REVIEWED: SEASON 3 (ALL EPISODES) | WHERE TO WATCH: NETFLIX
For a brief while it looked like Season 3 might be the end of the road for Big Mouth, but earlier this year it was recommissioned for three new seasons and a spin-off series. It is the difficult third album for creators Nick Kroll and company, with a season not quite as strong as the two that came before it. That being said, it still confirms Big Mouth as one of the funniest and most colourful pieces of essential Netflix viewing.
Big Mouth is exactly the kind of show you wish you had when you were in high school. A series that confronts the sheer awkwardness of growing up and the mistakes that you make along the way. These reflections are delivered with the show’s typical style and wit, there being few better-looking animations out there. The new season strives for a bigger message beyond the important advice that it already has to offer, but this always provides the foundations for the comedy and peculiarity of every episode rather than overcoming it.
Season 3 is full of the typically weird imagination and perverse thinking that has won over the show’s fans. From songs about male ogling and the state of Florida to some memorable new characters, the unpredictable and shocking are thrown at you almost constantly. A new touch for this season is some shake-ups of the title sequence – one of which, featuring a commentary by Andrew’s father, you will be laughing about for long afterwards. Big Mouth knows exactly how to push buttons and still demonstrate some much-needed sensitivity, never alienating you even when it crosses over into potentially touchy subjects.
Andrew (John Mulaney) has gone from the slightly tragic teenager to a toxic, hormonally charged outcast. The season ends on the strange note of him accusing Nick (Nick Kroll) of being a terrible person, even though it is Andrew who you never feel like rooting for throughout almost the entire season. Missy (Jenny Slate) finally gets assigned her hormone monster, the seductive Mona (a phenomenal Thandie Newton), and the life story of Duke Ellington (a predictably amazing Jordan Peele) are perhaps the season highlights. The tensions in the class all boil over in the final episode which, although surprisingly underwhelming, does a good job of making clear the animosity held back throughout the whole season.
The new season is just a peg below what has come before it, but Big Mouth is still gloriously rendered, hilarious, and moving. With BoJack Horseman coming to an end early next year, Big Mouth is in a great position to inherit that TV goliath’s mantle as one of the funniest and most important shows of the moment.
