Ahhh.. "Big Mouth". Every year I think I shouldn't binge watch the entire season in a day and each year I do anyway. The second run of "Big Mouth" is amongst the best seasons of TV that Netflix have provided, with the third and fourth not falling much below that standard. This fifth though, without wanting to sound too dramatic, feels like a show that's running short of new ideas.
Nick (Nick Kroll) comes around to feeling that his friendship with Jessi (Jessi Klein) is actually something more romantic, but when he declares his love, and is rejected, that love turns to jealousy and then hate. Missy (Ayo Edebiri) too feels the sting of hatred when her activism group is co-opted by Jessi and Ali (Ali Wong). Meanwhile Jay (Jason Mantzoukas) tries to repair his broken heart with a couple of ill-suited love affairs.
It's not that the show has lost any of its power over time, or that it's any less funny. I laughed several times in each episode. I like the fourth wall breaking (which is taken to another level in the season finale) and I liked the puppets in the Christmas special (a bit less impressed by the stories that made up that episode, but still). I wasn't particuarly into the new "creatures" of this season, the love bug and hate worms, played by Pamela Adlon and Brandon Kyle Goodman, but their performances were good. There's also a nice turn from Kristen Schall in one episode and one from Jermaine Clement. Best though, lots more Shame Wizard... always the most welcome character.
It's more that I feel the show is repeating itself now. We've had Jay coming to terms with his bi-sexuality and now we've got Jessi going through the same storyline. We've had Nick's personality shift for a season, when he's been embarrassed, only to own up to it the last episode and turn back. We've also had that happen with Missy in earlier episodes too.
I know that season six has already been commissioned, and, of course I'm going to watch it (probably in a day again) but this season, whilst funny, has me thinking that perhaps we've heard every story that the show has to offer and it should end, before it sours it's legacy.