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Shouldnt a natural product that can cure anything begoodfor humanity?
The combination of score and visuals in the nonnarrative documentaryKoyaanisqatsiaffected how the series edited its animated sequences.
We could never have made it, making a show that took this long, if we were pessimistic.
Was there a storyline or subplot that was shaped the most by his input?
There is a bit where Marshall is on this journey discovering the mushroom.
Its a long sequence thats pretty silent.
Mike was the first to be like, You should swap these scenes around.
You should go straight in.
It changed the game.
Youre going right into Marshalls personality.
Hes always got sage insight.
If you didnt have that level of excellence, the show would feel a little less good.
We should mention executive producer Greg Daniels, too.
He thinks a lot about treating the audience as intelligent.
A character being stupid for no reason, thats just not gonna fly in Greg Daniels storytelling.
Its more that weve learned from those guys over the years than like, day to day.
Were living in a time when doubt against medical professionals, vaccines, and public health is high.
Everybody in the world can observe that thats true.
J.B.:We also just wanted to make a point of the show not being preachy.
Were all participating in it just by being on this Zoom, or by whatever were doing.
Were just trying to make a funny show.
But the way that the system trickles down and accumulates is absurd and mind-boggling.
Within Vulture, we called alltheScavengers Reigncreaturesweird little guys.
Did you have a guiding visual approach for those weird little guys?
The little guys inCommon Side Effects, there was a lot of early exploration.
Its neither good nor evil; its just kind of there, and theres some kind of balance.
That was part of it.
But no, theres no methodology.
Its just coming out of the noggin.
Its just this weird amorphous creature.
:It was a lot of fun watching these guys evolve as little drawings Joe was doing.
There were various, what are they called, Pokemon evolutions?
J.B.:Yeah, yeah.
They represent something different each time in that portal world.
The fact that theyre not even speaking was very deliberate.
I dont know if you guys are fully aware of how much people love Socrates.
From fans, theres a real We would die for this tortoise vibe.
If Socrates were an animal in theScavengers Reignuniverse, what do you think his little twist would be?
Each of those creatures had its own unexpected little thing.
How did that sequence come together?
You dont have to be from the rural South; we had plenty of people like that in Massachusetts.
:We thought about the train-wreck aspect of somebody trying to stop something, but the motions already underway.
Was this the most demanding episode in terms of animation?
There might not be as many action set pieces as an anime.
Instead of it being a fight scene, its a really intimate dialogue scene between Copano and Harrington talking.
Youre really putting the same amount of effort into that.
You get these really subtle moments because of that.
There may not be a lot of movement, but theres a lot of work going on.
The early animation work was spectacular, but it was not all that necessary to the plot.
We cut it, but it was quite cool.
How much would you say you cut over the season?
J.B.:There was cutting in the writing, in the animatic.
We wanted that flexibility.
I personally love those impulsive, last-second decisions.
Theyre coming from somewhere, and I embrace them.
Thats a huge amount to cut, and probably along the way to the script, it was 45.
Its painful, because often these are beautiful drawings, and a lot of work is getting cut.
Was it always this very gross, birthing-himself process?
He has been making art using AI, and its these blobs of flesh.
That was a big influence, as well asMatthew Barney and the Cremaster Cycle.
Youre going in this weird little spiral, and Jonas is seeing whats becoming of himself.
:Im wearing myMojave Desert Land Trustsweatshirt.
That is a trippy, interesting, visually stimulating landscape.
A person like Marshall, it would be important to him.
If Im gonna hear from them, its gonna be here.
J.B.:It feels like a place where someone can escape and really never be found.
It was such a prevalent visual motif in the portal world, those boulders and Joshua trees.
It only felt appropriate to bring it back at the end.
:You know the expression I could see him coming from a mile away?
Out in Joshua Tree, theres places where you might see someone coming from a mile away.
For a story of fugitives, thats interesting.
Even if these cut scenes dont end up in the show, they inform the world.
Were talking a lot about psychedelic-drug experiences.
Is there anything personal that either of you have experienced in that realm that helped shape the show?
:Ill start, because Im on public record.
I was interested in plant medicines and have tried them.
Youre likely to get out what you bring to it.
Joe can answer as lawyerly as he likes.
J.B.:Steve kind of said it.
And yet theres so many unbelievable medicinal properties that mushrooms that dont even have psilocybin have to offer.
Its a real thing, and that was an element to this.
Public perception has been sort of Reaganized in a weird way, and become this … Steve, if Im saying anything
S.H.
:No, I love it.
J.B.:It just has a weird stigma to it that I think is wrong.
This was an opportunity to come up with something completely different.
Lets have this feel separate from a typical mushroom trip.
I have two questions related to that coincidence.
First, did the show change after Thompsons death were you asked to alter anything?
:Ill answer number one first, which is no.
The show had already been locked; we were contemplating season-two stuff.
That will probably be all somehow baked into season two.
And the event that occurred is connected to that, right?
Joe and I were picking on that theme a while ago, obviously.
Its all coming out of the same nerve we were touching on.
J.B.:Yeah, there was a raw nerve.
:I saw on Max a documentary calledWho Is Luigi Mangione?that was like, No.
