Season Review: Tuca & Bertie Season Three

Overview:

Tuca’s swagger and Bertie’s neuroses are back for more bird-based antics in season three of Tuca & Bertie. These birds still feel far from their best selves, but they soar to new heights this season through important professional and personal breakthroughs. Tuca negotiates her way through a new relationship that has the potential to trigger old habits while a professional shift for Bertie brings forward complicated feelings of displacement. Even Speckle finds himself poised for big changes when his comforting career increasingly challenges his sanity. Season three of Tuca & Bertie settles into a fight or flight mentality and it’s surprising to see where its best birds fall.

Our Take:

The third season can be a breakthrough time for a television series where the program truly comes into its own. It’s not unusual for the first two seasons of a series to still be laying the groundwork and figuring out what elements work and which should be reduced. Tuca & Bertie always felt like a fully-formed series and its first season finds its footing more quickly and confidently than BoJack Horseman. The show’s first two seasons are a strong encapsulation of what Tuca & Bertie stands for and the types of stories and crises of character that interest it. Season three is more of the same, for both better and for worse. These new episodes don’t radically reinvent the series, nor should they. Season three of Tuca & Bertie remains true to itself, which at times lacks big spectacles, but it’s a comfortable version of the series that knows what it wants, just as the characters within it reach the same introspective epiphanies. 

These episodes cover more ground than past seasons, but there’s a bit of an aimless quality to the season as a whole due to the lack of a stronger serialized storyline. Season three functions more like an ongoing character study and examination of the relationship dynamics between these characters as they’re pushed out of their comfort zones in various ways. It’s extremely gratifying to see Bertie mend fences with her mother, for Tuca to sidestep toxic relationships and embrace more responsibilities, and for Speckle to learn how to receive satisfaction outside of his career. Every character dramatically betters themselves, but these changes can still feel lacking when they’re not threaded together through a larger arc. 

If there’s any problem to this season’s formula is that the episodes don’t go far enough with their conflict. Tuca & Bertie isn’t afraid to address dark or uncomfortable subject matter, but the episodes from this season have a tendency for character’s to suddenly forgive and forget right when it seems like a greater argument is about to break out. This season plays around a lot with tension, especially when it comes to Bertie and Speckle’s relationship, only for each episode to deflate these stakes by the time the end credits roll. 

It’s understandable for an animated comedy to want to reinforce an optimistic attitude where conflict doesn’t fester and linger between episodes, but in doing so it feels like many of these very strong episodes stop themselves short from becoming excellent. At the same time, this lack of conflict isn’t magically earned and it still comes as the result of characters putting in the work and talking through their issues. In doing so, this season still has enlightening conversations on alcoholism, codependency, parental displacement, and a myriad of topics that extend from the professional sphere. Tuca & Bertie remains a rare case of an animated comedy that’s able to realistically broach these relevant issues, but never come across as manipulatively sacrosanct or bereft of genuine laughs. 

The first season of Tuca & Bertie felt slightly more focused on Bertie, while the sophomore season gave Tuca some heavy relationship drama. Now, season three effectively shares its storytelling opportunities between both of its titular characters, but also gives Speckle just as much of a showcase. The series’ growing nest of supporting players also find a comfortable rhythm where Tuca & Bertie understands who can sustain a full storyline and those that are best left to smaller doses. The teases of budding friendships between characters like Speckle and Figgy, as well as the earnest redemption of past figures, like Kara, are also very encouraging for the show’s future and the cast’s evolving dynamics. 

Tuca & Bertie’s third season feels the most balanced of the lot even if it’s somewhat lacking when it comes to a larger narrative drive. The season may seem somewhat weaker when it’s discussed in its broader strokes, but on an episode-by-episode basis it never disappoints. Each installment finds new ways to explore the painful comedy behind life’s many surprises and what it means to be an adult. Several episodes return to holidays and events from the previous seasons, yet they’re used to filter fresh experiences and don’t feel like gratuitous retreads. There’s an overly cheerful note that concludes the season, but it’s hard to begrudge Tuca & Bertie for leaving its characters on an optimistic note.

This season of Tuca & Bertie maintains a meticulous level of quality that makes it absolutely deserving of a fourth season. At any other time in Adult Swim’s run it would practically be a guarantee that Tuca & Bertie would receive more episodes. However, the recent slashing of content from Warner Bros. Discovery, both on Adult Swim and elsewhere, means that every series’ future remains in question (except Rick and Morty). I’d argue that out of all of the animated original programming that remains on Adult Swim, it’s Tuca & Bertie and Primal that are the most deserving of renewals. 

Three seasons is more than many series receive and if this happens to be the end of Tuca & Bertie’s story then it will still manage to have had a fulfilling run and gone out with a satisfying finish. That being said, it also feels like Tuca & Bertie has only scratched the surface of its characters and their world in certain areas and the developments experienced in the second-half of season three all point towards a deeper and more challenging fourth season. A premature death because of a nebulous corporate merger shouldn’t be the conclusion of Tuca & Bertie’s story, but it’s also a fate that’s oddly fitting of the show’s themes.This hopefully isn’t the last that audiences have seen of Bird Town, but if it is then Tuca & Bertie has crafted a graceful three-season flight-plan.