Netflix's Wild New Comedy 'Mating Season' Is Even More Unfiltered Than 'Big Mouth' | Review

In 2017, Netflix debuted quite the unique animated series. For eight seasons, Big Mouth used a constant stream of raunchy sex jokes to tell a coming-of-age story about a group of kids going through puberty. It may have ended in 2025, but if you miss the cartoon's crude humor, you're in luck, because it's back... sort of, as Big Mouth series creators Nick Kroll, Andrew Goldberg, Mark Levin, and Jennifer Flackett are returning with Mating Season. Trade awkward preteens for talking animals, and you have a very similar show — at least on the surface. Beneath all the expected innuendo and constant humping lies something quite sweet.

'Mating Season' Hails From the Creators of 'Big Mouth'

From the very moment Mating Season begins, you can tell that this is a creation by the Big Mouth masterminds. The theme song, Elvin Bishop's "Fooled Around and Fell in Love," plays over a cut of real-life footage of animals knocking boots, similar to Big Mouth's opening, which utilized "Changes" by Charles Bradley. Once we meet the characters, the direction is clear: Mating Season is going to be just as dirty. Josh (Zach Woods), a giant brown bear, should be the most intimidating beast in the forest. Instead, he's weak, his self-esteem destroyed by a relationship where his girlfriend was cheating on him. Josh's best friend, Ray (Kroll), is the exact opposite, a raccoon who never stops trying to score with anything that moves. In Mating Season, animals don't stick to their own species. That's confirmed early on when Ray gets awkwardly stuck to a skunk.

Yet the Netflix series isn't only interested in its male characters. Fawn (June Diane Raphael) is a deer who falls easily, only to get her heart stomped on by cheaters and those who can't commit. Her best friend is a fox named Penelope (Sabrina Jalees), in search of same-sex love even though she doesn't know how to find it. Put this foursome together, and you have a happy little group against a sitcom-like backdrop. In every episode, the gang gets themselves into some sort of trouble before ending the day hashing it out at their favorite bar, fittingly called The Watering Hole.

'Mating Season's Crude Humor Isn't That Shocking Anymore

The main issue with Mating Season is that its type of humor has been done before. Sausage Party even did it on the big screen long before Big Mouth. After the success of both projects, animated characters being foul and bumping uglies isn't all that shocking anymore. This doesn't mean Mating Season isn't fun — if Big Mouth was your type of comedy, you'll love its sense of humor. There are plenty of sexual situations, but this time, there are even fewer limits. Big Mouth's writers still had to hold back a bit, given the show's younger human characters, but Mating Season, with its cast of wildlife, can get away with just about anything.

One wise move that Mating Season makes, however, is that it still exercises just enough restraint with its comedy. Once you go over the line, there's no coming back, but every scene becomes one gag or one-liner after another in an effort to top what came before. The series isn't desperate for viewers' attention — if you're here, you know what you're getting — but what it does do effectively is build its jokes around the types of characters involved. When Fawn takes up with a wolf named Dylan (Timothy Olyphant), for example, she gets frustrated when he starts marking his territory — including her — by peeing on everything.

'Mating Season' Is Held Together by Its Characters and A-List Cameos

Big Mouth's X-rated jokes were the way into the show, but the characters became the reason to stay. Mating Season's laughs might not be as big as what came before, but what it does do just as well, and arguably even better at times, are its relationships. Instead of infighting and drama, Josh, Ray, Fawn, and Penelope truly care about each other. Josh and Ray are like brothers with nothing in common, while Fawn and Penelope raise each other up rather than bring each other down. It's surprisingly wholesome for a series that is otherwise anything but.

Mating Season is also boosted by its cameos, including several big names playing the animals the main foursome interact with for the series' biggest conflicts. Olyphant's Dylan is a recurring character as the ex-boyfriend Fawn can't let go of, while Seinfeld legend Jason Alexander plays Fawn's father, a buck with a younger girlfriend whom he brings to his ex-wife's funeral. They're joined by the likes of David Duchovny, Jack McBrayer, Sarah Silverman, Aidy Bryant, Vanessa Bayer, Mark Duplass, and many others. It's a big forest out there with a lot of bonkers personalities, whether it be Ray's wild mom or the unusual animals he and Josh meet at a commune in a situation that quickly devolves.

Mating Season doesn't reinvent the wheel, and any fan of Big Mouth has seen it all before, but because the new series doesn't need to rely on shock value, it can get straight to what it wants to do without feeling forced to compete with the past. In other words, Mating Season is its own beast, with four hilarious and easy-to-root-for characters trying to figure it out. (They still haven't succeeded by the end of Season 1, which means a renewal should definitely happen.) Bring on more getting it on.

Mating Season is now available to stream on Netflix.