If you want better plot originality
Choose Dark Winds, Season 4. It scores 4.7 vs 2.3 for plot originality, with a 4.4 overall score.
Mating Season, Season 1 Review
Bottom Line
Choose Mating Season if you want raunchy adult animation with strong voice acting, oddball animal dating jokes, and some sincere friendship arcs. Skip it if repetitive sex humor, thin depth, or crude content turns you off.
Best for
Best for Big Mouth fans and adult-animation viewers who like fast, filthy relationship comedy with a warm friend-group core. It also has appeal for viewers looking for queer dating arcs in a surreal animated sitcom.
Not for
Not for viewers who dislike explicit sexual humor, profanity, cartoon gore, or gross-out gags. It is also a poor fit for anyone wanting subtle satire, family-friendly animation, or a major leap beyond familiar rom-com formulas.
Verdict
Mating Season Season 1 lands as a polarizing Big Mouth-adjacent adult animated rom-com. Its clearest strengths are the voice cast, the core friendship dynamic, and the animal-specific twists on dating, sex, and loneliness. Supporters find it funny, bingeable, queer-inclusive, and occasionally heartfelt, especially when Penelope and Fawn get more emotional material. The tradeoff is that many critics and YouTube reviewers think the show leans too heavily on repetitive gross-out sex jokes, familiar rom-com beats, and thin commentary. It has enough energy and cast appeal for fans of crude adult animation, but its raunch can overwhelm the story.
Feature Scorecards
Summary
43 reviewed features-
Very positive 4.5-5.010 (23%)
-
Positive 3.5-4.410 (23%)
-
Neutral 2.5-3.417 (40%)
-
Negative 1.5-2.42 (5%)
-
Very negative below 1.54 (9%)
Pros
-
Voice acting is one of the clearest strengths. Even mixed reviewers repeatedly single out the ensemble, especially Zach Woods, June Diane Raphael, Sabrina Jalees, and Nick Kroll, as energetic and well cast.
-
Queer and relationship representation is a notable bright spot for several viewers. Penelope’s lesbian self-discovery and the show’s open treatment of varied sexualities receive strong praise.
-
Zach Woods and Sabrina Jalees draw the warmest praise among the leads. Their anxious, specific voice work makes Josh and Penelope feel more human than the show’s premise might suggest.
-
The season has strong binge appeal for viewers who click with the premise. One skeptical viewer unexpectedly watched the whole thing, while another calls out binge potential for adult-animation fans.
-
The closing episodes are among the better-liked parts of the season, especially for viewers who wanted serialized payoff. They bring the character arcs together more coherently than the setup initially promises.
-
The core friendship chemistry works for many viewers, giving the raunchy premise a warmer hangout-sitcom feel. Negative reactions argue some romances and early group dynamics lack enough believable connection.
Cons
-
This is plainly not family-friendly viewing. Content-focused reactions stress raunch, strong language, and sexual situations as central to the experience.
-
The animal-world dating hook gives the series a memorable angle, but many writers feel it leans too hard on familiar rom-com and adult-cartoon formulas. The most positive takes credit the animal behavior twists for adding freshness.
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Animation draws both praise and criticism. Supporters see polish, expressive movement, and improved design compared with related shows, while harsher viewers find the characters stiff, bland, or unattractive.
-
The content is firmly adult. Sexual situations, profanity, violence, and crude discussion make it unsuitable for younger viewers despite the cartoon format.
-
Profanity is frequent and strong enough to matter for content-sensitive viewers. The language reinforces the TV-MA tone rather than softening the adult material.
-
The pilot includes graphic cartoon violence that some content-focused viewers flag as harsh. The violence is played for shock comedy, but it can be too much for sensitive viewers.
Compared With Category Average
Compared with other TV Shows, this product is above average in realism, continuity, cultural representation, near average in cinematography, episode structure, below average in violence level, animation quality, age appropriateness.
Comparison summary
43 compared features-
Above average 0.4+ pts higher7 (16%)
-
Same as average within 0.3 pts9 (21%)
-
Below average 0.4+ pts lower27 (63%)
Largest category differences
| Attribute | This product | Category average | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| violence level | 1.0 | 3.4 | -2.4 |
| animation quality | 2.2 | 4.0 | -1.8 |
| age appropriateness | 1.0 | 2.7 | -1.7 |
| realism | 5.0 | 3.4 | +1.6 |
| language level | 1.0 | 2.6 | -1.6 |
| theme depth | 2.7 | 4.0 | -1.3 |
| plot originality | 2.3 | 3.5 | -1.2 |
| continuity | 4.5 | 3.1 | +1.4 |
Consider This Instead
If you want better episode pacing
Choose Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed, Season 1. It scores 4.3 vs 2.5 for episode pacing, with a 3.8 overall score.
If you want better violence level
Choose It’s Not Like That, Chapter 1. It scores 4.5 vs 1.0 for violence level, with a 4.5 overall score.
If you want better theme depth
Choose The Testaments, Season 1. It scores 5.0 vs 2.7 for theme depth, with a 3.8 overall score.
Compared in Reviews
Products reviewers directly compared with this model, grouped into quick takeaways.
Big Mouth
- Better: expected popularity The review doubts Mating Season will match Big Mouth’s scale even while warming to it.
- Similar: crude comedy appeal The reviewer says people who enjoyed Big Mouth’s comedy are likely to enjoy Mating Season’s humor too.
- Compared: creative lineage and raunchy tone The review frames Mating Season as unofficially related to Big Mouth, sharing creators and raunch without matching its insight.
Bojack Horseman
- Better: animation quality The reviewer says Bojack Horseman looks much better than Mating Season.
- Compared: visual style The reviewer wishes Mating Season looked more like Bojack Horseman instead of using an overdone adult-cartoon style.
- Better: season-one payoff The reviewer says Mating Season does not deserve the patience they would give Bojack Horseman.
Family Guy
- Compared: adult animation formula The review sees the show as chasing a dated Family Guy-style provocation that no longer feels fresh.
FAQ
Is Mating Season Season 1 like Big Mouth?
Yes, many reviewers describe it as sharing Big Mouth’s raunchy tone, creative team, and joke rhythm. It shifts the focus from puberty to adult dating and animals, which some find fresh and others find less meaningful.
Is the show funny?
It depends on your tolerance for crude comedy. Fans call the jokes bold, polished, and hilarious, while detractors say the sex jokes become repetitive and lazy.
How strong is the voice cast?
The voice cast is one of the season’s clearest strengths. Zach Woods, Sabrina Jalees, June Diane Raphael, Nick Kroll, and several guest voices receive repeated praise.
Does the season improve as it goes?
Several reviewers say the first episodes are rocky but the back half and finale are stronger. Others remain negative throughout, especially when the raunch keeps dominating the story.
Is Mating Season appropriate for kids?
No. Multiple sources point to frequent sexual content, strong language, drinking, crude body humor, and violent cartoon moments, making it adult-oriented despite being animated.
What is the biggest weakness?
The most common weakness is balance. Critics often say the show has promising relationship ideas and characters but relies too much on gross-out sexual humor and familiar sitcom plots.
Sample Expert Reviews We Analyzed
These are a few of the reviews included in our analysis.
Video Reviews
YouTube - Cinephilia
Article Reviews
thegameofnerds.com
- Review score
- 4.4
polygon.com
- Review score
- 2.8
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