What’s immediately striking about Common Side Effects, besides the stunning animation, is how many genres it operates in. At its heart, the show is a conspiracy thriller and stoner comedy mixed together. As it goes along, though, distinct elements creep in. A dash of buddy cop comedy, a sprinkle of film noir, all adding to […]
Author: Jesse Swanson
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man: A new spin on a classic hero
In the forever war between Marvel and DC, Marvel often has the edge. Their comics usually sell better and their movies definitely do. Whereas DC has always had an edge in animation. While that remains the case in 2025, Marvel continues to up its game. First with the runaway success of X-Men ‘97 and now […]
Paradise: A thriller with one wild twist
This review contains spoilers for the first episode of Paradise Sometimes a show comes along with a twist that immediately makes you go “huh?” As a self-styled “reviewer,” this is always a wonderful treat. Whether the twist is good, bad, or just strange, it immediately makes the show more interesting to think about. I’m not […]
American Primeval: A gritty new Western full of pain and misery
The Western has an important part in the history of television. It’s hard to dwell on the beginnings of the medium and not think about cowboys and gunfights. As time moved on, the genre waned in popularity and the traditional conception of the Western faded away. You could still find elements of the genre, but […]
Shifting Gears: Tim Allen returns for more of the same
It’s been over a decade since Tim Allen first returned to the world of sitcoms. Back in the halcyon days of 2011, the idea of Allen playing a conservative “alpha male” constantly whining about how things used to be seemed novel enough to anchor a show. Although, if you’ve been unfortunate enough to catch an […]