Review: Big Mouth “My Furry Valentine”

Celebrate Valentine’s Day with the show that reminds us just how messy love can be.

Overview:

It’s Valentine’s Day, and all of your favourite puberty stricken teenagers are facing the loneliest day of the year.  Andrew is making moves on Missy without making any strong moves.  Things get worse as his plan backfires with catastrophic failure.  Nick is dealing with his new female hormone monster, Connie, which is causing him to have sore nipples and emotional breakdowns.  Jay embraces his role as an ultimate fuck machine for his two favourite pillows, but an overdose of Valentine’s runs him dry.  Meanwhile, everyone else is facing their own challenges during the season of love.

Our Take:

It was one thing to know that Big Mouth is hard at work at their third season – which should be released sometime in the fall.  Even more exciting was the announcement earlier this month that the show would be dropping a Valentine’s special.  Big Mouth has been successful for throwing viewers back into a time when hormones ruled our bodies and all the uncomfortable mess that is attributed to such.  So what could be messier than those awkward Valentine’s between handing out cute cartoon inspired cards to all your friends and having control over your sexuality?  This double-length special episode is not only brilliant, but it was also kind of necessary.

Dropping a special mid-way through season releases, it was unclear whether this episode would continue on with the stories that are already developing or stand alone as it’s own thing.  Sure enough, the plots that are tormenting each of the characters thicken up over this miserable holiday and create much more problems going forward.

Andrew’s ongoing complications with Missy are at the forefront of this episode.  After discovering that Missy had a thing for him in season two, Andrew decides the best approach this holiday would be playing it cool.  Unfortunately, his Kangal hat and vague Valentine’s card have little to no impact.  When she is swooned by another boy jealousy rages, and Andrew self destructs in a manner that may blow his chances for good.  A plot that is probably all too familiar for men when they were learning how to deal with their crushes in the early years.

Nick’s new hormone monster presents a whole new set of problems than he has faced in the last two seasons.  Sore nipples and emotional instability have him questioning if Connie is the right hormone monster for him.  To make matters worse, his tradition of spending Valentine’s Day with his parents suddenly feels inappropriate, especially when he is questioned on whether he wants to have intercourse with his mother.  A story that may not be as relatable as Andrew’s yet Nick’s frustrations with growing up are just as understandable.

Almost all of the ongoing characters have their stories developed a little further in this episode.  With the way things left off after the second season, there were a lot of questions moving forward.  But, with this special, we get a little teaser with how the next season is going to proceed.  By the looks of it, it is going to be as awkward as ever – if not more so.  There really is no point in hoping for a happy ending for any of these characters.  Just when you think things are going alright, they get so much worse.  Just like puberty.

This Valentine’s Day special is just what everybody struggling with love needs to watch this season.  Though, you will need to have watched all of the previous episodes to know what is going on.  But, even then, a rewatch of Big Mouth sounds like a pretty great Valentine’s Day spent if you ask me.  Beyond being a solid episode, this has been a significant set-up for things to come and it just made us that much more excited for the third season.  How much more torture can these poor kids go through?  I’m not sure, but I cannot wait to watch.

Score
8/10