The series ‘Common Side Effects’ combines psychedelia, criticism of the pharmaceutical industry, and brilliant animation in its first season
On March 31st, the tenth and final episode of the first season of ‘Common Side Effects’ aired, a fabulous animated series from Adult Swim studio, written by Joseph Bennet, who also created ‘Scavengers Reign’, another amazing series imbued with the same psychedelic spirit as the first.
‘Common Side Effects’ chronicles, in ten 20-minute episodes, the adventure of Marshall Cuso, a mycologist who finds the legendary Blue Angel fungus in the Peruvian jungle, capable of curing any disease. However, the electric blue fungus demands a toll: whoever ingests it crosses the threshold to another dimension and immerses themselves in an ecstatic (or perhaps infernal) journey through that parallel dimension. These are the “side effects” referenced in the title.
Marshall is a dreamer and, like any good dreamer, also naive, and intends to reproduce the fungus to heal Humanity. No small feat. His commendable purpose will soon clash with the pharmaceutical industry, US anti-drug agencies, and even some fellow mycologists, more interested in thriving and profiting than in curing their fellow humans. As mentioned, any resemblance to reality is purely coincidental.
‘Common Side Effects’, summarized in six minutes
At this point, it’s a good time to watch this video summarizing the plot of the series:
The quixotic and shirtless protagonist could be a mixture of Paul Stamets, Terence McKenna, and Richard Evans-Schultes. Marshall entrusts his magnificent discovery to France Applewhite, a former schoolmate, who must decide between helping her friend or remaining loyal to Reutical, the evil pharmaceutical company (redundancy intended) for which she works.
It’s not difficult to see in Reutical reflections of some neo-pharmaceutical companies of the so-called ‘psychedelic renaissance’, which are co-opting the resurgence of these compounds of ancestral use to bolster their bottom lines and stock market valuations.
Perhaps the most successful characters are the pair of police officers tracking Marshall, agents Harrington and Copano, a sort of FBI’s Beavis & Butthead. Beyond the caricature, the couple expose the perverse mechanisms and bastard interests hidden behind the war on drugs.
‘Common Side Effects’ is a parody, and as such can afford exaggeration and a Manichaeism that isn’t really such. Marshall Cuso embodies all the virtues of an environmentalist. In one scene, he tries to open the ambiguous France’s eyes with these words: “Think of all those people who make tons money just by us being sick, just by us being unwell.” It’s a phrase that would have sounded naive coming from an actor but is perfectly legitimate coming from a cartoon character.
The second season, already on the way
‘Common Side Effects’ has become an instant classic, although many of us have had to resort to not entirely legal methods to watch the series. No more illegal, of course, than the hero Marshall’s dalliances with psychotropic substances.
The series airs in Europe on Max channel and in the rest of the world on stations associated with Adult Swim.
‘Common Side Effects’ has a score of 95% on Rotten Tomatoes and 8.7 on IMDB, on par with ‘The Last of Us’ or ‘Black Mirror’. With these credentials, it’s not surprising that Adult Swim has already announced the second season. Hopefully ‘Scavengers Reign’ will follow the same path.
Series information on IMDB. Review of the series on Vulture.com.
Journalist, director of the documentary series Voices of Ayahuasca, member of the Plantaforma for the Defense of Ayahuasca (www.plantaforma.org), co-organizer of Fuertedélica, and black belt in karaoke.