Warning: This program is intended to be viewed by mature, adult audiences and may be unsuitable for children under 17. This show contains graphic sexual images and references to mental health issues, sexuality, and other mature topics.   

Raunchy animated shows have fought their way into audience’s hearts. BoJack Horseman, Disenchantment, and Big Mouth are three of the most popular of this genre at the moment. Big Mouth is a Netflix series about Nick Kroll and Andrew Goldberg’s upbringing in New York. The show follows Kroll and Goldberg in their adventures through puberty, adolescent social problems, sex, and the human body. This article contains some spoilers!

This season of Big Mouth deals with shame, jealousy, love, anxiety, friendships, and hate. In my opinion, Big Mouth does a great job with portraying these normal emotions in a relatable, funny way. 

Shame is presented through the recurring character the Shame Wizard, voiced by David Thewlis. The Shame Wizard appears whenever the kids start to feel ashamed about their actions, or bodies. In the first few episodes of this season, the Shame Wizard rose again when the characters were ashamed of their bodies while wearing swimsuits in P.E. Though the ways the main characters dealt with their unhappiness with their bodies were drastic and disgusting; there was a good message in the episode.

Jealousy was surprisingly introduced through a substitute teacher and Othello. I didn’t expect Big Mouth to reference Shakespeare. Just as Shakespeare described, the kids turned into green-eyed monsters whenever jealous. Andrew, one of the main characters, was creepily jealous of his substitute teacher’s fiancée. Jesse Glazer was jealous of her best friend’s girlfriend, and Nick Birch (Nick Kroll) was jealous of his brother. 

Love was presented with lovebugs. The butterfly-esque creatures became visible to the characters when they were about to, or were, falling in love. The lovebugs made Nick terribly serenade his crush. Big Mouth also recognized that love isn’t only shared between a couple, it’s also shared between best friends. 

When the characters began to hate, their lovebugs were turned into hate-worms. These little creatures heavily influenced the characters Missy and Nick. Due to her hate for Jesse, a usually dorky, friendly character, Missy, was easily convinced to cyberbully Jesse. With every action that the hate-worm was able to convince Missy into, she was consumed more and more, the hate-worm growing stronger. Eventually when Missy expelled the hate-worm, she was back to her dorky self.

Big Mouth may be graphic, but it’s aimed at high school students and helping them through high school. Though it may not be appropriate for everyone, the show does have educational content with good messages. 

Graphic courtesy of WIKIMEDIA COMMONS