{"id":2968,"date":"2026-06-25T17:09:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T17:09:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2968"},"modified":"2026-06-25T17:09:36","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T17:09:36","slug":"common-side-effects-team-unveils-stunning-first-footage-from-second-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2968","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Common Side Effects\u2019 Team Unveils Stunning First Footage from Second Season"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tOne of the most anticipated projects on display at the 2026 Annecy Animation Festival is the second season of \u201cCommon Side Effects.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more Cannes Lions: Movers and Shakers Tackle Trends in Marketing, AI, Advertising, Content and Ranch Dressing<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tA work-in-progress session offered first looks from the show. Its creators Joe Bennett and Steve Hely as well as director Camille Bozec and executive producer Benjy Brooke of Green Street Pictures also ran through how Season 2 sought to expand on the first in scope of both its narrative and aesthetic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe new footage, taken from the Season 2 premiere, picks up immediately where the end of Season 1 left off, with Marshall (Dave King) and Frances (Emily Pendergast) trying to figure out the best way to create an ethical, grass roots method of distributing the \u201cBlue Angel,\u201d a luminous blue mushroom which has the ability to cure all wounds and ailments.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe clip picks up on them hiking in Joshua Tree, intercutting with DEA Agent Harrington (Martha Kelly) in hot pursuit on motorcycle. After a tense standoff, the next scene follows on into a montage of Marshall and Frances travelling to Oregon, the scene playfully scored to \u201cBlue Angel\u201d by Roy Orbison (Marshall is depicted hitting a high note, before a match cut to him snoring).
During the panel, Brooke described the show as \u201ca thriller series which plays off the history of thrillers,\u201d continuing to say that in loose terms, if the first season was \u201c\u2018The Big Lebowski\u2019 meets \u2018Michael Clayton,’\u201d the follow-up trends more towards \u201c\u2018The Insider meets \u2018Indiana Jones. \u2018\u201d (\u201cErin Brockovich\u201d is also mentioned repeatedly.) \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn an interview with Variety<\/em>, Bennett and Hely spoke of what they envisioned for the new season. \u201cSeason 1 did have this propulsive fugitive energy that starts at the beginning and just doesn\u2019t let up,\u201d says Hely. \u201cAnd in Season 2, we were looking to try a different kind of tension: We\u2019re holed up in our space, and what does that space look like?\u201d As Hely describes it, this opens up a new series of questions about how to stay hidden and safe, and who to trust. This is of course complicated by a new antagonist introduced during the panel, named Thomas (voiced by Bob Stephenson, who was a voice actor for \u201cScavengers Reign\u201d).\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThomas, as the team described during the panel, is envisioned as someone who already has an existing relationship with the Blue Angel mushroom, and treats it with religious obsession, in Hely\u2019s words.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe session went over the nuances of the character\u2019s design, partially inspired by actor Dave Bautista \u2013 highlighting a permanently furrowed brow and \u201cthick hands.\u201d There are new allies too, such as Eutychus (voiced by Matthew Maher), a bookstore owner and friend of Marshall who sports a \u201cSystem of a Down beard\u201d. Through discussion of Eutychus, the team also commented on how the acting reflects that \u201cso much of this show is about very specific human beings and very specific problems,\u201d according to Brooke, who then says that this is reflected in how the animation places emphasis on gesticulation of the hands as an expressive tool.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more James Gray\u2019s Cannes Title \u2018Paper Tiger,\u2019 Starring Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson, Gets November Release Date From Neon<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tAs well as the range of new characters, the new season brought with it new environments. Marshall and Frances travel to the Pacific Northwest, where much of the season is based. \u201cOne of our great background guys is from there,\u201d says Hely, \u201cand there\u2019s sort of a spooky paranoia quality. These places are very foggy, some of them are a little dilapidated, you know, the fishing industry or the logging industry is gone, and there\u2019s a lot of empty storefronts, and they attract kind of strange wanderers.\u201d As well as playing with the mood of real locales, the new season also allowed for an expansion of the metaphysical space known as \u2018The Portal,\u2019 a dreamlike environment which people who have ingested the Blue Angel mushroom are all connected to, and though it, even to each other.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere\u2019s a lot more exploration in the portal world that Marshall is going to be doing,\u201d Bennett told Variety<\/em>, \u201cthere\u2019s something really nice about each portal kind of experience being tailored to that person.\u201d He continues, \u201cthere are relics of the real world like an inner psyche, [but] it feels kind of old and ancient.\u201d The space allowed a little more freedom to add surrealist animation as it showed odd remants of the real world placed in an otherworldly desert. \u201cWhat if that was just the surface of this,\u201d Bennett teases of the explorations the team get into in Season 2.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn both the real and metaphysical locations of the show, the backgrounds are all painted by hand, something which was pointed out took up a lot of time due to the number of paintings in the show and due to the number of montages. \u201cThey are incredible painters,\u201d Bennett says of the art team, complimenting their research and attention to detail. \u201cThen it comes to doing more of the surreal elements, they take really fun liberties. That\u2019s a big part of the show. Now more than ever. It\u2019s like it\u2019s human made, it just feels so good that it\u2019s, not computer generated, not AI.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring the work-in-progress session Brooke emphatically doubled down. \u201cGreen Street Pictures will never, ever, ever use AI. It\u2019s about not letting oligarchs steal your future. Fuck AI, boycott AI,\u201d he said to rapturous applause (\u201cAre you running for something?\u201d another panellist quipped).\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tTo Brooke\u2019s point, this anti-oligarchy point of view is reflected in the first season of \u201cCommon Side Effects,\u201d which elegantly satirised the merciless capitalism of the healthcare industry in the U.S, placing Marshall in opposition to different parties who attempted to exploit his discovery for financial gain. Season 2 continues this thread, and Hely pondered the sense of exhaustion about living in this corporate world. \u201cIt\u2019s like brand fatigue. Characters that have been stuck with a product for so long, and they don\u2019t know what to do with it. How do we recycle this into something new?\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tOf course, there are complications of trying to break out from this system. \u201cHumans tend to spend so much time thinking about how we can build something up so quickly, and not really understand the repercussions to it,\u201d Bennett adds. \u201cAnd so seeing that, how that kind of like plays out, and the who\u2019s accountable, and how it kind of like falls apart. I think that\u2019s a big part of the show, just people kind of fumbling that.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more Adobe Acquires AI Image and Video Enhancement Company Topaz Labs<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cCommon Side Effects\u201d Season 2 is due to release on Adult Swim in early 2027.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Common Side Effects\u2019 creative team explained at Annecy how Season 2 sought to expand on the first in scope of both its narrative and aesthetic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2967,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[2501,344,2502],"class_list":["post-2968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tv","tag-adult-swim","tag-annecy-animation-festival","tag-common-side-effects"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018Common Side Effects\u2019 Team Unveils Stunning First Footage from Second Season - Relocation Observer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2968\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Common Side Effects\u2019 Team Unveils Stunning First Footage from Second Season - 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