The latest adult animated comedy on Netflix will work significantly better for fans of “Big Mouth” than those who never took to the streaming giant’s hit animated series about horny teenagers and the literal monsters that shape their lives. It’s not inaccurate to describe “Mating Season” as “’Big Mouth’ with animals instead of high school kids.” There’s a tiny bit less of the abject shame that comes in those days of embarrassing adolescence, but the sense of humor in this follow-up from creators Nick Kroll, Andrew Goldberg, and Jennifer Flackett is nearly identical: Raunchy, goofy, a glimmer of heart, and then hitting a punchline with a bodily fluid.
These are creators who endeavor to get away with things in animation that they never could in live action, actually using the medium in inventive ways. Well, eventually. “Mating Season” gets off to a truly rocky start, but, and I can’t say for sure if it finds its footing or if I just joined its silly wavelength, I was almost sad to run out of screeners. It won’t be the same size hit as “Big Mouth,’ but it’s a reminder of the talent of its remarkable cast.
“Mating Season” is about the extreme sexual activity of forest animals. You’ve never seen Bambi quite like this. Zach Woods (a perfect swap, in tone with John Mulaney from “Big Mouth” if you think about it) plays Josh, an awkward bear whose partner leaves him when he hibernates longer than he should. Kroll voices Ray, a horny raccoon who, well, gets around. Sabrina Jalees brings to life a fox named Penelope who explores her sexuality, sometimes with another species. Raphael takes on Fawn, and she wonderfully leans into playing this deer as really just a variation on a strong rom-com lead. For example, she gets a season-best arc with a wolf voiced by Timothy Olyphant that’s really just a riff on the trope of a woman who believes she can change a difficult man. It’s just that the man in this case is pissing to mark his territory and howling at the moon.
It’s this simple: If you enjoy the de facto comedy troupe that’s been built up around Nick Kroll and his regular collaborators like Jason Mantzoukas and June Diane Raphael, you’re more likely to want to hang with “Mating Season.” As a regular listener of “How Did This Get Made?” and a believer that Kroll is one of our more underrated comedians, especially in the voice work department, “Mating Season” seems tailor-made for this viewer. And that’s what makes the inaugural episodes of the first season kind of jarring. It’s just not quite as funny as what we’ve come to expect from Kroll’s Company. The writers were probably trying to figure out the right tone, and they mostly do by the end of the year. Enough to make me curious about what happens in a second outing. Be patient.
When “Mating Season” is riffing on structures within standard sex comedies, it can be pretty clever. Again, the voice work is strong from top to bottom; it’s just a matter of the writing strengthening as the season progresses. At first, my heart sank at the thought that the “Big Mouth” team was going to miss this wildly, doing a show that feels like a raunchier shadow of its biggest hit instead of something creatively inspired.
What’s most interesting is that “Mating Season” gets better when it stops trying to be “Big Mouth 2,” allowing the writers and voice cast to play adult idiots with the same horny glee as they did their teenage ones for years, but turn them into characters that stand on their own four feet. They never lose sight of the comedic possibilities of filtering all of these sexual escapades through wild animals, but the show gets better when it pushes raunch away in favor of clever comedy. Well, clever comedy with a lot of wolf urine.
Whole season screened for review. Now on Netflix.