It’s back and bigger than ever: “Big Mouth,” an animated Netflix original series, released its third season on Oct. 4, 2019, and it definitely pushes the envelope. But, if you’re a fan of the show, you already know that pushing the envelope is “Big Mouth’s” forte.
Starring an impressive slate of seasoned actors, the show capitalizes on over-the-top humor, written seamlessly into episodes with increasingly bizarre storylines. Nick Kroll primarily voices Nick Birch, a middle school boy on the brink of puberty who is insecure about his masculinity and journey into adulthood. Kroll also voices other main characters such as Maurice the Hormone Monster, who “helps” the adolescent characters throughout their experiences with puberty, and Coach Steve, the incompetent middle school gym class teacher. Beloved comedian John Mulaney voices Andrew Glouberman, another middle school boy who is best friends with Nick and whose awkward nature often gets him into highly uncomfortable situations.
Other actors with primary roles on the show include Jessi Klein, Jason Mantzoukas, Jenny Slate, Fred Armisen, Maya Rudolph and Jordan Peele who play an absurdly wide range of characters with strange characteristics and personalities. To give those who are unfamiliar with the show a simple idea of the caliber of strangeness, Kristen Wiig recurs on the show as the voice of the genitalia of one of the girl characters going through puberty.
As if the characters weren’t zany enough, the storylines in each episode keep taking the push-the-envelope humor further and further. From the first episode in season one — entitled “Ejaculaton” in which the main storyline consists of Nick accidentally seeing Andrew’s penis before the middle school dance — to the most recent episode released entitled “Super Mouth” with a plot in which everyone at the middle school gains superpowers during a freak storm — there is no shortage of unpredictable laughs. Some of the episodes that stand out the most are “Am I Gay?” in which a trailer for the latest Dwayne Johnson movie makes Andrew question his sexuality, “The Planned Parenthood Show,” in which different TV shows/movies are parodied to explain the different services that Planned Parenthood provides and “My Furry Valentine,” a “Big Mouth” Valentine’s Day special released in early February 2019.
The show was created when TV writer Andrew Goldberg, who had previously written for “Family Guy,” approached his best friend since childhood, Nick Kroll, and, along with screenwriter-directors Jennifer Flackett and Mark Levin, pitched the idea to develop a show about going through puberty. Soon after, “Big Mouth” was born. It was picked up by Netflix in June 2016 and then came to be enjoyed by disturbed-yet-intrigued viewers from all over the world.
“Big Mouth” has been renewed for a fourth, fifth and sixth season, so there will be a lot more of it to watch if you can’t get enough!
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