Big Mouth, one of Netflix’s best shows, is back for Season 6—and bold as ever.
Each season, the animated comedy dives into the nitty gritty of puberty and growing up in excruciating, explicit, and often hilarious detail. It’s a show that has learned to expertly balance being downright disgusting and completely heartwarming expertly over its run. But six seasons in, it’s clear that the magic of the show lies not in its comedy, but in its wonderfully diverse group of middle schoolers and their personified, monstrous hormones—a genius invention that functions as the kids’ guides through the ins and outs of sex and sexuality.
The lovable cast boasts many wonderful characters, and each season brings new additions. But no matter who else joins the Big Mouth ensemble, I simply can’t get enough of Lola (voiced by creator and all-around vocal maestro Nick Kroll).
Oh, Lola Ugfuglio Skumpy, how much do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Lola’s loud, she’s brash, she’s rude, and she’s absolutely vulgar. She’s also deliciously deadpan. Her voice, which is extremely, magnificently rough—the aural equivalent of being sliced with a chainsaw—puts in a lot of the work to that end, and I can’t stop myself from trying to replicate it. Seriously, try and say “Oh my God” like Lola does; you’re in for the time of your life.
Since Season 1, Lola’s evolved from being the nasty sidekick of popular girl Devin (June Diane Raphael) to become someone deeper and more independent. She’s also battled with her body image (“Is this the episode where I find out I don’t have the perfect pussy?” she asks), and she’s even had a pretty epic on-again-off-again relationship. Not just any relationship, either; she dated the world’s horniest person, a.k.a. amateur magician and bisexual king Jay (Jason Mantzoukas), who ultimately ditches her for Matthew (Andrew Rannells). Lola, through all her experiences, has kept one thing consistent: She’s remained very, very angry.
Underneath all that anger is a deep sadness, however. Lola, despite being in middle school, lives alone. Her father is nowhere to be found (she’s never met him), and while Lola frequently references her mother, she always does so with a sense of wistful longing. Whatever relationship they do have is in tatters, as her mom is too busy touring around with Hoobastank to parent Lola or even appear in the show. (Yes, Hoobastank still exists, and yes, that blew my mind too.) Her mom’s parole officer Rodney (also Kroll) pops in from time to time, but Lola dismisses him. Worst of all, her absentee parents literally gave Lola a horrible middle name: Ugfuglio.
With all of these layers to her, Lola has long-deserved a big spotlight episode of her own. Season 6 brings just that, with a musical episode titled “Dadda Dia!” In this Mamma Mia!-inspired installment of musical goodness, it’s the glorious Lola who—finally!—gets to be the star.
“Dadda Dia!” opens with a spectacular moment about one thing that is in Lola’s life: Hot Pockets! “There’s only one way to quell my party lust, I need savory sludge in a prefab crust” she sings, before popping one in the microwave and…burning the heck out of her mouth. Lola has rarely been more relatable—if you haven’t burned your mouth because you couldn’t wait to devour a Hot Pocket, I don’t want to know you.
This leads Lola to a lucrative court case against the makers of Hot Pockets, during which she sings to the judge about how lonely she is. I mean, just read these lyrics:
I wake up to a cold, empty condo
Fill the deafening silence with voices on TV
Take an Uber-X to school
Force a smile and play it cool
But basically, it sucks being me
Damn. There’s not a dry eye in the room, and the judge awards Lola a whole lot of money. That’s never something Lola has needed (she takes an Uber-X to school every day, after all). What she does need is a parent—and her dreams are about to come true. Three men arrive at Lola’s house, and they come with a tantalizing prospect: Any one of them could be her dad. (They were part of a boy band, and Lola’s mom is an eternal groupie. You do the math.)
Lola has waited for an opportunity like this her whole life. Despite Rodney’s concern that these men are just after her money, Lola couldn’t care less; the chance to have an actual, present parent is simply too much to pass up. It’s both charming and heartbreaking to watch Lola get excited about what’s quite obviously a set-up. One of the things Big Mouth does so well is remind us that these kids are children, no matter how foul-mouthed they can be. Of course Lola falls head-over-heels for her potential fathers, and why wouldn’t she?
It’s such a treasure to see Lola free of the sadness that’s plagued her for the entire series. She’s suddenly warm and friendly, and she can’t help but boast about the fact that she’s gone from zero to three(!) dads overnight. Watching her emotional walls comes down is heartening, even if this joy can’t last.
She even gets to perform a perfectly-in-character disco anthem at the daddy-daughter dance, where she brings all three potential dads. “I’ve got dads, dads, dads coming out of my ass,” she sings. Those dads are about to go away, as they discover Lola took an infinite supply of Hot Pockets instead of money as a settlement—of all the Lola moments on the show, this is the single most Lola-iest.
Abandoned yet again, it’s a crushing moment for Lola. Big Mouth would typically be happy to leave her sadness hanging there, as it has for the past five seasons. But Season 6 marks an evolution for the show, as “Dadda Dia!” forces Lola to reckon with an obvious truth. Rodney has always been there for her, like the father she always wanted would be. She almost casts him out, but in a huge moment for Lola —“Absorbing, deciding, completing emotional arc” she says of this climax, in line with the show’s wonderfully meta nature— and instead, she asks Rodney to be her chosen father figure. It’s beautiful and sweet, but it’s also funny; it’s everything the show does best.
If that wasn’t enough for the Lola stans, the episode ends in a spectacular song about how incredible Lola is. “I’m fucking Lola!” she screams. “I’m just crassly, brashly, unabashedly me.” Damn right she is, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s taken six long years, but Lola has finally received the episode she so totally deserves.
