We’ve watched, and reviewed Big Mouth quite a bit, and frankly our favorite part of the show is the monsters. When they showed more of the monster’s world last season, we knew they had opened a can that could not be closed.
Now as the show gets the spin-off treatment we’ll dive in as we always do, with Story, Acting, and Overall.
Story 3/10
The show picks up with Becca and her troop of monsters. As an adult Becca has a full set of monsters unlike the children of Big Mouth who slowly unlock them like Pokémon trainers.
She has a Logic Monster, designed to look like the Easter Island statues, that keeps her analytical brain in check, there’s a dedicated Love Bug, that that focuses her attention toward the affections in her life, Connie returns as the Hormone Monster in charge of well.. hormones (Over the course of the first three episodes the show covers the birth of Becca’s child, the hormone monster focuses less on repressed sexual energy and more on the rollercoaster of hormones that is pregnancy). Another monster that’s new, besides Logic monster, is the Ambition Gremlin. It’s interesting to see it work within Becca’s desire to be good at work, who happens to be a lawyer. I would also be a fool to not mentioning Shane lizard, oops sorry I meant Shame Wizard. His return as the representation of shame slowly and brutally destroying Becca and her relationships is a good addition that plays well against the brand new and under skilled Love Bug.
I’d like to say that the majority of the show focuses on these monsters dealing with Becca’s problems as she navigates a new period in her life as a brand new parent, but unfortunately the show does take a lot of non sequitur journeys through the life’s and stories of other monsters at Human Resources, which are not dedicated to the main story-line of the initial group introduced at the beginning of the show.
One of the biggest castings is Aidy Bryant as the new Love Bug, so I would have thought that the show would primarily focus on her team and their journey, but unfortunately it feels less like that, and more like a random journey around this office with about 20% to 30% of the show dedicated to Aidy Bryant’s Love Bug.
This could be a missed opportunity, or this could be something that could be recovered as the series continues.
Acting 4/10
The show features a talented group of actors: Nick Kroll, Maya Rudolph, David Thewlis, Aidy Bryant, Brandon Kyle Goodman, Keke Palmer, and Randall Park. As always these people are great at what they do, amazing at providing caricatures of the condition that they represent. However, beyond the comedy and enjoyment of the series, there really isn’t anything new or unique here that stands out for the sake of acting.
The one outlier for this show is the new addition to the Big Mouth pantheon in the form of Aidy Bryant. Aidy Bryant’s performance as as Emma the Love Bug who doesn’t know what she’s doing, is quite the feels for most people in the world suffering from imposter syndrome. If you’ve ever worked a job, and didn’t know what the hell you were doing when you were thrust into the position, then you’ve lived the life of Aidy Bryant’s new character.
I just wish more of the show was focused on her journey I to try to find her place in human resources, then just jokes about hormone monsters fucking all over the office.
Overall 4/10
They say in the beginning of the show that they pitched it as a mixture of Big Mouth meets The Office, but if that was their plan, I think that they failed, unfortunately. I think that the show has really good bones, and a lot of potential but but the series squanders that potential by making it just another clip-like show full of throw away jokes left and right.
The show should primarily focus on the monsters that are working on Becca’s life. Telling their stories from inside Human Resources, and their personal journeys as they aid their humans. They shouldn’t take non sequitur journeys away from the main team members just to focus on other monsters for the sake of fun little jabs.
Doing this cost the show it’s story. No matter how much I love Maurice, the Hormone Monster, we don’t need to have a solo journey dealing with his depression about growing old and not having achieved enough in life. The show isn’t about Maurice, the show was supposed to be about the Human Resources team working on Becca.
Conner’s Final Thoughts
At the end of the day though, it’s a funny show, made by the same brilliant people that made Big Mouth. Our review however only focuses on the first three episodes. So It’s very possible that the show could resolve our issues of deficiency in the following episodes. Not every show sticks the landing in the first three episodes. I’m reminded of when Bojack Horseman came out, people reviewed the first five episodes and trashed it in the reviews. It took fans watching the entire series and giving it stellar reviews that forced professional reviewers to go back and watch the entire season to see what they missed.
While Big Mouth and Human Resources is no Bojack Horseman, it doesn’t have to be. It’s still fun and produces a ton of enjoyment in it’s viewer!
Make sure to check this show out for yourself Here on March 18, 2022!
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