Forget The Bear—The Curse just gave us the tensest episode of TV this year
The show's premiere is the most anxiety-filled hour we've seen in quite some time
TV Features The Curse
In the least shocking news, The Curse will make you squirm in your seat. What else did you expect from the unhinged creative brainchild of Nathan Fielder (The Rehearsal) and Benny Safdie (Uncut Gems)? But even by their standards, the new Paramount+/Showtime series is an irrevocable level of cringe. Led by Fielder, Safdie, and a terrific Emma Stone, The Curse takes on gentrification and white liberalism under the guise of an HGTV reality show satire. And it wastes zero time in setting up its uncomfortable and somewhat shrewd commentary.
The premiere episode is deeply absorbing and weird thanks to smart writing, beautiful production design, slightly exaggerated but captivating performances, and a haunting, creepy background score, among other things. However, The Curse’s debut immediately becomes one of this year’s most—if not the most—tense, disconcerting hours of television. Forget The Bear’s “Fishes” or Succession’s “Connor’s Wedding” or Barry’s “the wizard.” The Curse’s “Land Of Enchantment” takes the cake for inducing anxiety, and major credit goes to Fielder’s calculated direction and the way he builds a sense of unease.
The co-creator and star goes behind the camera to turn the audience into true observers of the bizarre lives of Whitney (Stone) and Asher Siegel (Fielder). One year into their marriage, they’re hosting a reality series about flipping expensive sustainable houses in New Mexico’s Española. They’re also battling allegations of corruption tied to her real estate developer parents (or “slum lords,” as a journalist dubs them). In addition, the couple is trying to conceive a child Whitney doesn’t seem to want, and they’re dealing with Flipantrophy’s skeevy producer, Dougie (Safdie). To top it all off, they’re wondering if a kid truly cursed Asher after he snatched back the $100 he gifted her. Whew.
The Siegels are coping with a lot while trying to maintain appearances, and Fielder takes us along for the ride in perplexing ways. One moment brings extreme close-ups of faces in a manner that’s almost suffocating. The next we’re barely in the same room as the protagonists when they’re having pivotal conversations, and suddenly we’re begging to be let in. Fielder’s style here is to mash found footage and documentary filmmaking into a structured Prestige TV experience. Like it or not, it’s certainly a trip.
It’s not like “Land Of Enchantment” isn’t generally strange. Three minutes into the episode, Dougie plants menthol and drops of water to make it seem like Whitney and Asher’s client, an older woman who has cancer, is crying, much to their horror. There are other moments to set up the show’s visceral tone, like the glimpses into the batshit houses they’re selling, or the fancy jeans store and the coffee shop in Española they’re touting as opportunistic developments for the neighborhood (they’re anything but). Then there’s an insight into Whitney and Asher’s sex life (it’s aided heavily by her vibrator, Steven.) And then there’s the embarrassing interview where Asher yells at a reporter for bringing up his wife’s parents and the painfully lengthy shot of him running around to withdraw $20 to give to the aforementioned kid after he takes the crisp $100 bill back.
Fielder’s lingering camerawork enhances the tension with each passing minute. The absurdity can become too much to handle sometimes. It all comes to a head when Asher has a jaw-droppingly intense chat with his father-in-law, Paul (Corbin Bernsen). Fielder frames both of them in a tiny kitchen surrounded by cherry tomatoes Paul grew with the help of human urine (!). Once again, the audience is not always in the claustrophobic space with them. For the most part, and with stomachs slowly churning, we watch through the window slats as they talk about their small penises, and we witness Paul dole out advice on how to get his daughter pregnant. Awkward is an understatement.
The Curse isn’t afraid of slowly building apprehension. It’s accomplished here because Fielder only teases the full picture, as when Asher is searching for the young girl at the end to give her money. We only partially see him asking about her at the shelter, with the door being left half open. It’s a fascinating way to invoke anxiety in an episode that’s already full of cringe-worthy tension, and it’s all the more memorable for it. Who would’ve thought something would top The Bear’s confined “Fishes”? But here comes The Curse, ready to take the crown. And we’re only on episode one.
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If the rest of the show is as good as this episode, we are in for a wild ride!
extremely tough energy to maintain (and frankly i’m not even sure as a viewer i can handle being in that space for the entire runtime) but i am on board for wherever it goes.main thing i’m worried about is that i’ve found most a24 shows fall completely off the rails in the last episode or so, with mo and beef being the biggest offenders to me.
Sorry, what is mo? Google obviously isn’t helpful but I like this so far and liked Beef so I’m curious about it.
Mohammed Amer’s Netflix series. Haven’t watched it yet but I’ve heard great things and I liked him in Ramy.
oh that’s him; yeah he’s great in Ramy (and Ramy is a fantastic show)
Mo is pretty great! It does get kinda crazy by the end, but worth it anyway. It’s a half-hour dramedy on Netflix, created by and starring comedian Mo Amer, & based on his life experiences.
really promising netflix series from a lot of the same creative team as ramy. it’s about a palestinian family in houston and will probably hit a lot harder these days for obvious reasons. worth watching but i hated hated hated the final episode.
Thanks to you and the others for the answer, I’ll have to add that to the list. Which currently consists of 40(!) series and 75 movies so it might be a while.I’m currently chugging through 24 for the first time in at least a decade and talk about hard to watch these days. What an odd time capsule that show is.
Really? I thought Beef had one of the better endings, especially when the previous episode or two were the ones that really felt like the plot had been led far afield.
pretty sure i’m in the minority but it’s been a trend with me and a24’s tv output. i didn’t like the last 2 episodes of beef at all, and mo’s final episode similarly turned me off. i think they’re still mostly good shows, but they just consistently lose me in the end for whatever reason (extends to euphoria, too, though jury is out on if that’s done)
Beef seemed like a decent 90 minute idea. I just skipped through most of it by the end, but there was clearly no need to drag things out for what seemed like several dozen episodes…
I don’t recall that with Moonbase 8, although that was only six episodes and pretty explicitly a comedy.
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Forget The Bear’s “Fishes” or Succession’s “Connor’s Wedding” or Barry’s “the wizard.” The Curse’s “Land Of Enchantment” takes the cake for inducing anxietyIn the discomfort Olympics, “Fishes” is still the gold medal. Outside a few scenes, it is just pure uncut family misery. “Connor’s Wedding” probably doesn’t hit as hard on subsequent views, but that first time, learning of the tragic event at the same time as the Connor siblings and being stuck with them as they come to terms, each in their own fashion with the gravity of it is just uncomfortable.I’m sure the show, in its full run, may earn your plaudits, but I think there’s a bit of distance and artifice here that cuts some of the discomfort.YMMV. Different strokes for different folks, different quirks for different jerks…
gonna steal “different quirks for different jerks!” but yeah, it might hit diff for other viewers in comparison, so i get it.
Fishes was just silly… My Italian family is pretty crazy but East Coast Christmases are absolutely nothing like that… Life isn’t contrived shaky cam scenes without any compelling dialog or human interaction.
Goddamn, it’s almost like they don’t even want anyone to watch this show. It’s not on the main page, and searching for it brings up several different titles with the word “curse” in them.
i was reminded that the ‘people just do nothing’ team’s new show is also called ‘the curse’.
‘people just do nothing”’s new show.now theres a show I’d watch !TBH though this curse looks well made , and I wish everyone involved in it well , but I’m built differently from other people , and would cringe myself inside out watching this rather than gain any enjoyment.
yeah i’m curious if i can keep up with it. hell of a tone to maintain!
Nathan Fielder is a unique taste and not for everyone. The Rehearsal is tough to watch at times. His style is carwreck. You don’t want to see, but you cannot help but take your eyes off it.
Might just be me, but when I go to Paramount+’s website the first thing that comes up is a banner for The Curse.
I thought it was an incredible pilot. The scene with Corbin Bernsen and Fielder was so creepy, which is weird because one guy consoling another guy over penis size while peeing on his crops to enhance yield sounds hilarious without context. But also, the show was super funny. I died laughing at the scene with Love to the Third Degree, when ‘The fire burns on’ is sung, like, 50 times.Also, I don’t think enough people are talking about how different Fielder’s character is from normal. He tends to play wooden, detached people, and for a bit I thought that was what he was doing here, but the interview scene showed he can also do great with other characters. Very emotionally volatile, I’m excited to see him blow up.Emma Stone could have had more to do, and I hope we get it. She’s great, they need to give her a chance to show it.
Yeah, some other reviews have said he’s basically playing the Fielder we know, which I disagree with. I thought he showed an acting range in this that I didn’t think he had, such as in that interview scene.
His character does seem to be similar, but there are a lot of big differences between the characters he plays in NFY and The Rehearsal and the one he is playing here. In those his mannerisms seem to be because of social awkwardness. In The Curse, it seems like he is putting up a front. I feel like we’re gonna see a lot more of the way he acted in the interview scene as things keep deteriorating.
Yep, nailed some of my thoughts, particularly how ridiculous and in total bad taste Love to the Third Degree was (we had to pause it because my wife couldn’t stop laughing at “The Fire Burns On”) and how Fielder’s character here is much more emotionally volatile than the “Nathan Fielder” of Nathan For You and The Rehearsal.
It’s so funny because I can just imagine Safdie’s character thinking “yeah, this is great” at the least subtle trailer music you’ve ever heard. IMDb lists the sixth episode of the season as ‘The Fire Burns On’, so odds are Love to the Third Degree will come back up again.
Oh, yeah, Dougie is 100% thinking this is awesome and then immediately trying to cover his ass once Whitney is completely appalled by the show. He 100% is thinking that. Which also makes it really funny to me that he has such a poor grasp of who Whitney and Asher are that he thought they’d think it was awesome too.
I think she was doing SO MUCH when she wasn’t speaking during this episode, especially during the interview! Her eyes and face were speaking so many thoughts and emotions
Don’t get me wrong, I thought she did a great job! I just feel like she didn’t get a chance to go ham, and I’m expecting to get that as the season goes on. She’s great with the facial expressions.
It’s good but I got through the first episode in 3 minutes sittings for how unbelievably cringe this is. Not sure I can get through the whole show.
I really want to know if that’s Nathan Fielder’s dick or if it was a reverse Boogie Nights prosthetic.
I watched the pilot and immediately wanted to shoot the rest of the season directly into my veins. I love the direction, and how unsettling it makes the viewer feel.
As somebody who worked in kitchens my whole life, I never knew there was supposed to be a single moment of tension in The Bear. Doesn’t really capture what it’s like behind the scenes of a restaurant… And that “Fishes” episode was little more than annoying. Just such a strange and silly show. The lead guy always looks like he just woke up from a coma.
I described it to someone as “The Office UK episode where David Brent dances” level cringe.
Are there different kinds of “cringe” humor?
I’ve always associated cringe with stuff like The Curse, Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Eric Andre Show, early episodes of The Office, etc. I like this kinda stuff.
However, I know a lot of younger people associate it with like cutesy, over-the-top emotional stuff like a lot of romance-based anime or teen shows like Riverdale or Glee. I HATE this kinda stuff.
So for the audience: what is cringe in 2023, and is it good or bad?
I don’t know what Cringe is in 2023, but I can tell you The Curse is absolutely more like the kinda’ stuff you like.
I feel like the second category is stuff that makes you cringe when you admit to watching, but the first category is stuff that makes you cringe while watching. The Curse is definitely the former; while they’re not playing themselves, you can tell Fielder’s talents for awkwardness and Safdie’s for anxiety are on full display here.Is “cringe” good or bad? Well, it depends. It’s good when the awkwardness and anxiety that leads to cringe is the goal of the work. It’s bad when cringe is the result of a failed attempt to be sincere. I think Riverdale and Glee are more camp than cringe (although from what I saw of Glee it was certainly capable of unintentional cringe).
I appreciate your breakdown, but for the first type, I genuinely cringe when watching those shows because I feel bad for the actors/writers having to come up with the stuff. It’s like watching clowns, or a Christian after-school special: I feel more embarassed for them having to perform it than I do watching it. Maybe that’s where my disconnect is, I dunno lol.
Cringe comedy and cringe are different things. Cringe comedy makes you cringe. Cringe is stuff teenngers think is lame.