Ty Watches "Big Mouth"

Last week I finally got around to watching "Big Mouth" on Netflix. I was waiting until I caught up on other shows to watch, and when I finally sat down and binged the show, and I was very happy with what I saw. I was pretty sure I was going to like it when I saw Nick Kroll was the co creator. I'm a big Nick Kroll fan. Then I saw some of the other people involved, and I was on board. Nick Kroll, John Mulaney, Jessi Klein, Jason Mantzoukas, Seth Morris, Kristen Bell, Maya Rudolph, Fred Armisen, Richard Kind, I could go on and on with the people I am a fan of on this show.

At its core, "Big Mouth" is about teenagers going through puberty. "Big Mouth" hits all the important moments, both male and female, that make puberty such a drag. We get zits, wet dreams, periods, awkwardness with the opposite sex, weird feelings that go through your body, getting hair where there was no hair before, hormones, virtually everything that makes this such a tough time in young people's lives. After watching the first episode I told my wife that this was, by far, the best representation of going through puberty, at least from a male perspective. Puberty stinks. It is the worst. It is so awkward and challenging and there is so much change and new things that do not make sense. And "Big Mouth" captures that perfectly.

Andrew, voiced by John Mulaney, is one of the main characters, and we see a lot of the bad sides of going through puberty through his eyes. He even has a hormone monster that is always at his side telling him the wrong thing to do because, as we all know, our hormones are way out of whack when we are teenagers. We see the wet dreams, the constant urges, the will to fight when told something he didn't like, the yelling at parents, the horribly awkward encounter of asking a girl to be your girlfriend at 13. It is all there, and Mulaney, and the writers, completely nail it. Nick Kroll is his buddy that is a bit behind, as far as growing up goes, but he is just as good. You see the jealousy, the fighting, the wanting to be involved, trying to get girls himself, even drinking at his sister's high school party. Kroll's character also wants the hormone monster to get him, but he is not ready. In fact, that is a very good through line for the first season. Jessi Klein represents the female lead, and as far as I can tell, she is great at showing how rough this time of life can be for girls. She has a bad experience with white shorts, her mom and dad are always fighting and she has crushes on 3 of her different friends that happen to be boys. Klein is great. Jason Mantzoukas is cast perfectly as the crazed 13 year old that cannot control his urges. He also has a crazy home life, and he loves magic. The relationship between him and his pillow, voiced by Kristen Bell, is gold. Nick Kroll and Maya Rudolph play the voices of the male and female hormone monsters, and they are my favorite parts of the show. The hormone monsters tell these kids to give into their urges, and they also have a very odd relationship with each other. But, their lines always made me laugh, and also reflect on how true that situation was at age 13. Richard Kind is great as Andrew's dad, who has a big problem with scallops, and also constantly complains. Rudolph and Fred Armisen play Nick Kroll's folks, and they are almost too loving and caring. They are always eager to give advice that their kids may not want to hear. There is a great few scenes in an episode where Nick doesn't want to be babied anymore, so his mom starts to take care of Jay(Jason Mantzoukas), who is hard pressed for the love of a mom.

I have nothing but good things to say about "Big Mouth". It is perfect in every way. It gets across its message so well, and I am so pumped to see what they do with season 2. The only warning I will give, the show is animated, but it is not a kid's show. My son walked in one day while I was watching it, and I had to turn it off immediately. It is filled with curse words. Anyway, I highly recommend "Big Mouth" for anyone and everyone that went through puberty. There is no show that better represents that time in your life.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He still waiting for the hormone monster to get him. Being a bald prepubescent boy is one of strangest things ever. Something only Charlie Brown knows about.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

Ty Watches "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" Season 3

Last night I finished the third season of "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" and I have to say, this has been the best season so far.

I really enjoy "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt", but this season had me laughing harder than the other two did at any moment. I feel like the show's writing this season was extremely sharp. There were so many jokes, and if you missed one, there was another right around the corner. The episode that featured Maya Rudolph as Dionne Warwick was one of the funniest, best written and just flat out best 31 minutes of TV I have ever witnessed. I literally slapped my knees multiple times from laughing so hard the whole time. Maya Rudolph's performance is worth watching the whole episode alone. But, everyone else involved, and the story, it was magical.

"Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" has a great group of creative people around it, mainly Robert Carlock and Tina Fey, and they were at their peaks this season. This season was the closest thing they have had to the best seasons of "30 Rock". I'd go as far to say that this season of "UKS" ranks right up there with what many consider the best seasons of "30 Rock".

The performances this season were top notch as well. Even small characters had great moments. When Kimmy's old roommate in the bunker, Gretchen, has her own episode that shows how her new cult is going, absolutely riotous. The whole storyline was great. Gretchen is great, and I think this was the only time she was even on the show this season. Amy Sedaris as Mimi, great. She was so annoying and rude, but also so funny and heartbreaking. I loved when she needed Jaqueline to take care of her. That was a great mini storyline. And Jaqueline's arc this season, tremendous. I'm a big Jane Krakowski fan, and working with Tina Fey has been the best thing she could have ever done for her career. She was tremendous this season. In dealing with her husband being smooshed by an electric car, fighting NFL owners to change the Washington football team name, to stop caring what other people think of her, and everything else, she was great. Carol Kane was wonderful. She is one of my favorite people on the show, and this year, she had a very big change in character and a new love interest. I love her old school attitude, how little she truly cares what people think and how much she loves her new boyfriend, the owner of the hilariously named grocery chain, Big Naturals. The episode where she and Jaqueline go shopping together and have a makeover, just tremendous. Her "key" bit, which was just a hammer, was used multiple times this season, and it was funny every time. Her filibuster episode was excellent as well. Tina Fey's one appearance as Kimmy's disgraced former therapist, awesome. She works at a mall piercing kiosk now. The addition of Daveed digs this year, I loved it. He is so funny and charming and I hope they bring him back next year, I'm almost certain they will. He looks like he is going to be an incredible actor. He was great on this, and even better in "Tour de Pharmacy". He's going to be a star.

Ellie Kemper as Kimmy had a very good season. She struggled with always trying to look on the bright side of things. She went to college. She struggled with jobs, but always did them with a smile. She had her issues with the guy that kept her in the bunker, wonderfully played by Jon Hamm. The episode where she tries to save Laura Dern from marrying him, exceptional. Kimmy's old "friend" Zan, in her much smaller role, was just as moody and hilarious as she could have been. Her show she started in college, "Profiles", that was an excellent button to another excellent show.

Finally, we have who I, and many consider, the star of this show, Titus Burgess as Titus Andromendon. If he doesn't get some kind of Emmy love this year it would be a damn shame. He was so, so, so great this season. His spoof of Beyoncé's "Lemonade" was one of the best things I have seen on TV in a long, long time. His journey, from breaking up with Mikey, to his tales of working on the cruise ship, to his run in with Dionne Warwick, to his new relationship with a guy in the church choir that has a baby named Linda, to him using a gas station bathroom, and everything I may have left out, it was all perfect. Titus Burgess is absolutely the best thing on this show. His selfishness, that turns into selflessness at times is so great. He is so funny. He can be heartbreaking, yet make that hilarious. His singing is wonderful. His one liners are great. Everything about Titus is tremendous. If you need only one reason to watch "UKS", watch it for Titus Burgess. He is incredible.

"Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" is a tremendous show, and this season was the best to date. I highly recommend watching all of it, but if you want to start on season 3, be ready for some great writing and jokes after jokes after jokes. This season was an absolute homerun.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He was once stuck on a boat with Dionne Warwick. They were fleeing a future where children ruled the earth. He then realized he was asleep on a canoe with easy listening hits of the 1980's playing through his Pandora station.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

Ty Watches "Tour de Pharmacy"

There are spoilers for the HBO film "Tour de Pharmacy". Go watch and come back to read Ty's review. It is currently showing on HBO Go, HBO Now, and periodically showing on one of HBO's family of channels at some time of the day.

This past weekend The Lonely Island and HBO released their second sports based faux documentary/comedy, "Tour de Pharmacy". I loved the first one, "7 Days in Hell", so I was excited for this second movie. When I say movie, I use that term loosely. This is basically a short. The "movie" runs about 35 minutes long. This is perfect for this subject material, and an excellent amount of time for what is basically a long form sketch.

Anyway, "Tour de Pharmacy" tells the "true" story of the 1982 Tour de France. This was the most drug riddled race in the history of bike races, according to the narrator, Jon Hamm. We all know now that, for the most part, the guys that do the Tour de France are dopers. It is widely accepted. "Tour de Pharmacy" takes this knowledge and makes it the entire basis of the movie.

Early in the program we find out that a rich German guy named Dittmer Klerken, played hilariously by Kevin Bacon, writes a letter to all 170 racers saying that they can do whatever drugs they want and they won't be tested, if they give him 50,000 dollars a piece. Klerken had built up incredible credit card debt due to a very absurd credit card ad in Sweden. The scene with the ad was probably my favorite part of the entire movie. It was so bizarre and odd and the talking heads comments on it were hilarious. If you watch this movie for one reason, make it to see the part with the ad. It was uproarious.

After the ad shows, they cut to the racers. They introduce us to 5 specific riders at the beginning. The first is Nigerian born racer, Marty Hass. He was played by Andy Samberg. Hass was born into a royal family that just happened to mine diamonds in Nigeria. They say that he went to an all American boys private school, and the people of Nigeria hate him. They hate that he is their country's representative. He is the epitome of a spoiled rich kid, and Samberg plays him hilariously. Another great part of this movie is they have the main characters as their older selves, and the actors that portray the older versions are perfect. Jeff Goldblum plays the older Hass. He is so god damn funny. He has some fake blonde hair hanging out of his hat and he wears African coats the whole time. Goldblum is just as funny as Samberg.

We also meet the first female, posing as a male, to ride in the tour. Freddie Highmore plays the young version of Adrian Baton. He was hilarious. His attempts to act like a female acting like a male was classic Lonely Island stuff. Julia Ormond played the older, and real, Baton, and she was equally as funny. She is a classically trained dramatic actress, but she pulls off the comedy to perfection. Her reveal at the end is wonderful.

Next up is Jackie Robinson's nephew, Slim Robinson, who is trying to get out of his uncle's shadow. He wants to be the first African American to break the color barrier, and at the time, cycling was the only sport that did not have many, if any, people of color. Daveed Diggs, of "Hamilton" and "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" fame is terrific in this movie. He is so funny, but understated. Danny Glover as the older Slim was equally tremendous. His wig is absolutely bananas. I loved it.

John Cena plays Austrian cyclist, Gustav Ditters, and he may have been the best in the whole movie. They show a picture from him the year before and he is rail skinny, then they show the actual Cena, and he is ripped. His claims that he isn't doping are so funny. The fact that he is that shredded, but constantly denies doping, is awesome. When the big fight breaks out in the first stage, and Cena starts to beat the hell out of people, I was in tears. Dolph Lundgren plays the older Ditters, and the whole "cheetah" and "cheater" scene is comedic gold.

The final main cyclist, JuJu Peppi, played by Orlando Bloom, was classic cycling cheater. He had so many drugs in his body that he actually died during the race due to a heart attack. Unfortunately for Peppi, he died while going pee, so his member was out when he died. There is a ton of male frontal nudity in this movie by the way. I have to say, while I don't like Bloom as an actor, he was really good in this movie.

The reason there are only 5 riders left is due to the fight I mentioned earlier. After the fight broke out, many of the riders came forward and said they were paid to not tell anyone that they were doping, and Klerken was the one that paid them. The only riders to not pay him were the 5 main characters, or as Seth Morris' ESPN anchor dubs them, "The Fab Five", claiming no one else will live up to that nickname ever. This was when we get a mini interview with Chris Webber and underneath his name it days, "a member of the much more famous Fab Five". Again, I was cracking up.

Lots of funny and wacky stuff happens during the race. I mentioned Peppi's death. Ditters get caught with cheetah blood, thus setting off the whole cheetah and cheater scene. Hass and Baton start to fall in love. Slim leaves the race to go be a farmer in France, only to return in the end. James Marsden, who was incredible as the announcer for the BBC, is involved in the race, but it is later found out that he is using a bike with a car motor on it, and Baton throws herself onto him to help her new lover, Hass, win the race. Just tons of crazy, hilarious stuff.

The people that they got to be the talking heads in the movie were phenomenal as well. Maya Rudolph is the head of a cycling magazine. She is great. Nathan Fielder is the head of the anti doping committee and he brings his dry humor to this movie, and it is pitch perfect. Joe Buck is himself, and he is really good. Mike Tyson and Lance Armstrong, both people that have done truly awful things in their personal lives, were actually pretty good in this movie. Lance Armstrong was pretty funny. Mike Tyson was a riot. JJ Abrams was pretty tremendous in his small role, as himself too. He plays a heightened version of himself, and I found him to be pretty good.

The entire cast was phenomenal for this small movie. The star, at least in my opinion, was Cena. He was the funniest of all the funny people in this movie. I have found that I enjoy Cena as an actor. Diggs was also really good too. Watching him try to get out of Jackie Robinson's shadow was just great. Jeff Goldblum was also really funny as well.

What I am trying to say is that "Tour de Pharmacy" was incredibly funny and I highly recommend everyone watch it. The Lonely Island seem to have found another niche that fits them, and I hope they continue to do little movies like this. "7 Days in Hell" was great, "Tour de Pharmacy" was better. I can't wait to see what they do next. Until then, go watch "Tour de Pharmacy" if you want a good laugh.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He recently competed his first mini triathalon and has his sights set on the 2018 Tour de France. Anybody know where he can score some cheetah blood?.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.