Netflix's Big Mouth premiered its fourth season on December 4, 2020, and it is a perfect ending to this disaster of a year. 2020 featured a lot of conversations and movements focused around gender, race, sexaulity and mental health, and Big Mouth Season 4 aims to address these topics head-on instead of simply distracting its viewers from the world around them, and this makes the new season phenomenal. From introducing its first transgender character, to talking about mental health, to focusing on Missy's Black identity, all in all, Big Mouth Season 4 is full of new, relevant content that addresses 2020 in the best of ways while staying true to its iconic comedy and raunchiness.

Big Mouth's First Transgender Character

Starting of the new season, "The New Me" introduces Natalie, the show's first transgender character. The first few episodes follow her at summer camp, as she adjusts to publically presenting her gender identity to her fellow campers, since she transitioned during the months following last summer. Big Mouth explores the issues she runs into, like making new friends, as her pre-existing, male identifying friends feel uncomfortable around her.

Isolated, Natalie attempts to go home, but Jessi, one of the show's main characters, decides to become her friend. Most importantly, the show makes a point of showing Natalie's first kiss with a boy from camp, as well as what happens afterwards. Natalie's first kiss is amazing, but the boy she kissed doesn't want the other kids to see them together. Natalie is immediately upset, but she is quickly supported by Jessi, reminding Natalie and viewers that there is nothing wrong with who she is.

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Mental Health in Big Mouth

Jessi Klein and Maria Bamford in Big Mouth Season 4

Mental health is also addressed throughout the season. In previous seasons of Big Mouth, there is the Depression Kitty, but she was only a recurring character. Now, she is in almost every episode of Season 4, and she's accompanied by Tito the Anxiety Mosquito. Together, these characters haunt the children and cause them to experience a decline in their mental health, especially Jessi's.

What's incredible about this introduction is that the show also shows proper coping mechanisms. For instance, Zach Galifianakis voices the Gratitoad, a little toad that Jessi carries around to help her find things in life to be grateful for, which can be used as a coping method for anxiety and depression. While Galifianakis' portrayal of the toad is certainly comedic, viewers can impart its knowledge and apply that coping mechanism to real life.

Race in Big Mouth

Missy from Big Mouth Season 4

With 2020's Black Lives Matter movement and discussions happening throughout the industry about racial representation, Big Mouth directly addresses Missy's racial identity as the lone Black main character of the show. Missy was raised in a very white-washed family, and it isn't until her cousin points this out that she realizes she doesn't relate to her Black culture. This begins a transformation for Missy, both in appearance and in attitude.

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Season 4, Episode 5, "A Very Special 9/11 Episode," also addresses the idea of code-switching, the act of changing the way one speaks to adapt to the conversation or the people around them. This is immediately connected to Missy's Black identity, as the entire episode covers why code-switching is wrong and why Black people should be proud of their culture and who they are.

2020 was a difficult year for many people, and Big Mouth Season 4 provides a hilarious outlet for addressing relevant content that needs to be represented in television. While it always covers these topics with its usual comedy and dirty details, Big Mouth respects the importance of these topics, depicting them honestly. It's arguably one of the show's best seasons, and it is exactly what the end of 2020 needed to move forward into a better year.

Big Mouth stars Nick Kroll, John Mulaney, Jessi Klein, Jason Mantzoukas, Jenny Slate and Fred Armisen, with Maya Rudolph and Jordan Peele. Seasons 1-3 are currently streaming on Netflix. Season 4 premieres Dec. 4.

KEEP READING: The Evolution of Representation for Trans and Gender Nonconforming Characters