By: Clare Daly | Staffwriter
Growing up sucks, even if you have the ghost of Duke Ellington and your own personal Hormone Monster to help you out. Netflix’s Big Mouth, now in its sophomore season, was created by childhood friends Nick Kroll and Andrew Goldberg and co-creators Jennifer Flackett and Mark Levin.
As a fictionalized version of Kroll and Goldberg’s teenage years in the suburbs of New York City, the show is chock-full of today’s kings and queens of comedy, including Kroll himself, John Mulaney, Jenny Slate, and others. In addition to main cast members, guest parts are filled with the likes of Kristen Bell and Gina Rodriguez. Even Jon Hamm makes an appearance in Season 1… as scallops.
The first season of Big Mouth was a hit among teens and adults alike, with a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Protagonists Nick Birch (Kroll), Andrew Glouberman (Mulaney), and friends dealt with periods, porn, and the fact that “Girls Are Horny Too”. Through school, family life, and song and dance, the teens somehow survive the pains of puberty. Season 2, released October 5, expands on this narrative with increasingly mature content but consistent laughs.
The standout character this season is the Shame Wizard. Best known to audiences as Remus Lupin in the film adaptations of Harry Potter, David Thewlis excels in a very different magical role. The “Shane Lizard”, as he is referred to by Coach Steve (Kroll), eats away at the already low self-esteem the kids possess by taking advantage of their daily embarrassments. He casts a dark, suffocating cloud over Andrew after a mortifying encounter with Nick’s sister, Leah, and eventually spreads his influence across Bridgeton Middle School. Even the Hormone Monsters cower in fear at the mention of him.
In the Wizard’s song, “Shame”, he restates his mission: to give the kids “a healthy dose of sweet self-loathing”. While expressing his ideas in song, he calls Andrew a “skeevy little perv” due to his uncontrollable ejaculations, reinforces Jessi’s belief that she caused her parents’ divorce, and ridicules Nick for his lack of genital development. The Shame Wizard truly knows the deepest, darkest secrets of the children’s minds, and exploits them for his own gain.
The Shame Wizard represents a facet of American culture in which teaching children about sexual health and safety will encourage them to become whores and gigolos and their parents’ worst nightmares. The Hormone Monsters often guide the children through puberty, encouraging them to explore their sexual feelings in a (mostly) safe and responsible way. The children eventually banish the Shame Wizard, after they realize they’re not disgusting or evil for engaging in debauchery within reason. Thewlis shines in a role so unlike himself, but so familiar to pubescent teens, and in turn brings an unparalleled character to Big Mouth.
The episode that received the most backlash this season was also arguably the best. The fifth episode covered sexual health and safety, entitled “The Planned Parenthood Show”. At its release, critics fawned, and conservatives freaked. During sex ed class, the students get into an argument about Planned Parenthood and its services. A group of students believed the misconception that the health clinics provide only abortion services, so the other kids employed a number of whimsical skits that detail the organization’s work in providing birth control, family planning, reproductive health exams, and other services.
Characters also participate in a game show where the prizes are a choice of sponge, pill, and condom and another captains the Starship Enterprise of cervical cancer screenings. The show does feature a mother’s experience with abortion but does so in an emotional, respectful, and accurate way. Somehow, in a 10 episode season an animated comedy series on Netflix manages to teach better, more comprehensive sex ed than most American schools.
Netflix churns out hundreds of shows and movies every year, but not everything is worth watching. Many cartoons are unintelligent and thoughtless, and much of the content documenting youth is stereotypical and inaccurate. Big Mouth manages to combine both into a binge-worthy anthology of adolescence that can be at times heart-wrenching and nearly always side-splitting. Remus Lupin and Cecile Richards walk into a bar… and create the best parts of an unmissable second season of Netflix’s Big Mouth.
