«Now available on Netflix, Mating Season is an animated animal series unlike anything you've seen before.
The series is created by Andrew Goldberg, Nick Kroll, Mark Levine, and Jennifer Flackett, the team behind the long-running Netflix series Big Mouth, which concluded last year after eight seasons. The new series follows several forest dwellers, including Josh (Zach Woods), a neurotic bear who awakens from hibernation to discover his mate has abandoned him; Ray (Kroll), a boisterous raccoon; Fawn (June Diane Raphael), a fawn; and Penelope (Sabrina Jalies), a lesbian red fox. They spend time at a real watering hole and fall in and out of love with various other creatures. It's very funny.
And it's a loving evolution of the style Kroll and his co-writers developed on Big Mouth and its spinoff, Personnel Management—a style that emphasizes genuinely outrageous comedy but is always underpinned by genuine emotional resonance.
We spoke with Kroll about the origins of "Mating Season," his future collaboration with Netflix, and whether he'll return to the world of "Big Mouth.".
Can you tell us about the origins of the series "Mating Season"? When it was first introduced, it was described as a spin-off of "Big Mouth," but it seems to have moved away from that and become its own project.
Obviously, Big Mouth was a show about kids, and then high schoolers, going through puberty and adolescence, and Mating Season was set in the animal kingdom, but they were also really stories about dating and falling in love. Aesthetically, this felt like a very natural extension of what we were doing on Big Mouth. Furthermore, both Big Mouth and Mating Season are built on both serious jokes and strong emotions, and using these two elements simultaneously allows each to complement the other. We tell different stories, but we continue to strive to tell them in this way.
I think people might be a little surprised by how emotional the episodes are. But that was always part of the idea—to create a romantic comedy in the animal kingdom. We definitely borrow elements from romantic comedies, and we're also very similar to Friends, Will & Grace, and How I Met Your Mother—all these sitcoms about people in their 20s and 30s who are friends with each other, and your friends are your family, and you go on dates, you fall in love, you fall out of love. We thought : "Okay, as far as I know, we haven't seen that version of the animated series."« . It was an opportunity to do something similar, but in the animal world, where you could do some pretty incredible things that would be difficult to do in a human or live-action film.
How has Netflix performed as a creative partner?
They were absolutely amazing. When we started working at Netflix with Big Mouth, it was their 33rd show, and they pushed us to push the envelope, and we did, and it worked for both of us. Then they continued to give us that creative freedom throughout all eight seasons and two seasons of Personnel Management. When it came time to shoot Mating Season, there was a certain level of trust between us; we knew that we'll do some pretty crazy things, but we will do it responsibly, and they allowed us to continue in the same spirit.
Was it planned for the series "Human Resources" to be longer?
Yes. I think we made two seasons, and we probably would have made more.
How did this experience influence your approach to the theme of "Mating Season"?
Honestly, everything is created at different stages of our personal and professional lives, and we worked on Human Resources during the height of the COVID pandemic, remotely, filming two shows simultaneously over several years of lockdown. It was an incredibly ambitious project, and I'm so proud of what we accomplished because we were trying to tell so many stories that deserve attention. We're all incredibly proud of it and love the show, but at the same time, it was incredibly challenging to make at that time in our lives. But oh my god, we love it so much, and we'd definitely make more.
Was it easier to get people interested in "Bridal Season" since everyone had already seen "Big Mouth"? It was probably harder to get people interested in "Big Mouth" without knowing what kind of film it would be.
Of course, we did enlist the help of the Big Mouth voice actors—Jordan Peele, Maya Rudolph, Zach Woods, and Jenny Slate—who sent us voice memos from their iPhones that we could use to create animation tests. We asked them to help us, and they agreed, and then they made the show. As Big Mouth developed, it became easier and easier to find incredibly funny and wacky people, like multiple Oscar winners and amazing cast members. By the time we got to Mating Season, it became easier to say: We have 100 episodes of this, either you agree or you don't . And again, almost all the voice actors are our friends, just like with Big Mouth. These are all people who know each other and are my friends, people we work with or have known for years.
Do you see yourself in a "mating season" role for many years to come?
Before the apocalypse. So we have two or three years.
This may happen earlier.
Yes, I really enjoy working on "Mating Season," collaborating with this team: the writers, producers, the animators from Titmouse, the actors, and other talented people. Working with this level and quality of talent, with such wonderful people... these are good, pleasant, decent people who want to come together and create something funny and joyful. It's a real joy and a rare thing, so I would love to do this kind of thing, and especially this series, for as long as I'm allowed.
Are you working on other projects?
Yes, that's true. We have a couple more projects… one specific project that I don't know when we'll announce yet, but it's something we're working on and it's in development. We're always looking for very specific, but high-quality talent and resources to continue creating animation. We've learned a lot over the last decade. I think we're doing some good things, and I hope we can continue to do so.
What about new stories in the Big Mouth universe – are you thinking about that?
Always and forever. We have so many beloved characters, and I'd love to continue telling these stories in different formats and genres. I love playing these characters so much, and people love seeing them so much, that closing that door would be crazy.
Mating Season is now available to watch on Netflix.
The article "Nick Kroll on his animal sitcom 'Mating Season' and whether he'll return to the 'Big Mouth' universe" first appeared on TheWrap. .