%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.

!! Film
* AssPull: [[spoiler: At the end of the movie, Eddie claims he got off the drugs offscreen, but retained all the capabilities though a development.]] [[AuthorsSavingThrow The TV spinoff confirms that he was in fact lying]], and had simply [[spoiler:managed to manufacture his own supply, albeit he's also made an additional drug to mitigate the negative effects of NZT]].
* BrokenAesop: NZT makes you superhumanly intelligent (so long as you continue using it.) The film appears to build towards several aesops about this, and then subverts them all. (Apparently drugs are good if you use them wisely.)
* EscapistCharacter: Eddie is a [[ThisLoserIsYou failure]], up until a wonder drug gives him SuperIntelligence. Though he's a very intelligent failure, after all he did get Abbie Cornish.
%%* SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome: Eddie vs. the Russian Mafia thugs.
* MoralEventHorizon: Another secondary effect of NZT is to let the user ignore the MoralEventHorizon:
** When Lindy takes NZT to escape from an assassin, she uses a little girl as an ImprovisedWeapon. When she is free of the effects, she doesn't want anything to do with NZT or Eddie.
** Any other user hooked on NZT is willingly enough to torture or kill for another dose.
* OneSceneWonder: Creator/JohnnyWhitworth as the delightfully sleazy Vernon Gant, the man who introduces Eddie to NZT. [[spoiler:He is killed fifteen minutes into the movie.]] Also, Eddie's bodyguards [[spoiler:who also last only two scenes.]]
* ReferencedBy: “All My Friends” by Music/{{Snakehips}} features the lyric “Popping the polar opposite of NZT”.
* {{Squick}}: Not just the aforementioned EyeScream but what comes shortly before that, to which everyone in the audience went "Oh, EWWW!"
%%* WhyWouldAnyoneTakeHimBack
%%** Well, he does remember everything she likes and dislikes about him and can probably convincingly present himself as having "reformed" to be exactly the guy she wants him to be.

!! Series
* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: Brian, out of concern for his audience, tries to spice up his narration so that the audience won't have to see and hear events and topics Brian is uncomfortable sharing be they boring, squick-y, nightmare-inducing, sexual, etc.. This can result in dramatic scenes cutting to things like random [=YouTube=] clips, Brian reliving a favorite childhood TV show, or the cast bursting into a Bollywood dance number (complete with Technicolor sets and costumes).
* EnsembleDarkhorse: Mike and Ike, having started off as background characters with few lines, became increasingly prominent as the first season progressed.
* EscapistCharacter: Brian is along the same lines as Eddie in the film, albeit less self-centered.
* MoralEventHorizon: Other!Finch was willing to throw Rebecca under a bus to get the NZT antidote. Showing similarities of other NZT users.
* {{Narm}}: In the pilot, we see Eddie Morra as a fetus in his mother's womb as he explains how wonderful NZT is. Then we see the fetus explain, in Morra's voice, that his memories of being in the womb are relaxing.
* NightmareFuel[=/=]ParanoiaFuel: Despite how light-hearted the show can be, it isn't afraid to get dark.
** The second episode involves [[spoiler:someone taking control of a car via computer chip and planting a bomb. But that's not what killed the driver. ''That'' would be the genetically engineered virus he was exposed to in his favorite coffee shop.]]
*** It's worse than that. Another character in the same episode [[spoiler: is almost killed, because the woman he was having an affair with was unknowingly exposed to a virus (at the same coffee shop) which would leave her unharmed, but kill him after she, again unknowingly, transferred the virus during a hook-up.]]
** In the sixth episode, [[spoiler: Brian starts experiencing multiple side effects of the drug, including hallucinations, psychosis, and massive hearing loss and pain.]] The scenes are very disconcerting, [[spoiler: especially when he begins talking to someone and sees an illusion of a bug crawling out of his ear, complete with disgusting crunching noises. It only gets worse when he looks down and sees a bump moving around on his hand, with the same crunching noises, implying that he is infested with bugs.]]
** After being caught by the CIA he watches three people killed before his eyes. And remember he has perfect recall, he will never forget this.
** What happens to [[spoiler: Casey]] and his team after they take a single NZT pill each. Everything seems great and then all of a sudden one of them kills another. They try to cover it up and end up completely going off the rails. This all happens in less than a day.
*** Bonus points, [[spoiler:Casey's cold, Robocop-like demeanor when he's on the pill.]]
** Eddie Morra's speech to Brian in 'The Assassination Of Eddie Morra', especially when he talks about his 'before NZT' persona in the third person and when he asks Brian 'why are you trying to cling on to who you were before?'. That makes the fact that he [[spoiler: is shown announcing his candidacy for presidency]] at the end of the episode even more eerie.
* TearJerker: [[spoiler: Brian essentially becoming disowned from his family because of PoorCommunicationKills.]]