If you missed Common Side Effects when it aired last year, it’s time to catch up with one of Adult Swim’s best and most offbeat shows in recent memory. Co-creators Joe Bennett (whose art style will be familiar to fans of the late, great Scavengers Reign) and Steve Hely made a trippy thriller about a man who discovers a mushroom that can cure any ailment (including death), and the ensuing fallout as multiple parties fight over how to use and control that miraculous power.
And soon, it’s coming back for a second season, which Bennett, Hely, and cast members Martha Kelly (DEA Agent Harrington) and Joseph Lee Anderson (DEA Agent Copano) teased at the Common Side Effects panel this week at San Diego Comic-Con. “Early 2027” is the newly announced release window, and the show was far enough along to share a couple of early glimpses with the audience. First up, we saw Harrington and Copano’s first scene together in season two. In season one, the job partners (and besties) reluctantly parted ways. Harrington became determined to track down Marshall Cuso, the guy who discovered the “Blue Angel” mushroom, through law-enforcement channels; Copano struck out on his own, convinced that Marshall’s mushroom had become entangled in a much larger conspiracy. At the very end of season one, Harrington figured out where Marshall and his partner-in-crime, Frances, were hiding out, and we saw her racing to find them. In this season two scene, we find out her version of what happened next. It’s set in a diner, a few months after the season one finale. They’re not expecting to run into each other, but it’s a happy if guarded reunion. Harrington explains the DEA almost caught Marshall in Joshua Tree, but he got away, and she doesn’t offer details.
