Nathan Fielder, Emma Stone, and Benny Safdie are “immune to criticism” in new trailer for The Curse

“This isn’t your typical home flipping show,” Emma Stone’s character says brightly to a camera set up in a bare, suburban parking lot in the newest trailer for Showtime’s The Curse.

That much is abundantly clear. Masterminded by Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie, The Curse follows a young couple (Stone and Fielder) as they try to conceive a child while working on the set of an HGTV-style show set in Española, New Mexico. Neither of these projects appears to be going well for them.

Unlike last month’s short teaser, this so-tense-it-might-snap clip gives a little more insight into what the show is actually about—namely, the origin of the titular curse.

At the behest of his producer (Safdie), Fielder gives a little girl in a parking lot a crisp $100 bill, on camera of course, ostensibly to prove that he’s a good person who’s actually helping the local community. The problem is this is obviously a lie, and he quickly snatches his money back from the girl. This prompts her to utter the immortal words “I curse you,” thus subjecting the two hosts to what we’re sure will be bizarre and infinitely creative terrors that have yet to be revealed.

One such terror that remains clear throughout the teaser is how obviously narcissistic and out of place these two wannabe white saviors are. “My homes are reflecting the local community,” Stone says while gesturing toward an irredeemably ugly, mirror-paneled house that provides at least one avian death and a couple of warped fun-house shots throughout the clip.

A lot of lines here border on being too on the nose, but hopefully, that tone gets diluted when the full series comes out. “This thing you’re doing right now, it’s helping the community. It’s immune to criticism,” Safdie’s producer assures at one point. Another scene sees a Native woman screaming while Stone looks on from within a fake tipi. “I can’t wait for this show to come out,” she later says in a typical, Fielder-esque meta moment. “Everyone will get to see who you really are.”

The Curse debuts on the Showtime app/Paramount+ with Showtime on Friday, November 10; the show will also air on the Showtime channel on Sunday evenings at 10 p.m., starting on November 12. The first three episodes will also premiere at the New York Film Festival on Thursday, October 12.