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alibi_shopThis is sort of an anti-nostalgia show, in that it wants to remind you how scary and disgusting it was to be 13. I didn't feel I needed that, so I hadn't really been tempted to watch it. Well, it's pretty great.
A lot of the story could have been a realistic live-action comedy, except that having actors who either are 13 or look 13 talking constantly about masturbation and dick size and periods and frottage and... you get the idea, it wouldn't go over well. So it has to be a cartoon; but they've fully embraced it being a cartoon by letting it also get really, really weird and not realistic at all. One of the main kids has a Hormone Monster that follows him around suggesting inappropriate thoughts—but it's not a metaphor; it turns out there's a whole ecosystem of these beasts and they have strange sex lives of their own. Another guy has the ghost of Duke Ellington in his attic giving him bad advice. It's a world where anything can happen, and the kids are constantly having to try to act like they know what's going on, which is a pretty decent approximation of non-sexual aspects of puberty.
Not all of this stuff works: there's a supernatural subplot about a pillow that's mostly just sad and gross—but even there, they use it to help you get to know one of the characters. I like nearly all the characters, even the unpleasant kids and the more caricatured adults (except the gym teacher, a one-note mean joke who should be on a Seth McFarlane show). The character designs and the overall look aren't visually super-distinctive but they serve the story well, and the voice actors have good chemistry together; it's pretty polished while still feeling like a very personal project for the creators.
I have maybe a weird point of view on this show because at 13, I basically didn't know anyone my own age; I was mostly just around older kids. So even though the inner experience of puberty is something I can identify with, the experience of seeing all the people you grew up with start to go through these changes isn't. I think part of why Big Mouth works for me anyway is that it's not trying to be about universal kids in everytown: it's specifically the New York metro area, a lot of it is about being Jewish, the kids' families are extremely different from each other, etc. Also, to the very limited extent that older teenagers appear, they're terrifying, which seems about right.
A lot of the story could have been a realistic live-action comedy, except that having actors who either are 13 or look 13 talking constantly about masturbation and dick size and periods and frottage and... you get the idea, it wouldn't go over well. So it has to be a cartoon; but they've fully embraced it being a cartoon by letting it also get really, really weird and not realistic at all. One of the main kids has a Hormone Monster that follows him around suggesting inappropriate thoughts—but it's not a metaphor; it turns out there's a whole ecosystem of these beasts and they have strange sex lives of their own. Another guy has the ghost of Duke Ellington in his attic giving him bad advice. It's a world where anything can happen, and the kids are constantly having to try to act like they know what's going on, which is a pretty decent approximation of non-sexual aspects of puberty.
Not all of this stuff works: there's a supernatural subplot about a pillow that's mostly just sad and gross—but even there, they use it to help you get to know one of the characters. I like nearly all the characters, even the unpleasant kids and the more caricatured adults (except the gym teacher, a one-note mean joke who should be on a Seth McFarlane show). The character designs and the overall look aren't visually super-distinctive but they serve the story well, and the voice actors have good chemistry together; it's pretty polished while still feeling like a very personal project for the creators.
I have maybe a weird point of view on this show because at 13, I basically didn't know anyone my own age; I was mostly just around older kids. So even though the inner experience of puberty is something I can identify with, the experience of seeing all the people you grew up with start to go through these changes isn't. I think part of why Big Mouth works for me anyway is that it's not trying to be about universal kids in everytown: it's specifically the New York metro area, a lot of it is about being Jewish, the kids' families are extremely different from each other, etc. Also, to the very limited extent that older teenagers appear, they're terrifying, which seems about right.
