It’s funny how 2019 seems like eons ago. All the more reason to be impressed that Emmy-nominated comedy writer Steve Hely and animator Joe Bennett knew one hot-button topic for a potential TV series would boast timeless appeal: Big Pharma.
"From the very first origins, we were talking about wellness and health and pharmaceuticals," Hely says. "Why do we spend all this money on it? Why is everybody unhappy about it in this rich country? Why does everybody seem to be self-medicating? What does it all mean?"
The two answer those questions — and provide plenty of irreverent laughs — in their animated satirical thriller Common Side Effects (which premiered Feb. 2 on Adult Swim). The story follows Marshall (Dave King) and Frances (Emily Pendergast), two former high school lab partners, who share a secret: Marshall has discovered a magic mushroom that can heal almost any ailment. The friends team up to distribute the miracle medicine, but soon find themselves embroiled in a conspiracy web involving the DEA, pharmaceuticals and the government. Beavis and Butt-Head creator Mike Judge, also an executive producer, provides the voice of the greedy pharma CEO.
Common Side Effects first premiered at the Annecy Film Festival last June and its trailer was unveiled at the San Diego Comic-Con. Hely notes that a press release about the series was set to go out the day that the UnitedHealth Group CEO was assassinated in New York City in December. "We’ve touched on a nerve that people are thinking and reflecting on," he adds. "America has a weird relationship with our expensive health care."
As for Hely and Bennett’s own relationship, it started after the two were set up professionally. Hely, a writer and producer for the likes of Veep, The Office and American Dad!, immediately bonded with Bennett, a versatile comic-book artist and co-creator of the 2016 animated short Scavengers. (He's also responsible for the dearly departed 2023 MAX series Scavengers Reign.) "Within the first day of meeting, we started talking about these fringe, strange characters," says Bennett. "We connected very quickly and got really excited from the get-to."
They still are excited, with Bennett exclaiming, "Our hope is for people to watch the whole series and like it!" A few weeks before the show’s premiere, the collaborators got on a Zoom call to talk with the Television Academy.
Television Academy: Common Side Effects is both a comedy and cautionary tale. How would you describe the tone?
Steve Hely: I think we want the show to be optimistic. There's a hopeful aspect, but there are also obstacles in the way of achieving the perfect dream of health and happiness. We're showing how humans end up screwing up the most wonderful of opportunities.
Joe Bennett: It touches on a lot of conspiracy stuff, but we wanted to highlight and focus on the fact that a lot of these characters are just total screw ups. There's something kind of funny about that.
Does a series like this require a lot of research?
Hely: We talked to a lot of people from different walks of life — a retired D.E.A. agent, a tortoise biologist, somebody who worked at a pharmaceutical company and an expert on drug law. We don't want to think about this as just a show on Adult Swim. We want to make the best show on TV. And, obviously, there are fantastical elements to it [but] we did a lot of research to try to make it as real as possible.
Bennett: Animation was just a means to kind of tell the story. I love animation, and I come from that world. But I want people to enjoy the show not necessarily because it’s animated.
Can you describe how your collaboration works?
Hely: We usually talk about the story upfront, but often Joe will have a cool visual idea or something that's going to influence the way it's going to look. Joe, I think, tends to think like a filmmaker. I often think like a storyteller, and hopefully that one plus one adds up to even more than that. So we would think through the story like, "OK, what would really happen if this guy found this thing and then he encounters this danger, and then he meets this person, and how's it going to look?" That takes a lot of work — and we have to throw out an enormous amount of stuff, which is very painful.
Bennett: It also felt like a beehive mentality in the way that certain departments would inform the show. Our composer, for instance, came up with music that inspired a scene. We didn’t want our departments to feel so compartmentalized.
How would you describe the visual style of the animation?
Bennett: Maybe naturalistic-leaning? Something that feels grounded in reality. I come from independent animation. I've made shorts my whole life, so that’s my style. But I was fortunate enough to work with a lot of incredible artists, so they really helped elevate it into something that feels more cinematic than I would have been able to do myself.
As an executive producer, did Mike Judge have any specific input?
Hely: He definitely was at every table read. And he’s just this great inspiration. He makes fun of Texas or Silicon Valley in his shows, but there's always humanity. He shows characters in their fullness, and some of that [philosophy] definitely trickled in and informed the way we were doing things. And then with his character of Rick [the pharma company CEO], he just had this great way of making him both ridiculous and sympathetic at the same time.
What about the other actors? Do you need the right personality to voice a specific character?
Hely: For all of our main cast members, we just thought they would capture some realness and be more than you’re used to from a typical "cartoon voice."
Dave King, who plays Marshall, grew up in the same town as I did. He's really funny and has a great genuine quality to him, so you would buy him as an independent scientist. Emily Pendergast, who plays Frances, worked with me on Veep. [She played Jonah Ryan’s wife, Beth]. She’s a great improviser and came out of The Groundlings, but she also has this sort of sweetheart quality — she's just a normal person from a small town in Ohio.
Joe, does working a provocative new animated series balm the one-and-done-season pain of Scavengers Reign?
Bennett: Well, first of all, I'm still hopeful. The fan base is growing by the day, so I'm feeling good about another season. There's nothing to be bummed about because I'm very grateful that Season 1 even saw the light of day. And as far as Common Side Effects, it's like another child. I'm very happy and excited this is going to come out, and it feels like a pretty different kind of show. I can separate the two.
On that note, what about a second season for Common Side Effects?
Hely: We pitched out a Season 2 to Adult Swim the other day, and they seemed pretty excited about it. I think they're probably waiting to see how it does, but we would love to keep going.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
