REVIEW: They’re Still "Going Through Changes" In ‘Big Mouth’ Season 8

Disclaimer: This review contains minor spoilers for season 8 of Big Mouth.

The penultimate season of Big Mouth ends on several cliffhangers. Perhaps the most dramatic one centers around the friendship between budding high school students Nick Birch (Nick Kroll) and Andrew Glouberman (John Mulaney), which appears poised to fray as Nick prepares to attend the private Cobblestones Academy, where another bespectacled, cooler, wealthier Andrew seems set on deposing Glouberman from his long-held best friend perch. As the Season 7 finale credits roll, OG Andrew rants obscenely about having to wait a “full … year” to “find out” what happens. Fast forward to now!

© Netflix

Into the Great Unknown

There is a level of cringe necessary to successfully make a show like Big Mouth, as many of the main characters are middle school-aged children going through puberty with all of the embarrassing interactions and bodily functions that it entails. The characters occasionally break the Fourth Wall to clarify context, e.g.: The audience is not meant to find it titillating to watch caricature-esque minor characters engage in sexual acts, as creative usage of split screens and anthropomorphized, talking Hormone Monsters and their ilk make clear. Rather, Big Mouth functions as ‘edu-tainment,’ combining convenient lessons about Tanner’s Five Stages of Puberty, performing oral sex, moderating one’s pornography intake, and enthusiastic consent with surprisingly effective emotional storylines about characters growing up and “going through changes,” as the show’s theme song croons.

Much of Season 8 is invested in the main cast’s introduction to high school, complete with a new character design debut as Stage 4 of Tanner’s Sexual Maturity Rating (SMR) takes hold. Along with Nick and Andrew, their classmate Missy Foreman-Greenwald (voiced by Ayo Edebiri since Season 4) deals with the fallout of opting to be homeschooled to minimize her encroaching Dread (anthropomorphized as an oily, black sludge that threatens to consume her). Likewise, Jessi Glaser (Jessi Klein) deals with her own nerves by falling in with a group of stoners, much to her neurotic mom’s dismay. Fellow classmates Jay Bilzerian (Jason Mantzoukas) and Matthew MacDell (Andrew Rannells) seem more optimistic about their respective lots, which are underscored by lavish musical numbers. Likewise, fan favorite latchkey kid, Lola Skumpy (Nick Kroll) learns to drive, and involves herself in Jay’s and even Matthew’s shenanigans.

“DO QUEEF”

The adult cast of Big Mouth accounts for a considerable amount of screentime during some of the previous seasons, e.g.: They literally switch bodies with their respective children in the Season 6 finale, “F**cked Up Friday.” In Season 8, they take more of a backseat, often playing small, antagonistic roles (e.g.: Nick draws his mom’s ire by demanding copies of his parents’ tax returns as proof that he’s wealthy enough to be part of Cobblestones’ rich kids clique) designed to move the episode along. There are also, of course, a handful of man-child Coach Steve (Nick Kroll) bits, which are roughly as helpful. Another cameo by Jay’s dad (also voiced by Jason Mantzoukas) is much more grim than usual as he returns embittered, cagey, and down on his luck. Likewise, when a well-meaning teacher, Ms. Dunn (Natasha Lyonne) attempts to actually educate the kids during health class, Magic School Bus-style, she is swiftly removed from the classroom by law enforcement. Finally, the identity of the Ponytail Killer, a holdover from Season 1, is revealed!

Regarding the aforementioned Hormone Monsters, et al, there is an encroaching bittersweetness in realizing that, in fact, puberty eventually ends and they will move on to help more kids survive it while their charges are introduced to other creatures from the show’s Human Resources spinoff as they age. To soften the blow, the penultimate episode before the series finale entails Hormone Monsters Maury Beverly (Nick Kroll) and Connie LaCienega (Maya Rudolph) delving into Big Mouth’s mailbag “to answer curious fans’ burning questions” about queefing, vaginismus, dry humping, and more. Connie also acquires the help of a Compassion Pachyderm (Holly Hunter) to help teach the kids some much-needed empathy, similar to Zach Galifianakis’ stint as the soul patched Gratitoad in Season 4. 

© Netflix

Facing the Future

The final season of Big Mouth does an admirable job of emphasizing how the child characters have grown physically, mentally, and emotionally across eight seasons. Though the relationships between them frequently evolve, as they are wont to do during adolescence, throughlines like the romantic triangle between Lola, Jay, and Matthew remain a cornerstone of the last episodes, which will presumably please the show’s Reddit forum fans. Likewise, a two-episode subplot about slut shaming coincides with a character’s burgeoning porn addiction and, with the help of the Compassion Pachyderm, a gentle yet firm lesson about the consequences of gossiping is learned.

Do all of the kids make it through high school and/or puberty? Do the Jansen twins, Lotte and Mila, reveal their cannibalistic endgame to all and feast on their Bridgeton High classmates, Vader Johan-style? Does Missy’s dad wear the radish bra? Tune in on May 23rd to find out!

Rating: ★★★★☆

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Big Mouth. © Netflix

About Big Mouth Season 8

Premiere Date: May 23

Episode Count: 10

Executive Producer/Showrunner: Nick Kroll, Andrew Goldberg, Jennifer Flackett, Mark Levin

Distribution: Netflix

Cast: Nick Kroll, John Mulaney, Jessi Klein, Jason Mantzoukas, Jenny Slate, Fred Armisen, Maya Rudolph, Jordan Peele, Ayo Edebiri

Synopsis: In the eighth and final season of Big Mouth, our beloved Bridgeton teens tackle new challenges as high schoolers such as: driving, drugs, sexual inexperience, enthusiastic consent, porn and the teenage mind, cancel culture, their changing bodies, and (in the end) fear of the looming future. Through it all, friendship is the cornerstone for surviving this time of life – whether one’s puberty is just beginning, like for Nick who gets his first growth spurt, or near its conclusion, like for a maturing (and prematurely balding) Andrew. At the height of the season, when many of our characters are in crisis, Compassion (personified as a new creature voiced by Holly Hunter), emerges as a crucial way forward. Ultimately, though, this season is about the importance of sticking by and supporting your friends, especially when life gets overwhelming and messy. In the end, our kids step into the harrowing unknown of the future, made less afraid of what’s to come because they have each other.