In Joe Bennet’s upcoming Netflix animated series Dealies, a big-box store staffed by unusual people faces a rival antique shop on the opposite side of the street. The setting is more everyday than those of his co-creations Scavengers Reign and Common Side Effects, but the employees are just as strange.
Bennet identified his short films as a stronger point of comparison for Dealies during Polygon’s interview about Common Side Effects, whose second season is on the way. “My earlier original shorts are more comedy-based and comedy-focused. I think it’s pulling a lot more from that sort of thing,” Bennet said. “It’s an episodic comedy series where a bunch of current characters work together in a big box store.”
Steve Hely sees the show’s characters as a reflection of everyday life’s odd personalities. He collaborates with Bennet on Common Side Effects, but isn’t involved in Dealies. “It’s very Joe Bennet in that it’s very character-based. Very observed,” Hely said. “Kind of an offbeat kind of character … exists in our real world, but capturing weirdness.”
What other details are known about Dealies?
The official logline suggests an unconventional approach to recruitment, listing “a savant salesman,” “a gentle gladiator,” and “a summoner of the divine,” along with the unfortunate person who hired them. It describes the group as masters of commerce who occasionally get around to doing some actual work.
Netflix’s announcement earlier this year named Bennet and writer Ted Travelstead as the adult animated show’s writers, executive producers, and showrunners. Production is handled by Green Street Pictures, the studio Bennet co-founded.
Bennet’s previous series share an interest in odd characters and unfamiliar worlds. In Scavengers Reign, the surreal science-fiction show he co-created, humans are stranded on an alien planet. Another of his co-creations, the Adult Swim conspiracy comedy Common Side Effects, centers on a mushroom with potentially world-changing properties. With Dealies, that same interest in strangeness appears to find a home in a familiar workplace.
Dealies is currently expected to arrive sometime in 2027, but Netflix hasn’t announced an exact release date.
