Season 3 of Big Mouth debuted on Netflix earlier this month. The popular series, which chronicles teenagers and their often confusing puberty years, showed some pretty interesting development with its main characters this go-around (spoiler alerts ahead for anyone who hasn’t watched it yet).
Missy (Jenny Slate), finally found her voice and got her own hormone monster, Jay (Jason Mantzoukas) was able to figure out his sexuality after being confused over why he liked both guys and girls, Andrew (John Mulaney) hooked up with his cousin while still pining for Missy and Nick (Nick Kroll) continued being that frustrated teenager that many of us can relate to (hating his parents, etc). Oh and Coach Steve (also voiced by Nick Kroll) worked at a myriad of jobs and got a hilarious makeover from the Queer Eye guys.
One character that really blossomed was openly gay Matthew (Andrew Rannells). Matthew somewhat emerged as a main cast member after being a funny yet supporting player during the show’s first two seasons.
Matthew, for the most part, was kind of that bitchy sidekick who turned the morning announcements at school into his own TMZ gabfest. He did have moments outside of that, including his kiss with Jay during season two, but the focus was never really on him until season three.
This time around they gave Matthew his own hormone monster named Maury (the same one that Andrew has) and a major love interest. Viewers got to see a different side of him as he attempted to fall in love with Aiden (Zachary Quinto) who attended a school nearby.
Matthew, who was often seen as somewhat arrogant, did a complete 180 when it came to him navigating his romance with Aiden. The relatability in his character is something that many of us, gay or not, deal with at many places in our life when it comes to figuring out how to act when you’re around someone that you really like.
He falters many times with Aiden before they both get it right with one another. Matthew makes silly mistakes like accidentally texting him about their awkward FaceTime chat that was designed for Jessi instead and running out of the slide when they were about to have their first kiss.
Maury, as usual, makes a ton of sexual remarks which Matthew does his best to steer clear from (unlike Andrew with his cousin). He simply likes Aiden but can’t figure out how to be himself as this is his first try at romance.
I gotta give kudos to Jessi being a very supportive friend to Matthew in this process. Jessi has always been the moral compass of the show and it was great to see her do as much as possible to help Matthew out in his relationship with Aiden even though she was going through her own growing pains at home.
The evolution of Matthew’s character has seemingly gone from bitchy to brilliant all within one season. His timeline with Aiden rings very similar to something many of us have dealt with and I was really impressed with how the writers handled their situation.
To me, he’s one of the most developed characters on this show and I’m curious to see what they’ll do with him when season 4 premieres (next year?)
This post was created by one of our Contributing Writers and does not reflect the opinion of Instinct Magazine or the other Contributing Writers when it comes to this subject.