Review of the Common Side Effects Pilot

I’ve been waiting for this one! This show has been the only thing on my mind since it came out at the beginning of February. I was planning on watching the first premier on Adult Swim with my dad, but then I realized I would be at school by that time. So I watched it with my friend the next day on Max, and when I say that was the highlight of my week, I mean it. And it was only Monday!

Common Side Effects was created by Joe Bennett and Steve Hely for Adult Swim. Lots of creators behind this show also worked on another show called Scavengers Reign. I heard that it’s really good, so that helped me put faith into Common Side Effects before it came out. I haven’t looked into it much, but it’s definitely next on my list.

Common Side Effects is about a man named Marshall, who discovered a mushroom that can cure pretty much every health problem in the world. He reunites with Frances, a friend from high school, and as Marshall is trying to avoid the government stopping him from having this mushroom, Frances is trying to impress her boss and get a (well deserved) raise.

This blog will contain SPOILERS for the pilot episode. It’s not anything crazy, it’s not like I’m spoiling the entire show because I literally can’t. If you want to watch it, I 100% recommend it, especially if you’re really big on Adult Swim shows (like me).

Episode 1 – Pilot 

We immediately open to a conference for the Reutical pharmaceutical company where the CEO, Rick (my archenemy), reveals their medicine has a side effect of depression and suicidal thoughts. Frances (my GOAT) is introduced as Rick’s employee, and Marshall gets on the Q&A mic to expose Rick’s company of destroying habitats in order to produce their medicine. Frances recognizes him as he’s getting kicked out, and they reunite for the first time since high school. But Frances hides the fact that she works for Reutical, knowing Marshall wouldn’t trust her if he knew. As they catch up, Frances reveals that her mother has dementia and Marshall proposes the idea of a medicine that can cure anything. Frances is intrigued but she isn’t convinced it’s possible, until Marshall literally breaks a pigeon’s neck and immediately heals it with bits of the Blue Angel mushroom. Then, it’s revealed that Marshall is being spied on by agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration (I think?). We meet Copano and Harrington, two DEA agents tasked with tracking him down.

Then, we get the awesome intro sequence. It’s crazy that there’s all this information within the first few minutes. Of course, it’s a pilot, so I should’ve expected to be shot with so much information at once, but when I was typing out notes for this blog, my fingers couldn’t keep up!

We open to Marshall telling Frances about how he found the Blue Angel mushroom. We learn that it’s an incredibly rare mushroom that only grows in extremely specific conditions. Upon Marshall’s discovery, he gets hunted down and shot at by a helicopter. He (coincidentally) has an escape plane, but the plane gets shot down! So before the plane goes down and Marshall dies, he eats a Blue Angel mushroom and he survives the crash. Back to the present day, Marshall tells Frances about how he’s almost out of mushrooms and Rick’s company is destroying the environment where the mushrooms grow. He tells her this while Rick is literally calling her. As she takes the call, Marshall realizes he’s being watched and flees.

We open to Copano and Harrington getting put on the case. We see their dynamic and personalities a little more here. I really love them, they’re my favorite characters. Also, (like many others) I thought Harrington was a guy when I first saw a snippet of the show without any of her dialogue, but she’s literally so precious.

We move on to Rick’s employees showing him a new commercial for Reutical’s medicine and it’s very clear that he doesn’t care. He is literally playing Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp. Frances comes in, assesses the situation, and I think she would be a much better CEO because Rick doesn’t want people to know about the side effects Reutical’s medicine has. Frances is literally the #1 assistant, I love her so much. When leaving, Frances proposes the idea for a new product and Rick encourages her, saying he would give her a huge raise if she’s able to pull it off.

We cut to Marshall going to his (super cool) house. It’s clear that he’s really paranoid, and he owns a lot of land. In my notes, I wrote, “He hates the city, he loves Frances,” so do with that what you will…

He notices Copano and Harrington watching his house, but they’re just goofing off. They talk about Marshall and the awards he’s won and things he’s discovered. It’s clear he’s a really intelligent guy. But they want to search his house under the suspicion of drugs and they believe he’s creating some sort of monopoly. I’m not good with business or financial talk so I’m not the best person to explain any of that.

They search Marshall’s house, him AND his tortoise are GONE. He escapes with another (convenient) back up plan. He really thinks of everything…

We cut to Frances in her apartment with her awful boyfriend, Nick. I will admit, his first voice line is so funny, and that’s the only thing I like about him. Frances is trying to wipe the fact that she works for Rick off of her social media, knowing Marshall hates that guy and might not trust her if he finds out. Marshall calls her and the difference in her tone when she’s talking to Marshall vs Nick makes it look like she’s literally cheating on him right in front of his face. It’s so funny. The only thing Marshall tells her is that people are following him, and he brought his (stupid) turtle.

That’s the end of Episode 1!

Episode 1 and 2 were released together and episode 3 was released a few days ago, but I don’t want to continue to spoil the show, especially since there’s only 3 episodes out. I also want to encourage my friends to watch it for themselves, and this blog can be like a little nudge to do that.

I really love all of these characters, they’re so entertaining to watch and I’m  really attached to most of them already. It’s easy to make assumptions about some of the characters but they reveal themselves to be so much more than what you think they are. When I first saw Marshall, I thought he was just a funny, hippie guy (mistake #1), but no! He’s a literal genius who’s strange and awkward, but I think he’s really interesting and I want to see what happens to him.

I’m actually a really big fan of the art style. The animation is really nice, and the way the characters look has really grown on me since I first saw this show’s trailer. I’ll be so honest, I thought their faces were really funny looking, but now I think it’s so endearing. The lighting and the backgrounds are so beautifully drawn. It’s clear that so much effort has been put into this show. I love everything about it.

In the next episodes, new characters are introduced and more complications to the plot get revealed, and it makes this show really complicated but clean and colorful! It takes some analyzing and paying attention to connect the dots, which makes it really fun to study (but I might be the only one that needs to take notes because I’m a little stupid). 

I’m really excited for the rest of this show to come out. I’ve been extremely fixated on it all month. I’ve already made a Pinterest board and I refer to this show as “my show” whenever I talk about it. I’m just a really big fan and I’m excited to see what this show turns into!