Season Review: “Big Mouth” Season One

Should this mouth have been shut?

Earlier this week, we lost an icon in the sexual education of America, Hugh Hefner. Before Hef came along, television and film would seldom flirt with the notion of seeing a heterosexual couple in bed together, even if the two are just going to sleep. As a matter of fact, when The Flintstones first premiered almost sixty years ago on ABC, Fred and Wilma would often be seen sleeping in separate beds just like every normal married couple, right? Nope…this is the fantasy world that politicians used to attempt to paint for their children, “Sex is in the bedroom and remembers Jesus, Mary, and the angels are watching EVERYTHING you’re doing.”

Fortunately, most of civilized America, save for the pockets of extreme conservatism that are littered throughout the country, have grown up and have accepted their sexual selves largely thanks to media whether it’d be via print (Playboy), radio (The Howard Stern Show), television (Sex in the City), and of course the internet.

While sexual adventures in animation are hardly a new concept, the conversation of sex is still somewhat taboo on mainstream television. Even today, networks constantly show blocks or blurred images over nude bodies for the sole reason of not traumatizing children with the idea that they might have naked bodies, too. Some shows will tip over the imaginary line stenciled by standards & practices groups, but no adult animated series has completely dived in the deep end of the sexual conversation pool like Big Mouth.

Big Mouth is a new Netflix original production by Nick Kroll and Andrew Goldberg, life-long best friends who have decided to give us a bit of an autobiographical behind-the-scenes look at their pubescent lives but with concepts that either only animation or a really expensive VFX budget could’ve given us. The show features pint-sized fictionalized versions of Nick and Andrew, with Andrew being voiced by John Mulaney and Nick, not only providing the voice of his little-self, but a slew of other important characters like the absolutely hilarious “Coach Steve”, and the largely important “Maurice the Hormone Monster”.

Maurice is just one of a dozen or so imaginary monsters and people dotted throughout the 10-episode series that usually represent some form of consciousness regardless of the subject that which is creating the manifestation. For example, Mo represents the sexual desires of the teenage boys while his brother “Rick” represents the sexual desires of the older guys. “Connie the Hormone Monstress” (voiced by Maya Rudolph who is fabulous in this role) represents the sexual desires of the girls. That’s right, not only do we get to see experience the hormones of little boys, but girls as well, which is actually a very rare occurrence…a girl’s viewpoint of their sexual upbringing? It seldom happens on television, but it’s all over the place here.

The imaginary characters don’t stop with the hormone monsters, the prepubescent Nick is haunted by the ghost of Duke Ellington (Jordan Peele) and a smattering of other famous spirits showing up unannounced. Nick and Andrew’s pal, Jay Bilzerian (voiced by Jason Mantzoukas) has a pretty hilarious arc with imaginary characters of his own, including the pillow that he has ummmm “relations” with.  Oh, and don’t worry ladies, you’ll have fun with the imaginary characters produced for you as well (I’m looking at you, Kristen Wiig).

Andrew Goldberg is an ex-Family Guy writer and the influence of his early years on that show are evident throughout. Talking animals and inanimate objects, an adventure into a “porn world” that looks like it would have been right at home with a Brian & Stewie episode, and the occasional song, all have the DNA of working on the Seth MacFarlane-produced show during its heyday when it was one of the best-animated series around. Even the occasional pop culture references and cutaway gags show up!

The Titmouse-produced series is directed by Mike Mayfield of Mr. Pickles-fame and it shows. Mike and his team of producers have a lot of fun with callbacks to earlier episodes that seem both in the script and off the cuff as the season goes on that you’ll have fun pointing out with lots of kudos being sent to the producers of the trippy sequences, and the constant drawings of dicks that seemed to be never-ending.

In terms of the voice-acted roles, at this juncture, I’m not surprised that Nick Kroll is great on this show no matter who he voices, he’s been in the animation business for a while now and he’s a well-versed actor in this arena. I think the breakout stars are probably going to be Jason Montzoukas, John Mulaney, and Jessi Klein. Everyone has their own very well-written dialogue that does a good job of parlaying the more explicit topics that current television typically ignores but with hilarious one-liners and breaks in the fourth wall to boot that will surely satisfy those thinking the show takes itself too seriously.

But, that’s not to say that Big Mouth isn’t without some faults. Sometimes listening to Nick’s different alterations of his voice talking to his other characters a lot can be a tad monotonous when you’re bingeing the series, so I think I would’ve like another voice actor to kind of “spell” some of his ancillary roles, like perhaps voice co-stars Armisen and Peele having an additional recurring character or two. And while I liked the clearly Where the Wild Things Are look at the monsters, perhaps a bit more variety in their designs would’ve added a bit more pep to their presentations.

Quite honestly, these are small gripes. Netflix has itself another solid adult animated series that features a glaring look at America’s various relationship statuses. Whether it’s the possibly in-the-closet “Elliot Birch” (voiced by Fred Armisen), marriages that are in trouble, or the more Homer/Marge like dynamic displayed with Andrew’s parents (voiced by Richard Klein and Paula Pell respectively), Big Mouth continues bearing the torch that BoJack Horseman and F is for Family carry during their runs, but with a WAY bigger focus on the various teenage characters still trying to figure out their sexual selves not unlike what live-action efforts have done like Fast Times at Ridgemont High or American Pie have done for their respective time periods. Big Mouth, is very relatable to its target audiences.

The best way to really describe this show would be like if Justin Roiland (Rick and Morty) decided to do an adult animated take on Degrassi (a series that he actually worked on). And in a week where we lost the guy that most effectively started the sexual conversation (Hugh Hefner), it’s good to see that there’s still content being made that carries on that message even if it’s in the silliest way possible.