Comedy
Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed
‘Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed’ is a witty, sleazy and extraordinarily dark comedy predicated on sex, murder and human greed.
Josh the bear’s mating season isn’t off to a great start. Sure, when he entered hibernation a few months ago, he had a serious girlfriend, Olivia. But then Josh overslept by about two weeks, and Olivia—tired of being with a bear who “hibernates through life”—found a new mate.
But Josh isn’t the only one struggling and searching.
Josh’s friend group is made up of a mishmash of critters that he’d probably wind up eating if this wasn’t a cartoon. There’s Penelope, a lesbian fox who can’t figure out the subtleties of flirting. Fawn the doe scolded her dad for bringing a date half his age to her mom’s funeral, then she proceeded to have sex with one of his friends. And Ray’s a philandering raccoon with no intention of settling down, but he’s nevertheless determined to help his pals hook up with random animals.
They’re a sad and sorta pathetic group, but hey, I guess at least they have each other.
When it comes to adult cartoons, it can be difficult to know what to expect. The Simpsons and Bob’s Burgers, for instance, are usually witty but sometimes take things too far with satire and sexual innuendo. Shows headed up by Seth McFarlane, such as Family Guy and American Dad, are raunchy and generally dumb. But if Nick Kroll (co-creator of Big Mouth) is listed in the credits, it’s a sure bet the content will be crass and explicit.
Kroll’s latest Netflix production, Mating Season, is just such a show.
If the animals copulating here were real animals on the Discovery Channel, you might just blush in embarrassment as David Attenborough explained that this is what animals do. (Indeed, the show’s opening includes clips of real-life animals going at it.) But euphemism wasn’t enough for Kroll. Instead, we see same-sex couplings, species intermixing and full-on orgies. Characters yell out raunchy things to each other during the act. If Mating Season used humans instead of animated creatures, it would qualify as pornography—and a particularly fetish-filled one at that.
Graphic violence and excessively foul language find their way into the mix, too, but that almost seems trivial compared to the show’s sexual content. Mating Season isn’t clever or inspiring: It’s the work of someone who clearly has too much time on his hands and enough influence in Hollywood to bring his uninspired creations to animated life.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com, or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
Josh wakes up from hibernation two weeks late to discover his girlfriend has mated with another bear.
In the opening sequence, we see a couple of clips of real-life animals mating with each other.
Animals have sex throughout the episode, and while we don’t see any explicit body parts (all the animals have fur covering their bits), we hear a storm of raunchy and salacious comments. One character, a deer, criticizes her dad for bringing a deer half his age to his wife’s funeral, but then she has sex with one of his friends. A skunk sprays a raccoon as a sexual act. Later, the same raccoon and skunk’s private parts get stuck together after mating. Again, we don’t see anything explicit, but they talk quite graphically about what has happened. A male squirrel and male moose kiss. Penelope, a fox, says that she’s gay, and she tries to flirt with a female butterfly. A steady stream of sexual topics permeates nearly every conversation. Female characters are drawn with exaggerated feminine features. A few male characters are drawn with popping muscles.
At a funeral, we learn a deer was killed by a hunter. This brings up Bambi (of Disney fame), and Josh’s friends discuss how, after witnessing his mother’s death, the deer went on to “molest” several squirrels at his ranch. They criticize the parents of the squirrels for allowing their children to go.
Josh and Ray (the raccoon) practice fighting together. Josh snarls his teeth and charges at the much smaller Ray, so Ray throws dirt into Josh’s eyes and chokes him out. When Josh comes to, his friends encourage him to fight dirty like Ray did. Later on, Josh does just that, attacking his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend. He throws dirt in the bigger bear’s face and then bites the bear’s genitals. To everyone’s shock, including his own, Josh bites the genitals off completely—and the bear dies after bleeding out. Someone says hunters “sprayed” a deer’s brains all over the forest.
Two bucks charge each other, but before they can collide, they both trip and injure themselves. Later, after receiving medical treatment, their much-younger girlfriends are informed that the bucks will need assistance moving their bowels. Both younger does break up with their respective paramours. (Although one doe does agree to care for her father, who was one of the bucks injured.)
At two funerals, vultures are invited to eat the corpse of the recently deceased. One vulture, eyeing the sobbing funeral attendants, notes that it’s not an easy task to do. When someone brings up the fact that Ray’s mom once tried to eat him, he defends that she was simply acting on animal instinct.
Characters talk about dissatisfying past relationships. Several male animals have their masculinity called into question. A father calls his daughter a “slut.” We also hear the derogatory remark “ho.”
A bear urinates, and we see the stream of urine. When two characters get their genitals stuck together, one remarks that he keeps “pooping into her butt.” Someone advises his friend to shove a beehive up another character’s rear end. A fox passes gas in nervousness. Characters compare rabies to AIDS.
Characters drink at a bar. A skunk gets drunk there and starts dancing on a table. A raccoon joins her, rubbing his body against hers. A bear drinks what appears to be liquor.
Several characters interrupt a funeral with their own selfish proclamations.
There are about 10 uses of the f-word, some paired with “mother.” (“Buck” is sometimes substituted for the f-word by deer.) We also hear about 10 uses of the s-word. Other profanities include “a–,” “a–hole,” “b–tard,” “b–ch,” “d–n” and “h—.” We also hear some incredibly crude terms for male and female body parts. Someone is called a “schmuck.” God’s name is abused 15 times, paired with “d–n” or “d–mit” at least four of those times. And Jesus’ name is similarly misused another four times.
Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.
‘Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed’ is a witty, sleazy and extraordinarily dark comedy predicated on sex, murder and human greed.
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