Wrapping up season 2 of Big Mouth with some additional thoughts on Matthew’s storyline and where it wound up going. Full Matthew-related spoilers for the show’s second season.
As I said in my episode write-ups, I’m glad season 2 offers a little more focus on Matthew, but my thoughts on how the show executes that are more hit-or-miss. I’ve talked before about how, while I love how bitchy and superior he generally is, it seems unlikely that he’s the only kid in the entire school with no insecurities or self-doubts, so I appreciate that this season touches more on his vulnerabilities. The idea that Matthew snipes at others in part to shield himself is something that had already been rattling around in my headcanon, so 1) I like seeing that confirmed and 2) it makes sense that, when he’s attempting to be “nicer,” he suddenly finds himself more open to worries about what other people think of him. That said, I don’t want the quippy barbs to be purely a defense mechanism. After all, Matthew’s scathing one-liners are a vital part of the show’s humor, and I do want a big part of him to be self-assured, judgemental, and fabulous; I just want him to also be a 13-year-old boy who gets self-conscious or embarrassed sometimes, same as the rest of the kids. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of balance the show strikes on this going forward.
I’m mixed on the specific root of Matthew’s insecurities in season 2, though. In “Guy Town,” getting called out specifically on the fact that “young, gay, and mean” isn’t a personality seems unfair, since Matthew the character has no control over how he’s written. From a defense-mechanism standpoint, I get it – after being bullied at his old school, Matthew tosses off sharp-tongued insults to prevent anyone from doing the same to him, and to an extent, he’s crafted a definite persona for himself at school – but the “no personality” accusation, for me, takes it too far. If it was more about how Matthew presents himself at school, that would’ve worked better for me (I feel like it’d be fun to see Matthew’s family and how different he may or may not be at home.)
Moving ahead to the sleepover episodes, Matthew tries to turn over a new, nicer leaf, and like I said, this is when the Shame Wizard starts poking at his feelings of awkwardness and isolation. I wish we could’ve gotten a little something that’s not so specifically tied to Matthew being gay, even if it’s very understandable that he struggles with fitting in and I do prefer the hurtful microagressions we see rather than outright homophobic bullying, which is what a lot of shows would probably do. Instead of being openly mean to Matthew, for the most part, the other kids just sort of exclude him, making assumptions about his place in the middle-school ecosystem based on his perceived “girlyness.” But it does tie into this impression of him as Gay Matthew the Gay Character, even though that’s what “Guy Town” calls out in the first place.
Over the course of the storyline, Matthew’s insecurities around the other kids morph more into a clash between him and Jay. It’s fueled by the Shame Wizard on both sides – when Matthew tries to be nice to Jay, the Shame Wizard purrs to Jay that Matthew’s trying to “turn” him gay, and when Jay then lashes out, the Shame Wizard reminds Matthew that no one wants to be his friend, prompting Matthew to respond in kind – and more importantly, it culminates in Jay kissing Matthew during the “Smoochor Share” game, the two of them making out in earnest later in the night, and Jay coming to terms with his possible bisexuality in the season finale.
Now, I like Jay realizing he might be bi, and his subsequent plotline torn between his pillow and his couch cushion (never change, Jay,) with his pillow trying to force him to “choose” between being gay and straight, is a nice plot about self-exploration and bi erasure wrapped in Big Mouth’s outrageousness. That’s cool, and I’m excited to see where the show takes Jay next.
What I don’t like about this plot is how little it winds up being about Matthew. During the Smooch or Share kiss, there’s a small beat on Matthew, showing how pleasantly surprised he is by it. He also confesses to Jay (before their makeout session) that it was his first kiss, and he takes note of how Jay tries to walk back what happened the next time they see each other at school. “See you at the Man Hole in ten years,” he drawls, exiting the scene and the episode as a whole. This moment hands the entire story over to Jay, but even during those earlier scenes that do involve Matthew, they have very little to do with him. What does he think about everyone laughing over Jay “having” to kiss him during Smooch or Share? How does he feel about Jay’s desperate, retroactive case of “no homo”? Maybe he’s as cavalier as he appears to be onscreen, but maybe he’s not, and we don’t know. Because he doesn’t matter much anymore; as soon as Jay enters Matthew’s plot, the narrative focus starts shifting from Matthew to Jay, and by the end of the storyline, Matthew’s not even in it anymore. And that bums me out.
(Side note: the show still pulls its punches when it comes to Matthew’s sex drive in comparison to the other kids, guys and girls alike. It’s definitely a double standard, but I’m still deciding how I feel about that. In light of how some people automatically equate gay people with sex, is it more nuanced and thoughtful to highlight Matthew having a relatively-chaste first kiss (though when he and Jay make out later, there’s clearly some tongue involved,) or is it just the show chickening out on Matthew’s sexuality while the rest of the kids are masturbating, fantasizing, and exploring?)
We’ll see where things go next. Certainly, season 2 offers more Matthew than season 1, some of it good, some of it less so. But even if Matthew got more attention this season compared to the more minor expansion of side characters like DeVon and Caleb, it still feels like the show sees him in a certain way, with a certain function. In season 3, can we see him with a plot that he gets to carry through to resolution, and maybe something for him that has nothing to do with his orientation?
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