30-01-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Review: In ‘Common Side Effects,' It's Fungus vs. Them
From 'The Last of Us' to athlete's foot commercials, fungus does not have the best of reputations on television. But what if it could save us all?
'Common Side Effects,' a wryly funny animated conspiracy thriller beginning Sunday on Adult Swim, suggests that not everybody would be pleased.
Marshall Cuso (Dave King), an eccentric environmentalist and self-employed scientist, discovers a rare mushroom on an expedition to Peru. The fungus, a ghostly specimen called the Blue Angel, can cure almost any illness and heal seemingly fatal injuries — including the ones Marshall sustains when he is attacked by gunmen immediately after making his discovery.
Back in the States, pursued by the Drug Enforcement Administration and other, more mysterious figures, Marshall runs into Frances Applewhite (Emily Pendergast), his former school lab partner who is now unhappily working for a pharmaceutical giant. Together, they make a pact to bring the magic mushroom to the people and protect it from the forces who would like to erase all traces of its existence.
Who are those forces? Them. And who's them? 'Big Pharma, the insurance companies, the government,' Marshall explains. 'All the people who make tons of money just from keeping us sick.'
A figure like Marshall — nerdy, neckbearded, with a prominent belly hanging from his Hawaiian shirt and one big theory that explains it all — would usually be portrayed on TV as, at best, a well-meaning kook, a side character who exists for laughs and exposition. Even in the conspiracy-riddled world of 'The X-Files,' he would be more of a Lone Gunman than a Fox Mulder.
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