Puberty, that difficult time everyone eventually experiences throughout their middle and high school years is the subject of Netflix’s animated show Big Mouth. Created by Nick Kroll, its third season was released this October. Kroll based the show on his friend Andrew and himself during their childhood and how they went through puberty.

While it’s animated, the show is TV-MA because it is basically teaching a mature audience about the hardships of going through puberty, breakups, and sexuality. The show is about five middle schoolers name Nick ( Nick Kroll), Andrew (John Mulaney), Jessi (Jessi Klein), Jay (Jason Mantzoukas), and Missy (Jenny Slate) who are going through puberty, with their hormone monsters. These hormone monsters help the characters know what to do in certain situations. The show has been a huge hit so far and portrays ghost celebrities such as Duke Ellington, Freddie Mercury, and Atlanta Claus who help the children through issues they are having. For example, in one episode where Andrew had an issue with his sexuality, Duke Ellington and Freddie Mercury sang a song to Andrew about being homosexual and how people will accept you.

This season the show started where it left off after their Valentine’s Day special. The whole school is mad at Andrew for making a big scene at Lola’s Valentine’s day party, where he was telling Missy how much he loves her. Then Lars (Neil Casey), who is in a wheelchair, tried to calm him down, but Maurice tells Andrew to push him because he is faking it. After pushing him down he realized Lars couldn’t walk, which led to Andrew getting kicked out of the party. 

A new character named Ali (Ali Wong) joins the show and tells the other characters that she is pansexual, which excites the boys and people were more open to it because she is a girl. This made Jay announce that he is bisexual and the other characters didn’t take it well because he is a boy. Mostly this season of the show is basically focusing on the characters and how they are moving from their childhood and adopting their own identity in this process of puberty.

Big Mouth has become one of the best grossing shows on Netflix. Rotten Tomatoes gave the show 100% on their website. Although some people don’t like the show because of the juvenile humor and controversial topics – racism, rape, alcohol abuse, sexuality, and gender stereotypes – it deals with these issues in a way that “serious” shows don’t. Mostly they talk about what kids go through during puberty in a humorous and funny way so that kids won’t feel embarrassed. They also talk about standards about how someone feels about sexuality and saying that it is okay for being who you are.

I like this show mostly because of the dark humor and the friendship between the characters. My favorite character in the show is Maurice, the Hormone Monster. Maurice helps guide Andrew in the right direction (most of the time) throughout the show. He helps him with his emotions and what to do in certain situations. He tells dark humor jokes to make the show more interesting and funny. 

Big Mouth is a funny show that everyone should watch because everyone, especially teens, can relate to the characters and understand what they are going through. I’d rate the show 10 out of 10.