Common Side Effects’ Co-Creators on Their Trippy New Adult Swim Thriller

If you discover a mushroom that can heal something? That is the main question behind Adult swimmingCome on Common side effectsA new series of co-creators Joe Bennett (Reign of the Scavengers) and Steve Healey (Veep, The Office, 30 Rock) –And the answer brings a lot of chaos into the life of Marshall, a prodigy who stumbles upon a miraculous fungus.

With the help of Frances, his former high school lab partner—who is very reluctant to tell him that she now works for the CEO of a major pharmaceutical company—Marshall grabs his pet turtle and escapes from anyone who feels threatened by his treatment of breakthroughs, which are plentiful. Seen as a deep-pocketed, well-dressed, wild-eyed man.

To learn more about the series, io9 had a chance to speak with Bennett Common side effects‘Debuts on Adult Swimming on February 2.

Cheryl Eddy, IO9: A Common side effects‘The big themes are holding healthcare organizations accountable—something that has taken on new meaning in the post-Luigi Mangione era. How do you feel about the show’s new cultural context?

Steve Place: Well, it was a bit of a shock. That incident must have been deeply disturbing. But that said, we’re touching a nerve that’s something people are thinking about and talking about, and it’s electrifying people’s imaginations and beliefs. We’re definitely thinking about something that the public is aware of, or subconsciously, and it’s exciting – and a little scary, when it breaks down into active street violence. But I guess it’s great that we’re hitting something that feels relevant.

IO9: Marshall is a pretty unconventional hero. What informed his backstory and his appearance?

Joe Bennett: He was based on a big bag of different characters. There’s Paul Stamets, who’s a mycologist—lots of those kinds of guys in the fringe world, Terence McKenna and Richard Schultz and Wade Davis and all that stuff. But also the visuals and a lot of Marshall’s personality came from John LaRoche [The Orchid Thief book] And Adaptation– I really like the Chris Cooper version. This is a guy who is a little crude, a little opulent, very confident, very smart. He always represented himself in court. He’s kind of badass in his own way, but not just your traditional hero, tough guy-looking character. I like that Marshall is a pacifist. He’s got his own philosophy or ideology that he knows is somewhat in the minority.

Location: Think for yourself and be prepared to follow a thread as far as it will take him, even if it is going to bring him into conflict with some powerful force.

IO9: Do you think that’s why Frances is so interested in helping him?

Location: I think anyone who’s that passionate and that independent and that driven is always interesting, even if it’s a little weird and scary at times. And then Frances is wrestling with what her place is in this world and what she truly believes. We were thinking about a character who is very human and real herself, and trying not to be poor and make enough money to survive, which is hard to do. This brings him to work for this organization that he is unsure about and his beliefs are coming into question. It just felt like a little relationship and an exciting spark for a story that would expand as we told it.

IO9: The show has a lot of villains – drug makers, insurance companies, shady government officials. Do you think the top of the pyramid is the absolute worst?

Location: We always kind of think about it—there’s no human villain. It’s more systems. even [drug compamy CEO] Rick or the Assassins, we’ve always tried to show a little bit of their humanity and where they’re coming from. They are just people caught up in a system that is beyond all of our control. Later in the series, we have some dark characters who give their perspective, and we’ve always tried to do, “Well, yeah, you can see it from where you’re coming from,” and everyone was inspired to create in a way that they just like. No, “Haha, I’m an evil, profit-minded villain!” They have some way of looking at the world that makes sense to them and they feel they are working from a perspective that matters.

We talked to all kinds of people with different perspectives. We talked to a retired DEA agent and we talked to pharmaceutical people. You know, people working at a big pharma company can make their case that, “Yes, it costs a lot of money because we need that money for research and development. And we charge a lot because that’s how we fund the next discovery.” And aren’t you glad we have Adil and penicillin and covid vaccines and stuff?” You can see it from their perspective. We tried not to make anyone Voldemort or whatever, but rather make them multidimensional.

IO9: I didn’t include DEA agents in that list of villains because you get the sense that their moral compasses point in the right direction. They’re also pretty funny – why would you want to lean into them as comic relief?

Location: That job is pretty much, you’re sitting there or finding a place. And it just seemed to us that people at work are often talking about everything except work and life.

Bennett: We did a basic animation test before any actors were attached to the show, and we just wanted to try to figure it out [DEA agents’] Relationships without any character speaking. So I did a little animated Harry Belafonte dance with them, and I think in a lot of ways they helped give us an idea of ​​what we like.

But yeah, as Steve said, we talk about this a lot when we talk about the characters and how they talk to each other. If Steve and I are raising a rent, we’re probably talking about anything and everything other than the actual rent. There’s a lot of time to kill. There are so many things that they just kind of throw away or whatever. And then at the end of the day, they’re real people. It’s their job, but they have their own wants and needs. We just tried to [them] As a one-dimensional character [much as] possible

IO9: Adult Swim seems like an unusual outlet for a show like this—it has humor and fantasy elements and conspiracy-thriller elements, but its themes are perhaps a little more serious than we’ve come to associate with the platform. Why was it the right place for your show?

Location: I think it’s just going to trickle down to the max and then adult swimming gets excited about it. And we were excited, both to be part of that cool, 20- or 30-year legacy of great shows, I’ve loved these shows for a long time, but it also seems cool to us that they want to like- why we expand what adult swimming means. Can’t and we’ll have a serialized show that takes some time and isn’t loud and crazy? The tunes can sometimes be a bit more subdued. It’s exciting and fun that they want to expand what adult swimming can mean.

IO9: Truth and how much is fiction, when it comes to the existence of a mushroom that can cure any disease?

Location: We don’t know much about mushrooms. Mushrooms are super weird, and I think we’re just beginning to understand what they do. There are things that can heal you or give you crazy visions and there are things that can kill you. There is something delicious. So it doesn’t seem completely crazy to have one that can do the same sort of thing as stem cell therapy. I don’t think anything close to that has been invented yet, but it didn’t seem too crazy to imagine something like that can exist

IO9: I like the voice cast, even though it doesn’t have many people I instantly recognized, other than Mike Judge. Do you have specific performances in mind for the characters?

Location: Some of the people were people that Joe had known and worked with in the past or that we knew. dave [King]The person who plays Marshall has acted a bit, but he’s not really an actor. We love Martha Kelly [who plays Harrington]. [Joseph Lee Anderson]Who plays Kopano, worked on a show with my wife Young RockAnd we just thought she had a cool voice. And a lot of people, we just caught up. Some of the voices are me and Joe. What we were going for was making them sound real. To us, getting some famous person to do your animated voice doesn’t do much good. Whatever voice you want is right to embody the character. … All of our coaching or directing was like, “Do this, like, no acting.” It’s hard for pro actors, especially when they’re alone in the recording booth, to go there. But I think we were able to get that original, Stumble-y authentic kind of feel in the voice acting.

IO9: This last one is for Joe – we were big Reign of the Scavengers Fans at IO9 and sad that it didn’t get more seasons. How do you feel now about where it ended and is it a story you’d ever want to return to?

Bennett: I feel good about it. It’s going to be a future. I’m not worried about it. I am very grateful that we got to create [one season]And it’s got such a great fan base that seems to be growing by the day. And you know, the door will open. [They] always [have]. i think [they’ll] If I’m not just on the negative, keep it up. I try to keep my head down and be blind and just make fun stuff. But yes, there are definitely more stories to tell.

Common side effects Adult Swim premieres its first two episodes on Sunday, February 2 at 2:30 p.m.; Thereafter, there will be a new episode every Sunday throughout the 10-episode run. You can stream most new episodes on Mondays.

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