Co-writers of “Common Side Effects” in Trippy’s new adult swim thriller

What if I discovered a fungus that could be treated? anything? This is the foundational question behind Adult swimming‘s Common side effectsa new series from co-creators Joe Bennett (The era of the scavengers) And Steve Healy (Vice President, The Office, 30 Rock) —The answer brings a lot of chaos into the life of Marshall, an eccentric genius who stumbles upon a miracle mushroom.

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 captures his pet turtle and escapes from everyone who feels threatened by his medical illness. Breakout, which turns out to be a lot of deep-pocketed, well-armed, wild-eyed people.

To learn more about the series, io9 got a chance to speak with Bennett and Healy ahead Common side effectsDebuts February 2 on Adult Swim.

Cheryl Eddy, io9: One of Common side effectsThe main themes are the accountability of healthcare companies – something that has taken on new meaning in the post-Luigi Mangione era. How do you feel about the new cultural context of the programme?

Steve Healy: Well, it was a bit shocking. This event was, of course, very disturbing. But he said we strike a chord and it’s something people think and talk about, and it sparks people’s imagination and beliefs. We certainly think about something that exists in the public consciousness, or the subconscious, that is exciting and a little scary, when it turns into active violence in the streets. But I think it’s great that we came up with something that feels right.

io9: Marshall is a somewhat unconventional hero. What influenced his background and appearance?

Joe Bennett: It was based on a big bag of different characters. There’s Paul Stamets, who’s a mycologist – a lot of these people in the fringe world, Terence McKenna and Richard Schultz and Wade Davis and all that stuff. But also visually and a lot of Marshall’s personality came from John LaRouche of (Orchid thief book) and Adaptation-I really liked Chris Cooper’s version specifically. He’s a little troubled, a little dirty, very confident, very smart. He always represented himself in court. He’s a bad guy in his own way, but he’s not your typical hero, he’s a badass looking character. I like that Marshall is a pacifist. He has his own philosophies or ideologies which he knows are somewhat in the minority.

Hailey: He thinks for himself and is prepared to follow the lead as far as it will take him, even if it will bring him into conflict with some powerful forces.

io9: Do you think that’s why Francis was interested in helping him?

Hailey: I think anyone with that much passion, independence and drive is always somewhat compelling, even if it can be a bit weird and scary sometimes. Frances then wrestles with her place in the world and what she truly believes. We were thinking of a character who is very human and real, and is trying not to be poor and have enough money to live, which is hard to do. This leads her to work for this company that she is unsure about, and her beliefs are called into question. It seemed like an exciting spark for a little relationship and a story that would expand as we continued to tell it.

io9: There are a lot of villains in the show, like drug manufacturers, insurance companies, and mysterious government agents. What do you think is at the top of the pyramid in terms of being the worst of all time?

Hailey: We’ve always kind of thought about it – there’s no human villain. It’s more order. Even (drug CEO) Rick or the killers, we always tried to show a little bit of their humanity and where they came from. They are just people stuck in a system that is beyond our control. Later in the series, we have some darker characters that give their point of view, and we always tried to make it like, “Okay, yeah, you can kind of see it where they’re coming from,” and to make it so that everyone was motivated in a way that didn’t just make them say, “Huh, I’m the villain.” Profit-minded villain!” They have some way of looking at the world that makes sense to them, and they feel they are working from an important perspective.

We talked to all kinds of people with different viewpoints. We talked to a retired DEA agent and we talked to pharmacy workers. You know, people who work at a big pharmaceutical company can make their case and say, “Yes, it cost a lot of money because we need this money for R&D. And we get paid a lot of money because this is how we fund the next invention. Aren’t you happy to have Advil and penicillin and Covid vaccines and things like that? You can see that from their point of view that we tried not to make anyone like Voldemort or anything, we tried to make him interdimensional.

io9: I didn’t include the DEA agents in that list of villains because you feel like they might have moral compasses that point in the right direction. It’s also very weird, why did you want to rely on it as comic relief?

Hailey: A lot of this job is you sitting there waiting or locating something. It seemed to us that people at work often talk about everything except work and life.

Bennett: We did an early test animation before we had any actors on the show, and we just wanted to try to understand the relationship (the DEA agents) without any characters speaking. So I animated a little bit with them dancing to Harry Belafonte, and I think that helped in a lot of ways in giving us an idea of ​​what they’re like.

But yeah, from Steve’s point of view, we talk about this a lot when we’re kind of thinking about the characters and how they talk to each other. If Steve and I are going on a hike, we’re probably talking about anything and everything other than the actual hike itself. There’s a lot of time to kill. There are a lot of topics that they get rid of or whatever. Then at the end of the day, they are real people. This is their job, but they have their own wants and needs. We just tried to make them as more one-dimensional characters as possible.

io9: Adult Swim seems like an unusual outlet for a show like this – it has elements of humour, fantasy, and exciting plot elements, but its themes are perhaps a little more serious than what we associate with the platform. Why was this the right place for your show?

Hailey: I think it’s going to air on Max and then Adult Swim got excited about it. And we were excited, to be part of this amazing legacy of 20, 30 years of great shows, I’ve loved those shows for a long time, but also, it seems great to us that they want to, like- why can’t we expand what Adult Swim is about and we’ll have A serialized show that takes time and isn’t loud and crazy? Tones can be quieter sometimes. It’s exciting and interesting that they want to expand what Adult Swim can be.

io9: How much is fact and how much is fiction when it comes to the existence of a mushroom that can cure any disease?

Hailey: There is a lot we don’t know about mushrooms. Mushrooms are so strange, I think we’ve barely begun to understand what they do. There are some that can heal you or give you crazy visions, and there are some that can kill you. There are some that are delicious. So it doesn’t seem completely crazy that we have a treatment that could work as a type of stem cell therapy. I don’t think there’s anything close to that discovered yet, but it doesn’t seem crazy to imagine something like this He could He comes out.

io9: I love the voice cast, although it didn’t have a lot of people I recognized right away, other than Mike Judge. Did you have specific artists in mind for the characters?

Hailey: Some of the people were people Joe knew and worked with in the past or people we knew. Dave (King), who plays Marshall, has done some acting, but he’s not primarily an actor. We love Martha Kelly (who plays Harrington). (Joseph Lee Anderson), who plays Cubano, worked with my wife on a show called Young RockAnd we thought he had a great voice. And a lot of people, we just caught. Some of the voices are me and Joe. What we were after was to make it feel real. For us, there’s not much point in getting someone really famous to voice your animation. You want any suitable voice to embody the character. …All our training or directing was like, “Do it, like, no acting.” It’s hard for professional actors, especially when they’re alone in a recording booth, to get there. But I think we were able to get to that real, trippy kind of real feeling in the voice acting.

io9: This last one is for Joe, we were big The era of the scavengers Fans of io9 were sorry they didn’t get more seasons. How do you feel now about where you left off, and is this a story you might want to return to?

Bennett: I feel fine about it. She will have a future. I’m not worried about that. I’m so grateful that we were able to do (one season), and that he has such an amazing fan base that seems to be growing by the day. And you know the doors will open. (They) always (have). I feel like they (will) continue to do this if I don’t address the negatives. I try to put my head down, close my eyes, and just do fun things. But yeah, there’s definitely more story to tell.

Common side effects The first two episodes premiere Sunday, February 2 at 11:30pm ET/PT on Adult Swim; After that, there will be a new episode every Sunday for 10 episodes. You can also stream new episodes on Mondays on Max.

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