‘Common Side Effects’ Review: Death Handicapped by Groovy Mushroom

Imagine a life free from all maladies, not an escapade in the form of psychedelics or pain-numbing drugs but a salt-of-the-earth, naturally grown cure to all diseases; and its side effect: immortality and eternal happiness. Common Side Effects, or what should be referred to as one of the best shows of this year (so far), centers around the owner of a mystical turtle, Socrates, Marshall Cuso who discovers a magic mushroom that can cure all maladies.

The novelty of such a cure being assailed by the supreme enemy – Reutical Pharmaceutical. The magical mushroom is a threat to the products of the conveyer-belt technology of the pharma. The immensity of the show doesn’t converge to a run-of-the-mill eat-the-rich narrative; through multiple characters and their independent subplots with the mighty mushroom as the locus, the show strikes the American psyche already in vibration.

The fruitful efforts of co-creators Joseph Bennett and Steve Hely (writer: Veep and The Office) are all visible on the screen. Joseph Bennett, who also happens to be the mind behind the now-axed-after-its-first-season Scavengers Reign, brings back dignity to the animation medium once again. With the Scavengers Reign team onboard, the show doesn’t shy away from tiptoeing into the dreamy realm. The hypnagogic and naturalistic animation induced by virtue of ingesting the mushroom is extremely effective in causing a disruption in consciousness as the characters slip in and out of waking reality. The attention to detail, be it movements or lip-sync, is impressive. Some of these characters are some gazoony fellas carrying in their pockets the ultimate cure, so they can’t risk to mess things up, but given the schleimihl they are, they do fuck up and thus start a chain reaction.

The side effect of the mighty mushroom results in a hallucination that starts cute but slowly builds towards something that can only be termed as a bad dream. One of those nightmarish visions where you feel yourself in the presence of a greater force, only here the neither-angelic-nor-demonic white little amorphous creatures dissociate the realities of these characters. Try as one might to evade it, irrespective of how much vitality a man may have, everything ultimately decays; and the way this show is moving; and the bang-not-whimper note the season ends, I can’t help but feel excited for what they’re going to cook up next season.

This is a very easy show to get into, twenty minutes is all it takes! With its basic coordinates laid out in its first episode, the ebb and flow of the show is nicely attuned with lots of paranoia, and the show swims without sinking, landing the finale without any turbulence.

If the urge to taste more paranoia post-Severance S2 remains, then this is the show for you; the fanatics of the show might even find resemblances, particularly w.r.t. similarity in the cadence of Dave King and Adam Scott’s voices and Frances Applewhite’s Helly-esque bangs: alright that’s a reach. Nonetheless, if you’re someone who digs PKD (or especially enjoyed the vibes of Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldtrich) or craves a little Pynchon paranoia in the animation medium, then run-don’t-walk. There are lots of moving parts in the show that I barely mentioned, but everything is neatly intertwined.

With Severance enjoying its rightfully earned success, the word-of-mouth continues to be a stochastic differentiator between the tired and wired shows, and I hope the same for Common Side Effects, with Season 2 already on its way.

Common Side Effects aired from February 2nd to March 30th on Adult Swim. It is also available on Max.

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