REVIEW: Mating Season (Season 1, Netflix)

Zach Woods plays a beta bear despite landing a leading role. When will he be an alpha?

I’ll go ahead and say this right off the bat: I was never a fan of Big Mouth. I didn’t understand the overall appeal and I wasn’t crazy about the character design. However, I was always impressed by the voice acting, particularly Maya Rudolph’s performance as Connie, and I did understand what Big Mouth was trying to do. Puberty is awkward; awkward can be funny. We all deserve opportunities—at any age—to talk openly about sex and changes to eradicate the shame that comes part and parcel with the milestone of puberty.

There was something about the show that, for me, was off-putting enough to make me not finish the series. (I watched the first season of Big Mouth and part of the second.) I get the comedic value of absurdism, toilet humor, over-the-top gags, and whatnot. Humor does not need to be high-brow to be funny or argue a show’s thesis. But there were moments where I found that humor forced, contrived, and just … a bit much, seemingly called upon without thoughtful intent. And I know I’m probably in the minority with my dislike: the show lasted for eight seasons and has a score of 95 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. (Bojack Horseman, what I consider the superior animated series on Netflix, ran for six seasons and has a slightly lower Tomatometer score, though a way higher Popcornmeter score.)

So yeah, I didn’t get Big Mouth. And I know folks who have explicitly told me or mentioned in passing that, while they are fans of Zach Woods, they are intentionally skipping Mating Season because of how awful they found Big Mouth. I was also on the fence. But I decided to give Mating Season a chance. And I am not ashamed to admit Zach’s involvement is the only reason why I watched all 10 episodes in less than 24 hours.

I shouldn’t have been surprised by Zach Woods’ casting on Mating Season, given that 1) He and Nick Kroll go way back, and 2) he did voicework on Big Mouth for minor characters; Zach appeared in five episodes between 2017 and 2025 in four roles:

Daniel (the head pusher)
Sock
New Andrew
Andrew Rubenfeld

Zach has always excelled in playing supporting characters, particularly Silicon Valley’s Jared and Avenue 5’s Matt Spencer. So to see him lead Mating Season’s ensemble is really refreshing.

(Seriously, you should have seen my face when I saw Mating Season’s intro credits—he’s the first name that appears in the starring cast list! Not Nick Kroll!)

Looking at his IMDB page, Zach’s only leading roles are

In the Know (2024): which he created, wrote, and directed with Brandon Gardner, starring as Lauren Caspian
Andy and Zach (2011): short film by Nick Paley (it’s just under 10 minutes long)

We can argue he was a co-lead in Silicon Valley (2014–2019); he appeared in 53 episodes. But he appeared in only 9 of 24 episodes of Playing House (2014–2017), for which he was shortlisted for the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series.

And if you’re now thinking, “But, MK, are you saying he was never nominated for Jared?” I will then say to you, “Yes, anon, he wasn’t, and that was an absolute crime.”

But I digress.

This review of Mating Season won’t be your typical one; there’s gonna be a deeper lens focusing specifically on Zach’s role in the show. This review contains light to moderate spoilers.

That said, this review will cover:

An overview of Mating Season and its core friend group;
How Mating Season compares to Big Mouth — where it diverges, and who it might disappoint;
Zach’s role as Josh, a bear dealing with a breakup post-hibernation; and
Where Josh’s character development needs to go in Season 2 (assuming it is greenlit).

At the time of this writing, Mating Season is #7 on the top 10 list of most-watched TV programs in the U.S.:

We’ll just have to wait and see what happens to these horny woodland creatures.

Mating Season Overview

The show, billed as an “adult romantic comedy,” features a friend group of animals navigating the trials of their love lives:

Josh (Zach Woods), a brown bear who is dealing with a difficult breakup following his hibernation. He overslept by two weeks, leading his girlfriend to reassess their relationship and move on to another bear (who happens to be taller, handsomer, muscly, and … endowed);
Ray (Nick Kroll), a charming-yet-obnoxious raccoon who is the most promiscuous of the friend group. He believes true love is a sham until meeting a goose that gives him pause;
Penelope (Sabrina Jalees), a (Canadian) lesbian fox who’s worried she won’t find her match after a traumatic event involving a beagle named Summer; and
Fawn (June Diane Raphael), an attractive doe/token single who keeps striking out in love, while simultaneously missing her wolfish ex.

The show is set in the woods where the animals live. Josh is stuck at home with his parents, grieving his relationship and struggling to bounce back into dating. Ray enjoys ample amounts of sex while navigating complicated feelings about his mother, Gina. Fawn and Penelope are roommates who love each other and serve as confidants about their love lives. The group, together, form a strong support system for its members navigating adulthood with the grace of an elk, often meeting at a bar called The Watering Hole (of course).

The pilot is strong, establishing Mating Season as raunchy and sassy, yet grounded in the issues the friends vent about and navigate. The young adults feel like young adults, true to the magical time of one’s late 20s and early-to-mid 30s. The relationships within the core mammalian friend group are well established, and the individual creatures carry distinct voices and personal philosophies. The pilot riskily features not one, but two funerals. The payoff is identical for both events: character establishment, development, comedy, and establishing the rituals of the woods in Mating Season.

Despite the solid (read: unsurprising, expected) writing, I knew I wasn’t watching another Big Mouth.

Big Mouth vs. Mating Season

Right now, reviews for Mating Season are mixed:

75% average Tomatometer score
6.5/10 stars on IMDb (with the season’s highest rated episodes at 7.9)
Scathing responses from Big Mouth fans on reddit

I unfortunately can’t do a deep comparison to Big Mouth because I never finished the series. But I would like to comment on a few things:

While the gratuitous animal sex (mostly Ray’s) is plentiful, I did not find it as distracting as Big Mouth’s sexual themes. I think that’s partly to do with the absence of humans. There’s little to no squick factor when we’re not talking about prepubescent kids—just animals doing what they do, fuckin’ in the forest.

Objectively, Mating Season is the prettier show: the woodland landscape offers some beautiful backgrounds and details not present in Big Mouth. (Happy to be proven wrong here, since again, missed seven seasons’ worth of material.)

There are some wonderful backgrounds in scenes from Mating Season:

Overall, I found Mating Season’s episodes straightforward—which can be considered a weakness. Big Mouth’s novelty is missing. We know the story of adult love lives because that’s what’s been told before. Animals screwing in the woods? Strangely enough, also familiar: we may not have had horny raccoons for pets, but we’ve seen our pets awkwardly hump legs and other pets; we’ve watched nature videos on YouTube with creatures in compromising positions.

But kids dealing with periods, wondering about when they’ll have their growth spurts, feeling jealousy about their friends’ physical maturity? New, and admittedly, more interesting. Simply put, Mating Season is the safer show, but it can afford to push the raunch factor because the show centers on adult animal characters instead of human children. I personally wouldn’t call it a weakness, if I’m evaluating the show without Big Mouth in mind, but if folks are looking for another Big Mouth, they’ll be disappointed.

Josh: A Totally Average (if not unimpressive) Bear

Zach Woods plays Josh, who is quickly established as an average bear, if not slightly below average because of his haplessness and lack of prospects—in the series’ pilot, “The Copulatory Tie,” his girlfriend dumps him because he’s “hibernating through life.” Josh is devastated and ends up moving back in with his parents. Penelope tries to comfort him saying, “Lots of animals our age are doing this.”

Josh never puts himself above his friends. He’s either the strongest support in the group or a close second to Penelope; in “The Hot Mess,” Josh is protective of Ray due to his mother Gina’s visit for his birthday, which turns out to be on a date that is … very much not his birthday. After a conversation with his own mother, Josh slowly accepts Ray’s love for Gina, despite her extreme failures as a parent (such as attempting to eat her son). Josh realizes he was selfish for passing judgment, however justified.

Josh is sweet, sensitive, kind, and very concerned about ending up alone. These traits put him at odds with being a bear. He’s supposed to be ferocious, aggressive, manly … alpha. Once again Zach Woods is playing a lovable yet oh-so-pathetic character, which he excels at.

Throughout the season there are multiple jokes made at Josh’s expense, oftentimes by Josh himself, making him out to be a “beta” bear. Examples include commentary about his average-sized or smaller penis (“It’s super manageable. Light work.”), his lack of stamina during sex (“Wait, like really fast missionary?”), and just his general pathetic self (“God, I’m sorry. I wasn’t supposed to talk about my ex. Or eat sauces. Fuck!”).

Zach’s voice work is great. It’s not quite his general speaking voice (e.g., the Know-it-all in Tarantula or Brian in Animals); it’s a little softer, brighter, and it doesn’t sound like an exaggerated cartoon. Josh feels like a person, not a caricature. (Compare to Nick Kroll’s Ray and his other typical voices that can lean into that territory; however, Kroll’s characters are usually over-the-top and boisterous, so it works.)

So here’s my issue with Josh, or rather how the show is handling his character: Josh doesn’t see the same kind of personal growth or recognition compared to his other three friends. I would argue Penelope or Fawn gets the most character development; the series’ fourth episode, “The Truth About Canada,” centers on two flashbacks from both of them. We learn Penelope was in love with her mortal enemy—a hound—who refused to leave her life on a farm to be with her. This traumatic event leads Penelope to Fawn as well as the beginning of their friendship. Their bond is rooted in deep emotional trust, especially since Fawn was processing her own sad breakup with Dylan at the time.

Nothing of this magnitude happens to Josh in this season of the show. You can argue the breakup with Olivia is this event, but because it happens in the pilot, the breakup operates more as the starting engine for the show as a whole. The other hijinks we see Josh experience don’t compare either. These include:

stealing his dad’s horny goat weed (boner pills) for Ray to help him keep up with a rabbit in bed—then getting caught (Episode 3: “The Lull”)
falling for and giving up an athletic show horse that makes him feel extraordinary (Episode 6: “The Horse Who Loved Me”)
getting kicked out of a polyamorous farm-slash-commune where he felt seen and accepted, thanks to Ray (Episode 7: “The Polycule”)
finding trouble with a sexy mink while pretending to be “Spike,” a tough-guy bear with a sharp collar, and almost getting murdered by arson (Episode 9: “The All-Nighter”)
getting rejected by a bridesmaid for a wedding he attends (Episode 10: “The Wolf Wedding”)

The closest we get is a small reckoning between Josh and Penelope in Mating Season’s eighth episode, “The Passion of Raynal Skidski.” He and Penelope attempt living as platonic partners (a decision mutually made while mutually high as kites). When they attempt sex for the sake of “trying new things,” it ends … very mediocrely. Together they realize they’re better off as very good friends, but the moment is undercut by a joke that … alludes to Josh being Muslim? This scene made me think of Marvel films—the way a real emotional beat gets immediately punctured by a deflecting joke.

Josh in Season 2: What Should Come (ha! okay i’ll stop) Next

If Josh is meant to be the lead character in Mating Season, evidenced by

Zach Woods’ top billing
Josh’s role in the pilot
Serving as the emotional center of the group

then we need to see some serious character development for Josh in Season 2.

The season ends with Josh heading into winter and beginning his hibernation without a partner, but with his friends. So: only Penelope ends up with a partner (plus a dilemma); Ray and Fawn are dealing with the fallout of lost relationships.

And Josh just … sleeps.

I feel like the writers of Mating Season have literally slept on this character. My idea for a stronger ending for Season 1: Josh meets someone, likely a mammal, and they’re both falling for each other, but Josh is fighting his own natural impulse to hibernate in order to be with this potential mate. Perhaps this lady-animal is strictly nocturnal, so there’s conflict in who they are inherently that they need to overcome, paralleling Penelope the fox and her lost-now-found Summer the hound. Or perhaps a bookend treatment: at the start of the show, Josh wakes up to find his girlfriend gone, while at the end he’s losing someone he’s falling for while falling asleep.

Josh’s adventures in love and almost-sex do not climax (a-hyuck!) to high emotional beats or major moments of self discovery. They primarily serve as vehicles for comedy. Which is great, because the show is a comedy! But it’s not great for the lead character of the show. And, as biased as this sounds, not great for the voice actor portraying him. (Again: I’m biased.)

If a Season 2 is coming (wow, I’m on fire) then hopefully Josh will get some momentum now that the setup is done. He deserves a proper conflict with a complicated resolution. Zach’s performance needs to go beyond the beta; don’t we think he can be an alpha for once?

—MK