Overview
Marshall, Frances, and their crazy neighbors deal with the aftermath of a dangerous incident.
Our Take
Star-Tel-Lite refers to the fake satellite TV company that Agents Copano and Harrington use to get on top of Marshall’s neighbors’ house so as to get a better vantage point of what’s going on. In any case, this week’s episode continues to see the sharks swirling that eventually leads to a dark horse winner who actually ascertained the star of our show.
That said, something needs to be talked about here and this may cause a bit of a kerfuffle. Producer Mike Judge is handing in the best vocal performance of his life for Common Side Effects. I’m not sure if the already legendary producer of shows like King of the Hill and Beavis and Butt-Head feels a bit more kinship to the creators and producers of this series as compared to other series that his company Bandera Entertainment has worked with, but even when compared to those legendary franchises I had just mentioned, Mike is giving us by far some of the most nuanced performances of his life…at age 62. Really otherworldly and unheard of if you ask me, Mike just continues to cement his legendary status and shows these kids making shit now how the old-timers did it without fancy widgets and software.
Those looking for more than a friendly relationship between Marshall and Frances are going to be slightly rewarded this week as well as those who, like me, are increasingly showing up for the enigmatic trip sequences that Green Street continues to showcase. As the episode comes to a close with it’s recurring theme of cliffhangers that leave me on the edge of my seat, Common Side Effects continues to showcase it’s efficiency and this week we get that courtesy of show star Dave King. Voice actor, writer, Dave King and the rest of the cast and crew of Common Side Effects may be one of those groups where one day they all splinter off like The Beatles and have very successful careers. Lucky for us, this series is clearly at the Rubber Soul portion of it’s run and it seems to me there are going to be a lot more classics moving forward.
I’m not sure if Common Side Effects is a multi-season arc or if this ten-episode season will be the series’ only bow. With show co-creator Joe Bennett having already been through the ringer once before with Scavengers Reign and WB Discovery, it seems like he might be perfectly comfortable seeing this one out being a designed event series that has a buttoned up ending though I’m not sure that’s going to help much because fans are going to have no choice but to fall in love with this eclectic mix of characters that just seems to be adding on as time goes on. With five weeks left to go, I’m not sure I’ll be able to say goodbye either way.