Mating Season is an adult animated romantic comedy television series created by Big Mouth and Human Resources co-creators Andrew Goldberg, Nick Kroll, Mark Levin, and Jennifer Flackett for Netflix, and produced by Titmouse, Inc. The series stars Kroll, Sabrina Jalees, Zach Woods and June Diane Raphael as the lead characters, and follows four forest animals: Ray, Josh, Penelope and Fawn. It was released on May 22, 2026 to positive reviews from critics.
Contents
Plot
The series is set in a world of anthropomorphic animals in this raunchy romantic comedy, where a group of forest animals go on wild adventures and discover love in their lives of sex and mating. The group is led by Josh, a bear, Ray, a raccoon, Penelope, a fox, and Fawn, a deer.
Cast and characters
Main
Zach Woods as Josh, a timid grizzly bear who wears a green scarf.
Nick Kroll as Ray, a raccoon wearing red sneakers, and Josh's best friend.
June Diane Raphael as Fawn, a doe.
Sabrina Jalees as Penelope, a lesbian red fox, and Fawn's best friend.
Recurring
Abbi Jacobson as Summer, a lesbian beagle who was in a forbidden romance with Penelope in Canada.
Timothy Olyphant as Dylan McDermott (no relation), a wolf who Fawn was in love with around the same time as Penelope and Summer's romance.
Jack McBrayer as Geoffrey, a burrowing owl who annoys the main characters.
Annaleigh Ashford as Addy, a swan whom Ray falls in love with.
Ana Gasteyer and Clancy Brown as Ellen and Robert, Josh's sexually active parents.
Guest
Sarah Silverman as Samantha, a striped skunk who gets stuck to Ray (in a copulary tie) after an intimate session.
Jason Alexander as Alan, Fawn's father.
David Duchovny as Charles, a deer that Alan hooks up with Fawn briefly.
Jason Mantzoukas, as AJ, a honey badger.
Beck Bennett as Arnold, a workout-obsessed goat who dates Fawn, even though the two are not compatible.
Mark Duplass as Connor, a bobcat who shares a meet-cute with Fawn, despite already being married.
Carlos Alazraqui as Esteban, a Hispanic-accented groundhog sculptor who, along with his partner, convinces Penelope to "be their unicorn".
Pamela Adlon as Gina, Ray's deadbeat mom.
Toks Olagundoye as Claudia (her real name being Colony Sugar), a show horse who falls in love with Josh after running away from her past life.
Lena Waithe as Alex, a part of the lesbian forager group who Penelope crushes on.
Aidy Bryant as Nancy, a female grizzly bear who's the guitarist for the lesbian forager group.
Anna Konkle as Sarah, aka Weird Sarah, Josh´s childhood friend that ends up going on a date with him.
Vanessa Bayer as Meredith, the first time mom and friend of Fawn.
Lisa Gilroy
Production
Mating Season was first announced by Netflix in April 2025 on the heels of the final season of Big Mouth which was released in May 2025. The series was created by Andrew Goldberg, Nick Kroll, Mark Levin, and Jennifer Flackett, who also served as executive producers. The series came from Brutus Pink and Titmouse, Inc. Casting for the series was announced with Kroll, Sabrina Jalees, Zach Woods and June Diane Raphael on board. Mark Rivers, who composed the score for Big Mouth, returned to provide new songs and music for the series. A soundtrack for the show was released around the same time as the show, including a song provided by the indie band AJR.
Release
Mating Season was released on Netflix on May 22, 2026.
Reception
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 71% approval rating based on 14 critic reviews, with an average rating of 6.0/10. Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, gave a score of 67 out of 100 based on 9 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.