Common Side Effects (TV Program)

Subterms

    Latest story

    150 Shares66 Views

    Emmy Nomination Snubs and Surprises: ‘Squid Game,’ ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ and More

    by

    Some big names (Alfonso Cuarón, Elisabeth Moss) were left off the Emmy nomination list while some underdogs (Jeff Hiller, “Common Side Effects”) sneaked on.Awards shows are handicapped more accurately these days than presidential elections, but here are some at least mildly surprising results gleaned from the Primetime Emmys nominations announced on Tuesday.Snub: ‘Squid Game’Apparently the voters had soured on the bloody South Korean drama, which was nominated for outstanding drama and won for lead actor and director in its first season on Netflix. The second season, which debuted in December, was shut out of the drama series field. (Because of the Emmys’ June-to-May calendar, the recently released final season will be eligible for next year’s awards.) It was the only unexpected result in the major series categories, allowing the Hulu thriller “Paradise” to sneak in.Surprise: Uzo AdubaNetflix’s murder-in-the-White-House comedy “The Residence” did not attract a ton of attention and was quickly canceled after one season. Aduba’s performance as a quirky, bird-watching police consultant was noticed, however, and she made it into the comedy lead-actress field over the former nominees Natasha Lyonne (“Poker Face”) and Selena Gomez (“Only Murders in the Building”).Snub: Alfonso CuarónCuarón, the winner of four Oscars, was thought to be a lock for at least a directing nomination for his spooky limited series “Disclaimer” on Apple TV+. Cuarón was left out, however, as was the series and its lead actor, Kevin Kline. Cate Blanchett picked up a lead-actress nomination.“Common Side Effects” was nominated for outstanding animated program for its first season.Adult SwimSurprise: ‘Common Side Effects’Adult Swims’s lo-fi conspiracy thriller about little people battling Big Pharma, streaming on HBO Max, was an unexpected and very welcome nominee for outstanding animated program, taking a spot expected to go to Amazon Prime Video’s “Invincible” or Netflix’s “Big Mouth.”Snub: ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’Hulu’s adaptation of the dystopian novel by Margaret Atwood never regained the heights of its first season, when it won the award for best drama and its star, Elisabeth Moss, won for best actress. In their sixth and final season, both the show and Moss were left out.Surprise: Jeff HillerIn the third and final season of the melancholy, autobiographical HBO comedy “Somebody, Somewhere,” starring Bridget Everett, Hiller came out of nowhere for a supporting-actor nomination. (Sorry, Tyler James Williams of “Abbott Elementary.”) The show, previously unnominated, also got a nod for comedy writing.Snub: John Mulaney (again)Mulaney keeps trying to tweak the nighttime talk-show format, following up last year’s “John Mulaney Presents: Everybody’s in L.A.” on Netflix with the apparently more permanent “Everybody’s Live With John Mulaney.” Breaking through the Colbert-Kimmel-Stewart gas ceiling in the variety talk series category is a tall order, though. (Also left out, with the category limited to three slots, was the three-time nominee “Late Night With Seth Meyers.”) More

    More stories

    • 100 Shares189 Views

      in Television

      The Best TV Shows of 2025, So Far

      by

      Returning hits like “Severance” and “The White Lotus” inspired plenty of chatter, but did they make our top TV list?The first half of 2025 saw the return of strike-delayed hit shows, like “Severance,” “The White Lotus” and “The Last of Us,” that took turns dominating the cultural conversation. But only one of them made our top TV list.Read on to find out which one and to see which other series, new and old, scripted and nonfiction, impressed our television critics the most (listed alphabetically).‘Andor’Diego Luna reprised his title role in the final season of “Andor.”Lucasfilm Ltd./Disney+A prequel series to “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” (2016) — and arguably the most acclaimed “Star Wars” story of any kind since that film — “Andor” offered one of TV’s deepest explorations of the political realities and human costs of rebellion. Its two-season run wrapped up in May.“Prequels are often where dramatic tension goes to die,” James Poniewozik writes. “How invested can you be in a story whose outcome you already know? The genius of ‘Andor,’ created by Tony Gilroy, is to make that knowledge an asset.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 125 Shares119 Views

      in Television

      ‘Common Side Effects’ Is a Stylish and Trippy Animated Thriller

      by

      Filled with smart dialogue, specificity and visual wonder, this Max series is a good choice to help fill the “Severance”-shaped hole in your heart.The animated pharma thriller/stoner dramedy “Common Side Effects,” available on Max, is as rare and precious as the miraculous mushroom its hero, Marshall (Dave King), discovers in the jungle. Smarts, humor, style and perspective rarely align so harmoniously. Not a lot of shows have as much to say, and fewer still say it with such panache.“Common” follows the open-shirted, tiny-mouthed environmentalist Marshall, who wants to protect the fragile habitat of the blue angel mushroom, a fungus that can heal seemingly everything. Everyone should be able to access its powers, Marshall says, and no one should be denied a lifesaving cure because of poverty.But he’s up against a lot, including the D.E.A., the F.B.I., big pharma, fellow mycologists, backwoods hooligans, jailhouse power players and sometimes just his own naiveté. He reunites with his high school lab partner, Frances (Emily Pendergast), after he is booted from one of her boss’s speeches. Frances doesn’t admit to him that she works for Reutical, a pharmaceutical company that does every single bad thing Marshall abhors. They trust each other, even though they haven’t seen each other in years, and when Marshall is in peril, he calls her.“Just two things to mention,” he says, panic rising in his voice. “Some people are following me, and I brought my tortoise.”Frances is just as desperate as Marshall. Her mother has Alzheimer’s and is in a memory care facility that they can barely afford; her boyfriend is sort of a yutz; and she is always waist-deep in a crisis of conscience about working for Reutical. Should she try to help Marshall do things Marshall’s slapdash way, or might Reutical be in a better position to cultivate, test and distribute such a powerful drug?Her boss, Rick (Mike Judge), takes her up to the company’s rooftop helipad to encourage her to stick with the corporate vision. “You’re with us now, the helicopter people,” he says. “We don’t worry about the down-there problems.” He doesn’t say it in an evil, cackling villain voice, though. He says it like an encouraging dad, like a mentor.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 113 Shares179 Views

      in Television

      Review: In ‘Common Side Effects,’ It’s Fungus vs. Them

      by

      A weird, deadpan animated thriller finds a new timeliness in ancient medicine.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.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More