How Netflix’s "Big Mouth" Opens Wide in Season 3

The sweetest/grossest show on Netflix finally lets everyone in on the fun.

When Big Mouth, Netflix’s animated pubertapalooza, returns for its third season on 4 October, its horny tweens are still wrestling with their raging hormones and unexpected bodily transformations.

But this time, showrunners Nick Kroll, Andrew Goldberg, Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett are finally reckoning with the burgeoning sexual urges of its queer characters too, and adding more to the mix.

Celebrated for its unvarnished—and super dirty—depiction of pre-teen puberty (S1 was rated R18+ in Australia), Big Mouth has explored it all, including masturbation, menstruation, contraception, pornography, consent and shame, usually with a fantastical twist. Its tiny leads Nick (Nick Kroll) and Andrew (John Mulaney) have compared their, ahem, growth spurts, while Jessi (Jessi Klein) and Missy (Jenny Slate) have witnessed a "cornucopia" of diverse women’s bodies at a day spa. All the while, they’ve been guided by their Hormone Monsters, voiced by Kroll and Maya Rudolph (the latter adding extra syllables to every word, making even "bubble bath" sound R18+).

Yet queer representation was lacking in its first two seasons. Andrew wondered if he was gay, leading to an incredible (and Emmy nominated!) song performed by the ghost of Freddie Mercury, letting Andrew know, "When you’re gay every day is a non-stop cabaret". Except, Andrew wasn’t. At least there was increasing prominence given to Matthew (Andrew Rannells), the only openly gay student at the kids’ school, who faced his lonely future after meeting an older gay man (Harvey Fierstein) similarly reliant on snarky retorts. And the second season ended promisingly, with Matthew and the sweetly disgusting Jay (Jason Mantzoukas, in peak Jason Mantzoukas mode) locking lips.

Season 3, mercifully, brings many of these storylines front and center, perhaps the result of an expanded and even more diverse writing team. While Nick and Andrew are off dealing with their toxic masculinity, focus drifts to Matthew, who’s beginning a relationship with "Pharmacy Boy" Aidan (voiced, as so many other characters are, by Kroll as well), following on from their meeting in this year’s already-released 14 February special, "My Furry Valentine". Here, Matthew’s awakening gets some attention, as well as his first experiences (ushered along by his Hormone Monster: Kroll again).

Meanwhile, Jay discovers himself after watching a Canadian Netflix series called "Gordie’s Journey", all about a sexually confused magician (voiced by Martin Short) who goes on an odyssey of self. It leads to another musical number, performed by Short and written by Mark Rivers, that explains the "spectrum of sexuality" ("No longer simply straight or gay, there’s a mind-boggling array!"), covering androsexuals, demisexuals, polysexuals and more. See you at the 2020 Emmys, Gordie!

There’s also the introduction of a pansexual student voiced by Ali Wong (also adorned in Wong’s iconic eyewear), who helps point out her binary classmates’ prejudices late in the season. And then the actual Fab Five from Queer Eye turn up to give dense Coach Steve (Kroll again) a makeover.

It’s enough to reduce the furious, screaming Republican talking heads on Fox News into flaming cinders, and no doubt parents groups will once again complain about the sexualisaton of these (we cannot stress this enough: animated) children. But the fact is, there’s no other show—perhaps ever—that’s been this willing to openly discuss this sticky, gross, extremely mystifying period of literally every human being’s life, or do it with as much humour and humanity. With Season 3, even more people from across the spectrum can tune in and say, "Same".

4/5

Big Mouth arrives on Netflix Friday 4 October.

(You better believe this comes with a language warning.)

Header Image: Netflix