Review: Common Side Effects “Blowfish”

Overview

Marshall is rescued by another inmate, but now Marshall owes him a favor; desperate to get out of prison, he works on a risky plan when he runs into a surprising ally; Frances grapples with a life-changing event.

Our Take

I have a long-form article in the works on how I felt like Adult Swim has dropped the ball on marketing and promoting Common Side Effects but in the meantime let’s get to the review shall we? “Blowfish” refers to the active ingredients in some sort of elixir concocted by and meant for Marshall to die long enough so that he can get out of prison…which is the plan but we won’t know if this will work until next week.

In the meantime this week’s episode largely resets the chess pieces a bit in what seems to be a start of a reversal for the events that have transpired the last few weeks. Copano and Harrington seem to be reuniting, Frances is back to being a corporate shill, and it appears Marshall has made some new friends along the way.

I’m trying to come to grips with the fact that the opening of this week’s episode was largely spoiled by an Adult Swim clip from the other day. That along with the preview synopses (as noted in the Overview) seem to give too much away which has been an ongoing problem in show business the last few years now most prominently with Marvel movies like Captain America: Brave New World which largely showcased all of the movie’s big moments in various trailers and clips only to have Disney wondering why that movie would bomb. Likewise, this masterpiece of an animated series for Adult Swim is not even pulling a .2 overnight rating and assets derived from the creative of the show like suspense and cliffhangers don’t work if the network’s shoddy marketing department is just going to give that away three days before the episode debuts. It takes away the suspense, the wonder, and payoff of staying WITH a series.

Rookie moves from the network that advertises lofty claims of being “the leader in adult animation”.