Near the end of the first season of “Mating Season,” our core foursome of friends sit down for a relaxing evening of “Mice-flix” — the animal kingdom’s version of Netflix, where mice act out TV shows from inside a shoebox that doubles as a stage. “What are we watching?,” Fawn (June Diane Raphael) asks. “Some show called ‘Big Mouse,’” Josh (Zach Woods) replies, before a scene plays out where a mouse Hormone Monster (Hormone Mouse-ter? Hormouse Monster?) tempts a rodent version of Andrew into jacking off. When he does, “Mating Season” cuts to show the audience’s horrified faces. “This is disgusting,” Penelope (Sabrina Jones) says. “God, they should arrest whoever made this,” Josh says.
“Honestly, I think it’s pretty clever,” says Ray, the raccoon voiced by Nick Kroll — roll credits.
In the moment, it’s a decent enough kicker. “Mating Season” stems from the same creators as “Big Mouth” — Mark Levin, Jennifer Flackett, Andrew Goldberg, and Kroll — as well as the same animation studio, Titmouse. Both are also Netflix original series with starry voice casts for their fast-paced, soft-hearted sitcoms. Both are also, objectively speaking, disgusting.
But “Big Mouth” also has a higher calling. By depicting the most awkward and unpleasant aspects of puberty — from raging hormones to physical transformations and much, much more — the series helps dispel the embarrassment and shame associated with adolescence. Its gleefully crass jokes and boundary-pushing fantasies (Hugh Jackman guest-starred as one of the Hormone Monster’s talking dicks) are all in service of shooing away the elephant in the room, so kids, parents, and everyone else can feel comfortable talking about one of the hardest parts of life to be open about — and thus, one of the most important to discuss.
“Mating Season” doesn’t have a higher calling, or it doesn’t find one in the first season. Ostensibly, the rom-com sitcom set in a world of anthropomorphic animals aims to cast an empathetic light on the struggle of coupling up. Josh is a sensitive bear in search of true love. Ray is a horn-dog (well, a horny raccoon) who just wants to have sex all the time. One worries he’s missing out on life’s simple pleasures while worrying about dying alone. The other indulges his desires constantly and proudly, but may be repressing deeper feelings while chasing his primal id.
Their female friends stare down similar relationship concerns. Fawn, a deer (“a female deer”), finds it quite difficult to meet a decent man, no matter what his species. She also has recurring issues with women, from fighting off a scarcity mindset to falling for a super-nice lady’s fiancé. Penelope, a fox, doesn’t have the highest self-esteem, and she’s still reeling from a bad break-up with a hound (voiced by Abbi Jacobson).
But in hewing so closely to human rom-com tropes, “Mating Season” never distinguishes itself from the genre. Simply having animals experiment with dating apps and attend an ex’s wedding isn’t enough to make the series feel fresh. The jokes are in the same spirit and said in the same cadence as “Big Mouth,” there’s just an animal filter applied to each telling. (“Big Mouth” poked fun at Netflix, too, but its gags required more than merely changing “Net” to “Mouse.”)
To be fair, “Mating Season” knows how to get laughs. Raphael nails every line delivery, Woods gets to unleash his wild side from time to time (while usually trapped in a beta bear), and Jalees helps make her put-upon fox endearing and entertaining. Kroll is still having a blast dropping foul one-liners, and the stacked cast of guest stars finds memorable opportunities for Clancy Brown, Drew Tarver, Maria Bamford, Pamela Adlon, and Timothy Olyphant, among others.
The premiere episode features an enticing premise, where Josh gets dumped for sleeping too long post-hibernation. While that may sound cruel to humans who like to hunker down on the weekend, it’s treated as fair play in the animal kingdom: She’s got needs, Josh isn’t meeting them, and — in an effort to bridge the gap — she also accuses him of “sleeping through life” on a figurative level.
“Mating Season” doesn’t stick to its set-up, though. Sure, Josh’s seasonal arc becomes finding a new mate before the next hibernation, but the episodic stories soon settle into all-too-familiar rom-com cliches, without enough contrast from the animal’s POV to provide much enlightenment for the human audience. (Maybe my cat has a different opinion, but she didn’t tell me.) It all amounts to a superficially similar experience to a divertingly funny new season of “Big Mouth” that’s nonetheless lacking in purpose and originality. (Or, perhaps more aptly, like the just-OK “Big Mouth” spinoff, “Human Resources.”)
Disgusting? You bet. But there’s nothing in “Mating Season” that would stir the kind of passion that warrants calling the cops — or even animal control.
Grade: C
“Mating Season” premieres Friday, May 22 on Netflix. All 10 episodes will be released at once.
