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The animated pharma thriller\/stoner dramedy \u201cCommon Side Effects,\u201d<\/a> available on Max<\/a>, is as rare and precious as the miraculous mushroom its hero, Marshall (Dave King), discovers in the jungle. Smarts, humor, style and perspective rarely align so harmoniously. Not a lot of shows have as much to say, and fewer still say it with such panache.<\/p>\n \u201cCommon\u201d follows the open-shirted, tiny-mouthed environmentalist Marshall, who wants to protect the fragile habitat of the blue angel mushroom, a fungus that can heal seemingly everything. Everyone should be able to access its powers, Marshall says, and no one should be denied a lifesaving cure because of poverty.<\/p>\n But he\u2019s up against a lot, including the D.E.A., the F.B.I., big pharma, fellow mycologists, backwoods hooligans, jailhouse power players and sometimes just his own naivet\u00e9. He reunites with his high school lab partner, Frances (Emily Pendergast), after he is booted from one of her boss\u2019s speeches. Frances doesn\u2019t admit to him that she works for Reutical, a pharmaceutical company that does every single bad thing Marshall abhors. They trust each other, even though they haven\u2019t seen each other in years, and when Marshall is in peril, he calls her.<\/p>\n \u201cJust two things to mention,\u201d he says, panic rising in his voice. \u201cSome people are following me, and I brought my tortoise.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Frances is just as desperate as Marshall. Her mother has Alzheimer\u2019s and is in a memory care facility that they can barely afford; her boyfriend is sort of a yutz; and she is always waist-deep in a crisis of conscience about working for Reutical. Should she try to help Marshall do things Marshall\u2019s slapdash way, or might Reutical be in a better position to cultivate, test and distribute such a powerful drug?<\/p>\n Her boss, Rick (Mike Judge), takes her up to the company\u2019s rooftop helipad to encourage her to stick with the corporate vision. \u201cYou\u2019re with us now, the helicopter people,\u201d he says. \u201cWe don\u2019t worry about the down-there problems.\u201d He doesn\u2019t say it in an evil, cackling villain voice, though. He says it like an encouraging dad, like a mentor.<\/p>\n \u201cCommon\u201d is about forced scarcity, but the show embodies Marshall\u2019s commitment to abundance: There\u2019s enough dialogue, specificity and especially visual wonder to go around. The character design here lives on the alluring line between darling and grotesque, and there are so many cool shots, such as an assassin\u2019s wiggly reflection in the diamond-printed metal interior of a food truck.<\/p>\n So far nine episodes have aired, and the finale 10th episode airs on Sunday at 11:30 p.m., on Adult Swim. I\u2019m not saying this will perfectly fill the \u201cSeverance\u201d-shaped hole in your heart, but it might stop the bleeding.<\/p>\n SIDE QUESTS<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cCommon Side Effects\u201d was created by Joseph Bennett and Steve Hely. Bennett\u2019s previous work includes \u201cScavenger\u2019s Reign,\u201d<\/strong> and the shows have a similar perspective. That\u2019s on Max<\/a> and Netflix<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Judge is also an executive producer, and it\u2019s never a bad time to watch \u201cKing of the Hill,\u201d<\/strong> available Hulu<\/a>, especially as the revival nears.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n One effect of ingesting the blue angel is a pretty heady trip, in which people encounter little gray baby alien-like creatures. Are they friends or foes? Unclear, but all I could see were miniature versions of Pit-Pat, the \u201cspokesthing\u201d character from \u201cMr. Show With Bob and David.\u201d<\/strong> That\u2019s on Max<\/a>, and Pit-Pat makes its first appearance in Season 1, Episode 2.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \u201cCommon\u201d reminded me a lot of another oddball fave, the perfect \u201cLodge 49.\u201d<\/strong> That\u2019s on AMC+.<\/a> Both shows have a sense of dreamy ambition and center on endearing dingbats who drive unusual vehicles. And both shows are cleareyed about the pernicious exploitation of the working class.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Martha Kelly voices one of the detectives tracking Marshall, and she gets a lot of the show\u2019s best lines, including \u201cDoes this haircut make me look like Timothy McVeigh?\u201d She\u2019s also the lead voice actor in \u201cCarol & the End of the World,\u201d<\/a><\/strong> on Netflix<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n