Listen Here
By: Collin Frazier
@Collin_53
Remember not so long ago when you first began puberty? It was such an awkward point in everyone’s life. The point of when your body was changing rapidly, your emotions were a wreck, and it seemed like all you wanted to do was just move on to adulthood. Definitely a point in your life you’d like to forget about, right? Well, not if you’re Nick Kroll and Andrew Goldberg. In fact, they decided to remind you about the awkwardness of puberty in their hit Netflix original series, Big Mouth, which released its third season to the streaming service on October 4th.
Rather than focusing on best friends Andrew Glouberman (John Mulaney) and Nick Birch (Kroll) in one big conflict, this season decided to take a step back and focus on some of the supporting cast and their own struggles with puberty, primarily Jay Bilzarian (Jason Mantzoukas) and Missy Foreman-Greenwald (Jenny Slate). This was questionable for me at first, but I am actually glad that we got a more in-depth look at these characters. Due to events from season two, Jay, who was convinced he was a straight man, is now struggling with his sexuality, with an eventual acceptance of who he is. Missy, a late-bloomer, encounters her Hormone Monstress, Mona (Thandie Newton), this season. Mona is much more vulgar than Maurice The Hormone Monster (Kroll) and Connie The Hormone Monstress (Maya Rudolph). Missy is hesitant to accept Mona as she wants to hang on to her innocence and still be the “good girl” of the group. However, once she accepts Mona, she’s all in (No, I am not saying how).
Along with taking a closer look at other characters, this season also manages to give some heartfelt and important messages. A heartfelt message in this season is that people should be accepted as they are, regardless of gender. This season introduces Ali (Ali Wong), a pansexual girl new to Bridgeton Middle School. Although hesitant at first, the students at Bridgeton Middle accept Ali as their own, yet when Jay reveals to the group what he is, they actually treat him differently. This is something that I feel was a smart move for the show. People should learn that it doesn’t matter what gender you are, we are all humans with our own feelings and we should be accepting of that. An important message, along with plenty of others in the season, that stuck out to me the most was that, whether you want it to happen or not, change is inevitable.
Now, with the sad stuff out of the way, the funniest part of this season was most certainly Coach Steve (Kroll). While he also took a step back, that only made his appearances even more hilarious. A running gag with him this season was that he had a new job every episode, and the delivery of his absolutely ridiculous lines in each job was only made better by Kroll’s accent he had for him. My only complaint with this season was the episode dedicated to the Ghost of Duke Ellington (Jordan Peele), who lives in Nick’s attic. While it was interesting to learn more about a character, it added nothing to the main stories, while learning about Jay and Missy did
Overall, even with the slight blemish, Big Mouth picks up where it left off with its humor, and only gives watchers more lessons to think about.
