What to stream this week: Michelle Pfeiffer’s festive comedy and five more picks

Picks include an adult animation with psychedelic properties, Hank Azaria’s idiosyncratic sports comedy, a look at a publishing institution and Michelle Pfeiffer’s predictable Christmas comedy.

Common Side Effects ★★★★½ (HBO Max)

The year in television is finishing strong, thanks to this American adult animation about a rare mushroom that has miraculous healing powers and the labyrinthine battle to control it. Equal parts conspiracy thriller, psychedelic mystery, tender character study and action stimulant, Common Side Effects is a series for the here and now: a gripping us versus them adventure where the sides slyly keep changing. “What does fungi do?” an expert observes. “It adapts.” It’s the same with this shape-shifting show. It can be sweet or sadistic.

The galvanising force for these 10 concise episodes is Marshall Cuso (Dave King), an off-the-grid fungi researcher who has found, in a Peruvian valley, his holy grail: a mystical blue mushroom with – as we soon bloodily see – unparalleled healing powers. An idealist who wants to change the world, Marshall has come to realise he’s in danger. Big Pharma and US federal agents are pursuing him, such is the power of his discovery. On the run with his tortoise, Mr Socrates, Marshall is an earnest fugitive.

Marshall’s dream of ending illness is an affront to the rich and powerful. Swiss financier Jonas Backstein (Danny Huston), who has a whiff of Henry Kissinger, calls him “a destabilising force”. It would be so much easier to make even more money via controlling access to the mushroom, and that’s the temptation that gnaws at Marshall’s old friend and new ally, Frances Applewhite (Emily Pendergast). Saddled with debt, an ailing mother and a Big Pharma job, she’s torn between helping Marshall and betraying him.

Common Side Effects was created by Joe Bennett and Steve Hely, who worked on Scavengers Reign and Veep, respectively. That’s a fitting Venn diagram – a phantasmagorical science-fiction tale and an acerbic political satire – for their collaboration. The 2D-animation style is muted in colour, with an offbeat character design that makes for expressive faces. A gorgeous tableau might cut to a chase sequence, or vice versa, while the mushroom’s effects are an otherworldly interior journey. Imagine Three Days of the Condor remade by Hayao Miyazaki.

The plotting adds a slew of illuminating and amusing supporting players, from a pair of drug enforcement agents starting to wonder who they’re really chasing, to Marshall’s former mycologist mentor, Hildy (Sue Rose), whose need to possess the blue mushroom drives her to extremes. King of the Hill creator Mike Judge voices Frances’ boss, an incompetent CEO mainly worried about losing his privileges. There’s a fascinating echo of Hank Hill in Judge’s performance, and that’s a recurring sensation in this compelling series – something familiar rendered startlingly anew.

Brockmire ★★★★ (Netflix)

Chances are your Netflix algorithm is about to suggest a bunch of scripted shows from the 2010s: the streaming giant has licensed, for an unknown period of time, a selection of series from the American cable network AMC and its niche online platform AMC+. There are some good finds. Horror devotees will dig the moody vampire drama NOS4A2, while Turn: Washington’s Spies is an 18th-century drama that improves with each season.

My personal favourite, however, is Brockmire. An idiosyncratic sports-adjacent comedy, it stars Hank Azaria as Jim Brockmire, a Major League Baseball commentator who has an on-air meltdown for the ages during a game. Cut to 10 years later, and he’s lured back to America from a debauched exile by Jules James (Amanda Peet), the feisty owner of a minor-league Pennsylvania team looking to trade on Jim’s transition into a famous internet meme.

With his checkered sports jackets and deep, unflappable voice, The Simpsons voice mainstay Azaria invented the character of Jim Brockmire; Joel Church-Cooper put him in a flinty, drily ludicrous show about rediscovering your purpose. It’s a redemption piece, obviously, but Jim earns it. There’s a measure of hope lurking, offset by Jim’s habit of saying filthy things aloud in that deep, unflappable voice. It’s the perfect palate cleanser for an Ashes lunch break.

Spartacus: House of Ashur ★★★ (Stan)

It requires an alternate timeline that brings back a slain character, Ashur (Nick E. Tarabay), from the original 2010 Spartacus series to restart this ancient Rome saga. But once the resurrected Syrian has his gladiator school, which makes Rome’s elites plot against him, Spartacus creator Steven S. DeKnight can get down to the serious business of providing a smorgasbord of sex and violence.

This show does not do subtlety, one-upping its predecessors and, thankfully, offering a gender spin on a fated warrior’s rise, with gladiatrix Achillea (Tenika Davis) the focus.

The New Yorker at 100 ★★★½ (Netflix)

Narrated by Julianne Moore and made with a nimble eye that matches its venerable subject, Marshall Curry’s feature-length documentary about the magazine that has become a benchmark for the medium is an engaging centenary celebration. With devoted editor David Remnick as a guide, the narrative explores The New Yorker’s blithe beginnings, landmark moments of journalism, the calm weekly production process and how, most importantly, it continues to flourish in print and online without significant compromise. The celebrity endorsements are what they are, but thankfully cartoonist Roz Chast gets her moment to shine.

Oh. What. Fun. ★★½ (Amazon Prime Video)

Maybe at this point Hollywood should just give up on the Christmas comedy, as it’s a genre they no longer appear capable of mastering. The latest indicator is this shallow, sentimental satire about a matriarch, Claire Clauster (Michelle Pfeiffer), who obsesses over the holiday season, only to flip out and skip town when her self-centred family fail to offer appreciation or validation.

The director is Michael Showalter (The Big Sick), and the cast includes Felicity Jones and Denis Leary, but the movie plays as boilerplate – familiar characters, starchy humour.

Elsbeth ★★★★ (Paramount+)

After years chasing reruns, fans of the weekly crime procedural have experienced a resurgence these last few years thanks to Disney+’s High Potential, Stan’s sadly concluded Poker Face, and this enjoyably quirky “howcatchem” (as opposed to whodunit) about a Chicago lawyer assigned to the New York Police Department. Elsbeth is now mid-way through its third season, with Carrie Preston completely in command as eccentric sleuth Elsbeth Tascioni. The show has a light touch and inventive plots, which is a deceptively accomplished standard, and it spotlights a protagonist who happily makes her own space.

*Stan is owned by Nine, the publisher of this masthead.

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