Netflix’s joyfully raunchy, unexpectedly resonant adult animated comedy Big Mouth has evolved into one of my favorite shows in part because of how successfully it has built out one of TV’s deepest ensemble casts.
When Big Mouth launched, it was primarily focused on 7th graders Nick and Andrew, with their peers Jessi and Missy in their close orbit and then a wide range of wacky supporting characters floating on the outside. Maybe you could have guessed that Hormone Monsters Maury and Connie would have been breakout characters. But if you’d told me in the early going that after five seasons I’d have real affection for seemingly one-joke figures like temperamental Lola or infantile Coach Steve, I wouldn’t have exactly doubted you, but I would have been impressed at what it represented about the show’s expanding universe.
Human Resources
The Bottom Line As funny as its predecessor, but not as relatably sincere.
Human Resources, Netflix’s new Big Mouth spin-off, intentionally or unintentionally feels like it’s taking the opposite approach. The first 10 episodes swiftly introduce dozens of characters, both monsters and humans, without anything resembling clarity on where the focus or heart of the series is supposed to be. The result is a show that’s pretty consistently hilarious, if you like the deranged thing Big Mouth does, but inconsistently involving on the emotional levels that make Big Mouth so special.
Created by Nick Kroll, Andrew Goldberg, Kelly Galuska, Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett, Human Resources is a general inversion of the Big Mouth structure, where the humans were foregrounded and the creatures assigned to propel their journey were there as complementary figures. This is more of a workplace comedy centered around the otherworldly hub in which Hormone Monsters, Shame Wizards, Depression Kitties, Anxiety Mosquitos, Lovebugs and Hate Worms toil alongside Ambition Gremlins, Grief Sweaters, Addiction Angels and too many other moving pieces to mention.
Many of the characters are beloved figures from the Big Mouth universe, starting with amorous Maury (Nick Kroll) and Connie (Maya Rudolph) and syphilitic Rick (Kroll), plus David Thewlis’ skeletal sorcerer and familiar, if perhaps less beloved, Big Mouth characters like lovebugs Walter (Brandon Kyle Goodman), Rochelle (Keke Palmer) and Sonya (Pamela Adlon).
The major new characters are Emmy (Aidy Bryant), a lovebug thrust into a position of responsibility when Sonya has a meltdown, and Pete (Randall Park), an Easter Island rock meant to embody human logic. It’s easy to keep track of which human virtues and vices the different creatures represent, but it isn’t always quite as simple to keep track of how the characters operate on Earth, because every creature is assigned to several people and works in mismatched teams, and the decision was made not to pack the spin-off with Big Mouth human characters.
Instead, there are recurring human storylines including Becca (Ali Wong), a first-time mother battling postpartum depression and beginning to doubt her affection for husband Barry (Mike Birbiglia); Phoenix Suns-loving Doug (Tim Robinson); and Yara (Nidah W. Barber), a Lebanese immigrant who flashes back to past loves while dealing with dementia.
The intended balancing act is one that will be familiar to fans of Big Mouth. There are delightfully silly songs like “Are You In Love (Or Just An Asshole)” and the miserable lament “You Are the Worst,” sung by two chafed nipples. There are gallons of animated bodily fluids of all sorts, adorable baby penises that have to be tended to with great care or else disturbing things occur and endless pop culture references, many directly to Big Mouth and other Netflix shows. But then there are episodes built around death or the life-and-death stakes that sometimes relationships take on. Ideally, there’s comic whiplash in how frequently you go from disgusted to embarrassed to empathetic.
Even once some of the humans begin to intersect, there are wide interest gaps between the Human Resources narratives. There’s real poignancy to Yara’s scenes and raw, scathing sentiment to Becca’s story, which has enough similarities to Wong’s pregnancy-based standup routines to get one of the show’s many very meta nods. What’s missing, though, is the innocence of Big Mouth, which was able to offset many of its grosser, more unflinching elements with its wide-eyed awareness that every sexual experience and every heartbreaking thing was happening to the characters for the first time.
It isn’t an easy balance and Human Resources hasn’t found it yet. Every episode has as many as four or five plotlines, and the back-and-forth between coarse and sincere is rarely smooth. Take a late-season episode with Janelle Monae as a troubled doula named Claudia. It’s supposed to be a romance with earnest commentary on mental illness, which doesn’t fit especially well with a B-story involving an underground fight club for penises. Is the underground fight club for penises funny? Heavens, yes. Does it undermine what should have been a dramatic A-story? Also yes.
The series is similarly hit-and-miss with its new characters. Bryant is funny despite an inconsistently written character and Park’s deadpan nerdiness is a good counterpoint to the many broader characters. Lupita Nyong’o, as a randy wizard who attracts Lionel’s interest, has one very good episode, as does Henry Winkler as a sweater named Keith. Dante, an addiction angel with three penises, wouldn’t be funny at all if not for the awareness that he’s voiced by Hugh Jackman, and there’s a similar “It’s weird enough that she’s here at all” vibe to Helen Mirren as Lionel’s shame wizard mother. There are so many new faces and voices, when I’m betting I’m not the only viewer who would have preferred more time listening to Maya Rudolph’s ever-glorious line readings and pronunciations.
I think I would have liked Human Resources more if these 10 episodes had established a core and then introduced supporting characters more organically, rather than dumping everybody all at once and assuming viewers will invest in 30 different directions. However, with Big Mouth as precedent and knowing how much I still laughed here, I’d happily watch more Human Resources episodes to see how this proudly immature show comes of age.
Source: Hollywood
