After ripping through three seasons of Primal followed by a remarkable season of Scavenger’s Reign, I was hankering for another animated journey. Somehow, I hadn’t seen Common Side Effects yet or CSE – the new acronym I just whipped up, not a big deal. 

I’d soon learn that Scavenger’s Reign and CSE were created by the animation studio Green Street Pictures. Since that time, I’ve been manifesting taking a sabbatical from my 9-5, standing in a corner and watching their end-to-end creative process because their productions are pure gold. 

CSE immediately plunges down a rabbit hole as we witness the offbeat main character, Marshall Cuso, casually snap a pigeon’s neck. His old friend Frances witnesses this in horror before Marshall drops mushroom remnants into the bird’s mouth. The pigeon miraculously rises from the dead and flies away as if nothing happened.

We begin to learn that Marshall possesses the most powerful medication on the planet. A mushroom capable of instantly healing any ailment and he’s on a noble mission to heal the world. 

The only issue is this mushroom would effectively wipe out hospitals, pharmacies and insurance companies and some very powerful people are determined to prevent that. Marshall can’t simply waltz onto the white house lawn and announce his universe altering mushroom. Instead, he quickly finds himself on the run contending with numerous adversaries. 

From aggressive hillbillies intent on discovering why Marshall purchased a secluded trailer next to their home, to pharmaceutical CEO’s, the FBI and a hired hitman, this show transforms into an epic, on-the-run thriller. The angelic Marshall is our featured running mate and while he really needs to button his shirt, his plight feels tragically realistic; the economy relies on the business of sickness. 

Overall, it’s an incredibly bingeable show with a fast pace, plot twists, betrayal and even strange, mushroom induced hallucinations that lead to more thought provoking questions then answers. From my arbitrary 5 star scale, this is an easy 5 stars out of 5. 

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Seth Borkowski is a NYC-based writer, comedian and paranormal enthusiast. He’s the host of The Spiritual Skeptic, a comedy podcast exploring aliens, spirituality, and other weird shit too.