If you haven’t had the chance to watch Big Mouth, I can assure that you are missing out big time. Although with the success of adult animated TV shows like Rick and Morty, Bojack Horseman and Archer, one might be inclined to think that Big Mouth is just another cash grabber but it isn’t. Big Mouth is not exactly what it appears to be.
For a show full of profanity, Big Mouth is strangely thought-provoking and grounded in reality. The story revolves around a group of 7th graders and specifically focuses on friends Nick Birch, Andrew Glouberman, Jessi Glaser and Jay Bilzerian as they walk through the strange and awkward path of puberty, and to assist them in this path are their hormone monsters who are as their name suggests the physical manifestations of their hormonal reactions.
The series is sweet in its own way and it probably has one of the best developed pubescent characters I have seen on television. The show manages to capture the awkwardness of being a horny. confused and sweaty teenager and often makes you wish you had this show when you were one. Each episode raises an issue that most teens go through during this period. Subtle and dark comedy is used to raise issues such as rape culture, slut-shaming, confused sexuality, toxic masculinity; Big Mouth captures it all. With every season the gravity of the show keeps increasing, leaving the audience asking for more. One of the latest episode “Girls Are Angry Too” is where the school curriculum forces the girls to wear dresses which show less skin, or in other words doesn’t excite the male counterparts, as it quotes “guys are animals, you can’t control them.”
With a stellar cast full of comedians from all over Hollywood like Nick Kroll, Ali wong, Jason Mantzoukas, Jordan Peele, etc., these artists help capture the very essence of the show, with the use of perversity and at times pretty disturbing images to put their points across. The animation style also helps in making this show, “disgustingly beautiful.”
If I may be so bold as to suggest, even though Big Mouth may look like a show that promotes vulgarity and drug abuse, under adult supervision, it could be a show that could help start conversations that parents are afraid to raise. This Netflix Orignal by Nick Kroll and Andrew Goldberg is something which is greatly ahead of its time, the show also explains sex education in a remarkable manner all of which paves its way to become a classic.