*A few relationship spoilers.*
Before we get started, I want to acknowledge the unfortunate news that Showtime isn’t picking Black Monday up for a fourth season. I remember being lukewarm on the show at first, but it didn’t take long for it to turn into something really wild and wonderful. But while I wish we could have more of Don Cheadle, Regina Hall, and Andrew Rannells being chaotic and awesome, the season 3 finale is the first that could’ve doubled as a satisfying series finale, so I’m just gonna be happy with what we got.
Now, back to your regularly scheduled Big Mouth. New puberty-creature alert! While our newest Human Resources entities aren’t as inventively evocative as some of the ones who came before them, they’re still very well realized and are on the scene to make life even more complicated for the kids.
Love is in the air at school, with several kids acquiring “Lovebugs” who begin to glow and appear to them when they fall in love. To wit, Nick realizes that he more than just like-likes Jessi, and his elated Lovebug Walter waits impatiently for Jessi’s Lovebug to glow in the hopes that the two kids love each other. Missy’s systematic plan to replace the school’s racist mascot is upended by Jessi and Ali, while Matthew struggles stay excited about his relationship with Aiden after an unexpected encounter with Jay in the last episode.
I wouldn’t say this episode wows me, but it’s a very solid entry, exploring the trials and tribulations of young love with crude honesty. I immediately enjoy Walter as a character, a go-getter if there ever was one. Being a Lovebug is his passion, and he loves Nick being in love with Jessi just about as much as Nick loves Jessi. His enthusiasm, hype-man tendencies, and overexcited fantasizing are all great—I love him walking Nick through the paintings he made imagining Nick and Jessi’s entire lives together.
Missy’s plot is good. There’s the mere fact of her affinity group and her ideas getting coopted by louder and more forceful personalities—shy girls everywhere can relate. But there’s also the question of tactics in activism. Is Missy’s slow-and-steady multi-step plan too timid and non-confrontational, or is it a smart strategy to achieve real change in the long-term, as opposed to the easy satisfaction of agitating in the moment? And obviously, the whole storyline is the show’s version of the conversation right now over racist mascots. Andrew’s dad sums up the maddening opposition really well with, “Some things are wrong, but if they’re wrong for long enough, they become tradition!”
Some of my favorite laughs in this episode come from Jay, who has some incredibly-intense interactions with another boy on the wrestling team (which Matthew cheerfully acknowledges as the gayest sport in the world in his commentary.) Jason Mantzoukas can be an acquired taste, and his style doesn’t fit well with everything, but he is so much fun as Jay. I especially love his, “Are you making fun of me? Because I will have a T-bagging flashback right here, right now!!” (why is that a threat?) and, “Prepare to meet me at Panera after the meet and bring your sense of fucking wonderment.” Just hilarious line readings all around.
Matthew has a storyline in this episode, wavering about Aiden as he tries not to think about Jay and dealing with the whole thing very immaturely. I don’t think the plot gets quite enough attention here to feel well-rounded. Instead, it feels a little incomplete, like it’s mainly setting the stage for Matthew’s story for the rest of the season. Not my favorite for him, but I do like this line from Maury, describing Matthew’s lack of enthusiasm for Aiden: “Aiden reminds me of Snoopy when he puts sunglasses on. Yeah, he looks cool, but that doesn’t mean you wanna suck his D.”
Not sure what I
think about this story, which seems likely to be Matthew’s main plotline this
season. On the one hand, being in a relationship with a recurring character is
always going to keep you a little outside the main action. Aiden doesn’t even
go to the same school as the other kids, and Matthew’s plots with him are
frequently just the two of them away from all the other characters. Pairing
Matthew with Jay would put two regulars together, and I don’t doubt Andrew
Rannells’s ability to keep up with the ridiculous humor that would inevitably
result from these two dating. But on the other hand, two LGBTQ characters of
compatible orientations don’t necessarily make automatic sense together as a
couple, and I don’t really have any
idea why Matthew would be into Jay beyond the physical attraction. They’re just
so different, and again, I can see
the comedic potential in that, but is that enough to make them a good pairing?
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