By Staff Writer Benjamin Pfeffer.
*Spoiler alert*
If you have never watched the relatively new show on Netflix, Big Mouth, that depicts middle schoolers going through the struggles of puberty in an explicit, grossly hilarious way, then you are missing out.
Big Mouth is a cartoon comedy on Netflix that currently has two seasons. Season one, which was released on September 29, 2017, was one of the most ingenious ideas to ever come to television. The show is also very helpful when it comes to early pubescent people understanding what is happening to them, if parents don’t explain it and allow their children to watch this explicit show.
Season one allowed the viewers to enter the lives of middle schoolers Nick, Andrew, Jessi, Jay, and Missy. These characters are followed by ‘hormone monsters’ that provoke them into succumbing to their most horrific pubescent thoughts. Hormone monster Maury puts the thoughts into Andrew’s mind while hormone monstress Connie does the same to Jessi.
The first episode, to give people a taste of what the show has to offer, discusses ejaculation and Nick’s jealousy that Andrew is further along in puberty than himself. Then to appeal to not only a male audience, the second episode talks about periods and female puberty as Jessi listens to the hormone monstress and is mean to her mother and gets her first period in white shorts on a school field trip. The friend group also realizes the dilemma of having a crush on a friend.
The show’s next few episodes cover sexuality and puberty problems; then comes ‘The Head Push.’ The head push depicts a high school party that the middle schoolers were able to attend. It rightfully mentions how you should not force anybody into doing anything they would not want to. In these episodes, Jessi’s parents are having problems and the hormone monstress uses this to get her to do bad things.
The final episode of the season is arguably the best. Episode 10 is called “The Pornscape.”
In this episode, after getting turned down by Missy, Andrew becomes obsessed with pornography and gets sucked into “The Pornscape.” This is by far the most explicit episode on the season, but the explicitness makes it so much funnier. Nick and the hormone monster delve into “The Pornscape” to rescue Andrew. Coach Steve also becomes a suspect for murder. This whole episode is the high point of the season and set high expectations for season 2.
Season 2 met and exceeded all expectations. People did not think it could be better than season one, but it was, and it was so much better.
The first episode is nothing special. Andrew has a growth spurt and has difficulties dealing with it, Nick is worried that something is wrong with him because he still has yet to hit puberty, and Jessi and Jay try to run away.
In the second episode, one of their classmates, Gina, develops breasts and all the boys obsess over her. Later in the episode, the best character, Coach Steve, lets it be known that he is a virgin… and he is also the school’s sex ed teacher.
The next episode introduces a new character similar to the hormone monster and monstress. The Shame Wizard appears and takes Andrew to a court where he is put on trial for attempting to masturbate in Nick’s bathroom to his sister’s bathing suit. The Shame Wizard starts affecting everybody later in the season.
The next episode, episode 4, is titled “Steve the Virgin.” In this episode, Coach Steve finally gets a chance to, as he puts it, “do sex on a lady,” and that lady is Jay’s mom. Jay knows this and is okay with it because, well, it’s Jay.
Episode 5 is the most controversial of the whole show. It is “The Planned Parenthood Show.” In this episode, they try to convey all of the services that Planned Parenthood provides to prove that it’s not just an “abortion factory.” They try to discuss it without any controversy, but of course there is always going to be controversy when a topic like this is discussed. “Is there some sort of skit that we can watch that’d be entertaining and informative, but also not too preachy?” “Ooh! That is a fine line we’re trying to walk.”
In the next few episodes, a few do drugs and the guys talk about what it means to be a guy.
The Shame Wizard returns in the eighth episode as everyone finds out things about everybody else and the Shame Wizard attacks this and makes everybody feel bad about themselves.
For the finale of the show everyone was expecting the best, and the show delivered.
Tyler, a hormone monster in training, left a portal open on accident as he disappeared into the Department of Puberty. In the Department of puberty, Nick is searching for a better hormone monster to speed up the process, but Jessi finds her name and listens in on a meeting about her, led by Connie.
The Intellect Sphinx predicts that Jessie will end up in jail with a face tattoo, so a new monster takes over, the Depression Kitty. This was foreshadowed in the previous episode, but surprisingly doesn’t play too big of a part. Nick, Andrew, Connie, and Maury get Jessi out of the padded cell within the episode and return to the real world, but I expect there to be more of the Depression Kitty and the Department of Puberty in the next season.
The season ends with Connie becoming Nick’s hormone monster. Which will change the next season completely because Nick finally has a hormone monster that works.
Overall, the show is very offensive, very explicit, and extremely funny. The one downside is that it seemingly only has 10 episodes every year, so we have another 12 months until next season.
PHOTO COURTESY: IMDB