On a rattling Amtrak somewhere between Chicago and Albany, a stand-up comic—stage name “Barry Bacteria”—bombs in the dining car. Meanwhile, outside, a frozen lake whips past. Every time the train screeches through the wasteland, new graffiti blazes across the cars, each one a hilariously loaded clue. And watching from behind the monitors, director Sean Buckelew grins like the world’s most mischievous conductor.
That’s the energy Buckelew brought to “Lakeshore Limited,” maybe the wildest ride in Common Side Effects’ already off-the-rails first season. But the story of how Sean Buckelew injects comedy into a show about Big Pharma’s most sinister secrets actually starts long before the first mushroom joke. It’s a saga of art, absurdity, and, yes, fart jokes that double as coded hints. Let’s jump in—mind the fungal residue.
From CalArts to Conspiracy Land
Okay, before Common Side Effects became the streaming world’s new darling, Buckelew was already a minor legend in certain animation corners. He’s a CalArts MFA alum from the class of 2014 (calarts.edu alumni page). While most students dream of charming Pixar shorts, Buckelew started out weirder. He cut his teeth in the Chicago sketch scene with the underground group BLUFF Comedy a full decade ago (Chicago Reader, June 2010). If you want early evidence that he understands both cringe and clever, his 2016 short “Lovestreams” (a SXSW pick and Vimeo Staff Pick) gives you everything: heartbreak, surreal visual puns, relentless emotional whiplash.
But it was Scavengers Reign, the hypnotic Max sci-fi series, that brought Buckelew’s mutant storytelling to the big leagues. Buckelew co-executive produced and wrote for the show, and his “The Reunion” episode landed an Annie nomination for Outstanding Writing in 2024 (annieawards.org). That series seeded ideas Buckelew loves—off-kilter suspense, gnawing isolation, and the odd bleak chuckle. Sound familiar? Because Common Side Effects takes that DNA and amps up the oddball humor, then doses it with pure conspiracy noir.
Why Max Tapped Buckelew
So, what made the powers-that-be at Max hand this guy the comedy scalpel? The answer, honestly, is right in Scavengers Reign’s fingerprints. Showrunners Ike Feldman and Chris Caccioppoli created Common Side Effects as a big, bold blend: mushroom-induced mind-melt meets high school misadventures, all cloaked in Big Pharma’s darkest secrets. But to really nail that see-saw of goofiness and dread, they needed a ringleader who could juggle both. Buckelew fit like a favorite pair of oversized lab goggles.
Throughout the first season, Buckelew supervised every episode—shadow puppeteer for the show’s comedic tone. He stepped up as solo director on three crucial chapters: episode 5 “Lakeshore Limited,” episode 9 “Staph Infection,” and the finale “Soft Launch.” But “Lakeshore Limited,” in particular, cemented his place as the maestro of absurdity-suspense fusion.
Buckelew’s “Lakeshore Limited”: A Joyride Through Paranoia
Let’s break it down, beat by beat. “Lakeshore Limited” aired on February 7th, 2025. The plot is pure cloak-and-dagger, on rails. Teens Marshall and Frances board a night train, aiming to track down the elusive whistle-blower Dr. Gita Rao. Shadows lurk, danger simmers… yet Buckelew steers every scene through weirdness, sharp timing, and left-field laughs.
Consider these key set pieces:
- Dining Car Stand-Up Disaster: Barry Bacteria’s set morphs from comedy open-mic to a parody of pharmaceutical sales pitches. Each botched punchline mirrors the show’s bigger jabs at corporate absurdity.
- Train Exterior Easter Egg: Watch for the wide shots: every time the train barrels past, fresh graffiti tags bloom. What looks like a background gag? It’s actually breadcrumbs for eagle-eyed fans (IGN dubbed this, “Easter-egg heaven”).
- Bathroom Lag Gag: Here’s Buckelew’s crown jewel. Frances stares into a mirror under harsh bathroom lights. Her reflection lags—one frame, then three. Ha! Comedic, sure, but suddenly her double flickers into something sinister. The joke morphs, just like that, into a jolt of body-horror.
It’s that whiplash—madcap one second, chilling the next—that sets Buckelew apart. He doesn’t just insert gags as icing. Instead, every laugh either foreshadows a plot twist or deepens the looming dread. So, the absurd isn’t just funny. It’s smart weaponry.
Absurdity vs. Suspense: Where Buckelew Walks the Tightrope
How does Buckelew keep the balance without falling off the wire? He collects visual “pauses,” as he said in his Cartoon Brew interview: “I collect pauses like stamps.” What does that look like? It means every comic beat sits there for a half-second longer. Dialogue stalls, reactions stretch, and boom—tension either cracks into laughter or pulls tight into suspense.
You’ll see this in the episode’s clunky ADR lines, which Buckelew sometimes lets actors improvise (Den of Geek, Feb. 2025). Frances might blurt a one-liner about godawful train coffee, only for the camera to linger while Marshall’s nervous smile melts. Next shot? Security footage. Same rhythm, new flavor—only now, the laughs taste dangerous.
Meanwhile, his visual palate ping-pongs between pastel goofiness and harsh neon horror. “He basically storyboarded color like a tennis match,” joked art director Celia Salvatori (Animation Magazine, Mar. 2025). The comedy isn’t just in words. It sneaks into color, timing, and even those “fake” train-PA announcements (listen closely—seemingly pointless, but always loaded).
Quick Hits: “Staph Infection” and “Soft Launch”
But Buckelew’s signature isn’t just in “Lakeshore Limited.” In episode 9, “Staph Infection,” he plants a fake six-second foot fungus PSA smack in the middle of an infiltration sequence—so clever, it left Twitter (or, sorry, X) in stitches. The finale “Soft Launch,” aired April 18, 2025, saw Buckelew up the ante with a two-minute silent set piece inside Lorimer’s lab, lit only by flickering LEDs. It’s a masterclass in building suspense off earlier comic setups—what started as punchlines become the launching pads for horror.
Across the season, the tone never “levels out.” Buckelew chases either funnier or scarier, “but never medium,” as actor Sam Song Li explained (Den of Geek, Feb. 2025). Even the fart jokes aren’t wasted. Showrunner Feldman told Screen Rant, “He’ll pitch a fart joke that secretly reveals company ledger codes.” No easy gags, only gags that count.
The Toolkit: Pauses, Improv and Palette Swings
So, what’s inside Sean Buckelew’s directorial toolkit? Pull up a stool, here’s what gets tossed in:
- Perfectly Timed Pauses: Every reaction, every cut—a beat longer or weirder than “normal.”
- Crushingly Human Dialogue: Marshaling improv and shoving real teenager awkwardness into every script corner.
- Visual Ping-Pong: Smashing between sickly pastels and harsh shadow, keeping our nerves rattled.
- Easter-Egg Mania: Train graffiti, PA gags, and recurring inside jokes. It’s a feast for eagle-eyed obsessives.
- Plot-Driven Gags: If it’s funny, it’s also a clue or a trapdoor. There’s never comedy “just because.”
Add it all up, and you get a director obsessed with both the details and the punchlines.
Reception: Critics, Fans and the Almighty X Trend
Did it work? Oh, it more than worked. “Lakeshore Limited” hit IMDb’s 8.6/10 with nearly 7,000 votes by mid-May. Rotten Tomatoes logged season one at 94% from critics and 85% among regular viewers. But the real litmus test? Social buzz. #LakeshoreLimited cracked the U.S. top 10 on X, with 37,000 posts in eighteen hours (X Trends API, Feb. 2025). Variety called it “the tonal pivot of the season” (Variety, Feb. 8, 2025). And as usual, the online commentariat dissected every bathroom-mirror frame and each graffiti tag like armchair detectives.
Max didn’t waste any time—Common Side Effects landed a season two green light by late April. Buckelew snags a promotion too: he’s upshifted to Series Director for season two (Warner Bros. Discovery Upfronts, April 2025). Already, he’s stirring the pot. His Instagram storyboard post teased, “train’s off the rails now.” Fans are salivating.
Comedic Chaos: It’s a Mindset, Not Just a Style
Ultimately, Sean Buckelew’s secret weapon isn’t just a sense of timing—it’s a philosophy. He refuses to let conspiracy become too cold, or comedy too glib. Every laugh is booby-trapped, every scare has a wink. The teens at the center, Marshall and Frances, never stop being dorky, nervous kids, even while wrestling with the world’s creepiest pharma monsters. And every stylistic tweak—color, editing, timing—locks in the story’s DNA.
So the next time you spot a lagging reflection or train graffiti that feels “off,” know that Buckelew—and his mighty library of pauses—are hard at work. And as Common Side Effects speeds into season two, you can guarantee the comedy will only get stranger… and the conspiracies even loopier.
If you need me, I’ll be hanging out in the train’s dining car, nodding along to the world’s worst stand-up and waiting for the next code word hidden in a fart joke. Stay weird, CSE nation.
