This season felt different to me and I think it’s the fact that this had a much more overarching storyline that wasn’t as obvious as say the shame wizard or the hormone monsters that are in the previous seasons.

Big Mouth season 5 brings back all the characters we know and love from all the previous seasons. It really doesn’t change that much, however what does change is the characters’ situations and what they’re going through. I don’t know whether it’s because the characters are starting to grow older yet the cartoons stay looking the same but this season felt more mature while still having very immature jokes scattered within it.

In this season we see the characters learn about love and the love bug and how great love can be, but also how horrifying it can be and how that love can easily become hate, one that will bury itself into your ear and make you say horrible things about people that you don’t even mean.

And this was the overarching story and it wasn’t until one of the last episodes where the character of Nick meets his voice actor counterpart in the show (it’s very weird) do we realise that the whole point of the season was about emotions and how you can blame other people for how you’re feeling as really, you’re the one in control of your emotions, and you’re the one allowing yourself to feel that way. I feel it’s a very important message that not only teenagers and young adults need to hear but actual adults too because so often people blame others for their own misfortunes when really that misfortune is coming from themselves.

I also enjoyed how in this series a few of the characters explore their sexualities with the same sex, and not once was it brought up or thought of as weird or had to be explained. It felt very natural and genuine and just flowed with the story that was happening, and while yes they may have flip-flopped between men and women, at no point did labels have to be included into it. I think that’s a lovely message to give teenagers, that you can love who you want to love and you don’t have to label yourself as anything that you don’t want to or have to justify your love because what you feel is what you feel and that’s all that should matter.

My biggest issue with this season however were the jokes. The jokes this year were quite distasteful. Maybe I have grown since the last season and so the jokes didn’t land as well with me but there were many that just seemed too crude and too over the top, almost to bring some shock factor into it rather than making punny, witty commentary. Yes I get the show is marketed to teenagers but teenagers don’t always need to have poop and fart and gross jokes included to make them enjoy it, I’m sure a lot of teenagers have a higher brow than that.

Despite not enjoying the show too much at the start of the season the end of the season definitely made up for it. It was a brilliant way to round it all out and while I do feel I may be slowly exiting my way out of the Big Mouth audience, I definitely still appreciate the show. Comparing it to shows like Rick and Morty which I do enjoy, and Inside Job which I didn’t, it’s still somewhere in the middle where I can enjoy the show but there are elements that just don’t work for me and unfortunately most of the time that is the humour.

What do you think of Big Mouth season 5?

Until next time.

Published by shonaharding

Film and TV critic. View all posts by shonaharding