6 reasons Big Mouth is the puberty show to watch

Nick Kroll and Andrew Goldberg’s animated series is the most refreshing take on those awkward teenage years we’ve seen in forever

Puberty sucks for so many reasons. Now you can relive the hilarity and horror of this particularly difficult phase everyone has to go through with Big Mouth. It’s a superb, animated offering brought to Netflix by a stellar line-up of comedians. Here are 6 reasons this should be your next show to binge watch.

Note: This includes spoilers!

1. The Big Mouth kids are refreshingly clueless

Remember watching Skins and stressing that everyone seemed light years ahead of you in the sexual ballpark? There’s no fear of that here. These school kids are gloriously ignorant about all things puberty and sex, with valuable lessons to learn in every episode.

2. The hormone monsters are here to ruin the lives of their pubescent victims

Sentient angels/demons, Maurice and Connie, are never far from their adolescent victims, harassing them into buying red lacy bras, listening to Lana del Ray on repeat while shredding their t-shirts, and ejaculating into their good trousers at a school dance. Ah, puberty. What a magical time.

3. An entire episode is dedicated to the mystery of female pleasure

In the aptly named ‘Girls are horny too’, the girls are enchanted by historical erotic novel The Rock of Gibralter, Jessi is encouraged to explore her sexuality, and the boys are schooled in the mechanics of vulva-based pleasure. “Women are different,” high schooler Leah tells little brother Nick. “Sometimes we think sex itself is sexy. But other times we imagine a faceless dude walking around with a baby in a Baby Bjorn, and that’s sexy. It’s a lot of different things. Sometimes we think a smell is sexy, or sushi, or Dr. Drew Pinsky. Or like a million other incomprehensible things, you know what I mean?”

Yes, Leah, we do.

4. When a girl is sexually coerced by the most popular boy at school, everyone believes her

When theatre bro Daniel tries to force Leah into giving him a blowjob at a high school party, his ‘head pushing’ behaviour is called out by all the other kids, who pull no punches in telling him what a jerk he is, and throw up into his beanie hat. If only life could be more like Big Mouth.

5. In fact, the whole way this show deals with sexuality is pretty great

Andrew Glouberman is a hormone-racked teenager whose fantasies range from pulsing tomatoes to Dwayne The Rock Johnson. But while he occasionally worries about his sexual inclinations, Andrew is never shamed for questioning his sexuality by the supporting characters. Furthermore, some of the show’s best offerings are LGBTQ+, including acerbic Matthew, who benefits from some of the best one-liners in the series, the ghost of Freddie Mercury, and Jessi’s mom Shannon, who [SPOILER] is having an illicit affair with the female cantor at the local Synagogue.