5 episodes that showcase how Big Mouth’s kids have (slowly) grown up
From Missy embracing her Blackness to Nick defeating his self-obsessed alter ego, these installments of the animated Netflix series show how its kids evolve
TV Lists Big Mouth
In 5 To Watch, writers from The A.V. Club look at the latest streaming TV arrivals, each making the case for a favored episode. Alternately, they can offer up recommendations inspired by a theme. In this installment: With Big Mouth returning for a fifth season this week, The A.V. Club digs into the most recent episodes that showcase how five of the main characters have managed to grow and change over the years.
Netflix’s animated comedy Big Mouth has a huge cast of adolescent characters, each one dealing with their own anxieties and insecurities—nearly all of which are embodied by a literal monster. And while the first few seasons made great, foul-mouthed hay of these kids’ various neuroses, season four started to highlight how they were capable of change, too. Yes, it’s hard to see past your own navel during puberty (unless it’s to travel a few inches farther south to your genitals, as Jason Mantzoukas’ hormone-addled Jay Bilzerian might argue), but over the course of four seasons, even the most clueless of them have made tentative steps toward maturity. In advance of the fifth season, The A.V. Club is looking back at five episodes that best showcase how different characters in this madcap universe have taken the difficult steps of growing up.
7 Comments
No Andrew? He’s the co-lead, seems odd. Although I guess maybe he hasn’t grown much?
Yeah Andrew hasn’t learned shit
The more I see of Andrew, the more I feel like this entire show is a waste of John Mulaney’s effort.
I LOVE this show, so underrated.This next season I hope for some more light moments though, last series was very heavy.
I’m so glad this show is back, it’s smarter and funnier than it has any right to be. For an animated show about puberty in middle school, it vascilates between surprisingly relatable gross-out humor and surprising character depth wildly, and the monsters are hugely inventive. I’m also surprised at how funny it is. Between the recapping ladybug and the “what’re you gonna do” hormone monster catchphrase, it’s secretly one of the best shows on Netflix.
Jay snuck up to be my favorite character, (in no small part because of Jason Mantzoukas’ constant frenzied shouting) I wish I’d had the episodes on “the chaotic agony and hilarity of realizing you’re bi in middle school” when I was thirteen.
I’ve been watching the latest season of the show and I honestly wished they would stop constantly fucking up how they write stories about abuse.
The show has a double standard towards abuse; male-on-male or female-on-male are typically treated as a joke but male-on-female abuse is treated seriously. Nick’s older sister doesn’t care that her current boyfriend sexually abused him in season one; Andrew’s father physically assualted him in front of Nick’s family during Thanksgiving dinner and no one cared; and Jay became the victim of revenge porn by Lola and its not really treated as anything other than a joke. But when girls like Jess, Lola and Gina are abused by other males, the show’s missteps just make these plots a lot cheaper than what they were aiming for.