordeal of Emotional Brutality and Requiem for a Wet Dream.
Best Episodes: Ejaculation, Pillow Talk and The Pornscape.
