Netflix is ​​preparing to say goodbye to Big Mouth, its longest-running animated series. For those who mourn the news, it has a silver lining: The creation of Andrew Goldberg, Nick Kroll, Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett, who jokes about puberty, sexuality and people’s libidos, still has two seasons left to air. And it is that, in addition to the seventh already announced, the content platform has requested an eighth to close the series. Human Resources, the spin-off, will have an imminent closure: the second season will be the last.
Netflix’s priority is, as we have published on other occasions, to produce content that can attract new subscribers. This explains why the series that can reach five seasons on the content platform, such as Stranger Things, which is a commercial phenomenon, The Crown, which is a critical phenomenon, or Elite, which challenges young audiences and maintains the Costs under control thanks to the periodic renewal of your distribution.
In this business model that rewards novelty, he called the confidence that Big Mouth received, an adult animation series that was looking for the audience of The Simpsons, Family Guy or Bob’s Burgers, from rival studios. This, for the record, made sense when watching the fictions in this same field of fiction: its appeal resides, in part, in the viewer’s ability to watch and rewatch the episodes with a cast that, thanks to animation, has no to grow old and, furthermore, more risky creative licenses can be allowed.
Big Mouth, released in September 2017, captivated critics for its rude sense of humor and its intelligence when it came to addressing sexual themes through underage characters. Not only were the doubts of the kids in a school addressed, from the one who had a sexual awakening from nocturnal emissions to the one who wondered when his body (and penis) would develop, or the other who discovers the mood swings typical of the adolescence, but surprised by creating monsters that represented hormonal change, shame or depression.
These comical beings with the craziest jokes, in fact, were the inspiration for the derivative series: the human resources center for the hormonal monsters, responsible for the drives and feelings of the Big Mouth characters. This creative venture, however, has not received the same support from Netflix, being canceled after only two seasons and pales in comparison to the parent series which, after three seasons aired, was directly renewed for three more seasons.
The decision to turn the page does not mean a full stop in the relationship between Netflix and Kroll, Goldberg, Levin and Flackett: the platform renewed in July 2022 the agreement with Brutus Pink, its producer, for which they develop animated content for Netflix , at least until 2026.
