The Curse recap: This is unlike anything else on television right now
The discomforting riff on home makeover shows sets its sights on Native exploitation and artistic appropriation
TV Reviews Nathan Zellner
There is something so revealing about Whitney Siegel (Emma Stone) casually deleting Instagram comments that accuse her of, quite rightly, aping the design of her reflective home from artist Doug Aitken only for her to then complain that such attacks bear no weight given that she’s trying to reflect community while Aiken only reflected nature. She at once understands the critique and yet regurgitates it in a way that’s self-deprecating and self-deflecting. She’s no artist, she insists. But she’s also not not an artist. She may be inspired by Aiken but she’s totally doing something wholly different. If maybe kind of the same. That this all happens during a dinner with an up and coming Native artist (Nizhonniya Luxi Austin’s Cara Durand), who she intends to hire as a cultural consultant for Flipanthopy to better launder her reputation as they deal with checkerboard land that’ll require her to deal with the local Native tribes, is…well, just perfect.
Perfect as in perfectly capturing the cluelessness of affluent, privileged white folk who think they’re doing a good thing (that they’re good people, really) even as they so carelessly condescend to those they think they’re helping. Add in Stone’s careful blend of Whitney’s self-awareness and self-delusion (she’s always straddling the line between the two, often catching herself as she’s seen from the outside and calibrating her posture accordingly) and you have the kind of scene that shows why The Curse is unlike anything else on television right now. With lofty ambitions beyond the gimmicky plot its title and logline would suggest, this discomforting riff on home makeover shows has already tackled micropenises and gentrification and now sets its sights on Native exploitation and artistic appropriation. It’s a thrill to watch. And maybe only a little uncomfortable to do so. But that’s part of the point.
It’s been two weeks since the Siegels arrived in La Española to shoot their HGTV pilot and found themselves in a verbal tiff with a local reporter. Asher (co-creator Nathan Fielder) has tried to kill the story by offering up a juicier one involving the local Native casino but so far he hasn’t quite delivered on his promise on actual tangible evidence that the owners are all but gladly exploiting gambling addicts. The reporter is fed up (I would be too if I had to keep meeting Asher at gas stations where he remains as wooden in his emotional response as ever).
This leads Asher down a truly bonkers rabbit hole where he has to ingratiate himself back with his former co-workers to gain access to their computer where he knows he stored the security cam that will seal the deal. His plan is, at first, simple: go, make small talk, and…I guess he hadn’t thought that much further down. So when he returns, having marveled at how so many of his ideas to optimize gambling were being used (lights, bracelets, all very high tech ways of keeping folks glued to the slots), he pitches his former boss on a new endeavor which gets swiftly shot down. It’s then he has to think on his feet: a viral video of a jogger, a bombshell of a revelation (more on that in a second), and a bottle of Gatorade end up doing the trick. He has enough time alone with the computer he needs to transfer himself the requisite files—all while mostly coming off as a socially inept guy. (Watching Asher pour Gatorade all over himself after intentionally doing so on his former co-worker after failing to accidentally soak him enough to push him out of his office plays as insane as it sounds.)
The revelation, of course, is that Whitney is pregnant. That’s the image that first opens this episode: You’ve never seen a pregnancy test reveal its results in such an eerie way (and you’d be forgiven for thinking this was going the way of Rosemary’s Baby). That’s obviously one of the reasons she was so emotional while out during her dinner with Cara. Maybe it was also the way she was angling for a specific kind of outcome at said dinner. Namely getting Cara to agree to be a consultant for the show and to give the Siegels kind of Native cred—the kind Whitney was also searching in Gary Farmer’s Governor of the San Pedro Pueblo. Insulting and tone deaf? Probably. But again, her pregnancy news cloud over such concerns.
The couple is thrilled, of course (and are both a bit surprised?). That is, until they go in for a regular check up and learn that Whitney has an ectopic pregnancy. A non-viable pregnancy is not what either wanted to hear (especially coming on the heels of questions about Whitney’s past abortion, which Asher may have not known about). But they’ll be able to try again in six weeks time. Asher’s going to put it in the calendar. And, I mean, they’ve gone longer. Six weeks will fly by. In the meantime they have local reporters to bribe with stories, Native American artists whose work are in dire need of being misunderstood, and an entire community to be well-served by ideas and concepts and projects they maybe never needed to begin with.
Stray observations
- Do we think the birds crashing into the mirrored house are what first gave Whitney the idea to maybe opt for a mosaic next or is she truly that eager to separate her work from Aitken’s?
- Any thoughts on what Cara’s performance piece? (She in a teepee, carving turkey slices for guests one at time, with some screaming peppered in to disorient those attending, not before asking those leaving to not discuss what happens therein.) Also: Whitney’s reaction (fear in having done something wrong, then clearly forgoing the directive and telling all who’d listen what had happened) was on point, as was the Governor’s who was clearly dismayed that this is what passes for self-conscious Native art in the twenty-first century.
- I was so focused on Asher and Whitney’s awkward interfacing with Indigenous folks throughout this episode that I didn’t even mention Dougie’s deranged first date where he spent much of it explaining how best to pass a breathalyzer test—which he’s overly conscious about now ever since…well, that one thing that happened that might have caused the death of his girlfriend? Yeah. Dark stuff. On a side note: If your date has a breathalyzer in his glove compartment, let that be a red flag—though, you have to give it to his date for turning that into a green flag: He did get off the road as soon as he knew his levels were above legal.
- “Who is Doug Aitken?” better be the most Googled question the moment this episode aired.
- Only other acceptable online query: “Who are David Zellner and Nathan Zellner (a.k.a. the episode’s directors)?” Which should hopefully direct you to catch films like Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter and Damsel.
- I can’t decide what was creepier, Asher caressing Whitney’s foot while at the doctor (in a zoom in close-up that was shot like some horror B-roll moment) or Asher saying “Let us fatten you up!” at Cara during their dinner. No one has the charm vacuum presence Fielder brings to the small screen and his Asher is all the more unsettling for it.
- “I’m just sorry it took us 400 years to beat them.” Sometimes a pan to a great prop piece (like this framed comic strip about Indigenous casino owners reveling in the broke customers they’re serving every day) is the blunt instrument you need to drive your message home.
Stream The Curse now on Paramount+
30 Comments
I’m continually impressed with Nathan Fielder’s acting on this show. Even though Asher is not that different from the versions of himself that he played on Nathan for You and The Rehearsal, here he has to play a greater range of emotions, and it never comes off as goofy or exaggerated like you might expect from a wooden “charm vacuum.” Emma Stone is great too (unfortunately it’s easy to be overlooked when you’re consistently great). She really lives on the line in-between self-awareness and self-delusion.Also, no mention of the distortion that turned Asher’s face into a goblin under the title card? That was a choice.
I thought it was odd at first but later in the episode noticed Whitney’s face distorted similarly when reflected by the house, after the bird flew into it.
She really lives on the line in-between self-awareness and self-delusion.that’s what makes the show so unsettling; and so hard to watch; if she was nothing but an arrogant a-hole you would not get this vibe. I do have a really hard time with her; but I can see at some surface level she does mean well; yet is clueless and selfish.
I was intrigued by the first episode. It is extremely weird and a bit unsettling, yet somehow accessible. That said, I didn’t love it. The weirdness will bring me back for the next episode, but I’ll have it on a short leash. I’m really not a Fielder guy, but I am a Stone and Safdie guy.I’m still not sure what compelled Emma Stone to take this gig. She definitely elevates it and will keep me watching, but it’s just an odd choice for her, and I don’t just mean the material. Most major actors are taking prestige TV roles nowadays, so that’s not notable. But of all the projects that would have fallen over themselves to get her, why did she choose *this* role, and for a B-tier platform like Showtime? I’m sure I’ll find out in the coming episodes.
She’s working with extremely talented people and it’s very much in the vein of other anxious/dark projects she’s done like Maniac and The Favourite. This is way above Showtime’s normal dross. And she’s utterly crushing the role, already a career highlight as far as I’m concerned.
she’s probably a fan of Fielder and Safdie.
Seems to be the season of her making interesting career choices, what with this and Poor Things. Good for her.
I don’t think there’s anything weird about it. I think half the actors in Hollywood would jump at the chance to work on a Fielder/Safdie gig.
Maybe it’s because anybody with half a brain would jump at the chance to work with such talented people. Probably not you though?
Congrats on the atrocious spelling in this article. “Ai[t]ken” several times, “Flipanth[r]opy”. A real tour de force of editing.
At least it was informative. Oh, wait… it wasn’t. At all.
They knew their generative AI wouldn’t be able to mimic Sean O’Neil, Emily VanDerWerff or other classic AV Club writers. They trained it based on the absolute hacks that have been here the past several years instead, figuring we wouldn’t be able to discern a drop in quality when it was already so low. I think they were right, though I think they need to turn down the typo slider to “we obviously don’t have any editors,” from “the writer used voice recognition software created by fans of Issac Pitman and George Bernard Shaw.”
No mentions of the abortions? Whitney really hasn’t wanted/doesn’t want to be pregnant, and given how much Asher wants a baby that relationship is doomed. There are quite a few collapses coming.Also wasn’t sure what to make of the date segment. Was that just insight into the director character? As typical for Fielder, it subverted expectation as to where it was going, but that place it went was kind of…nowhere? Perhaps a later payoff.
it established his girlfriend died of an accident as he was driving and at least a bit drunk, that’s not nothing.
This recap tells me absolutely nothing about the show. As someone who hasnt seen it and read this to see if i would ve interested, it tells me absolutely nothing whatsoever. I would be hardpressed to think of a less informative article. I still have zero idea what the tone is, what the overarching plot/point is, whether it’s comedy or a drama or… It tells me absolutely nothing.
WTF did I just read? This fundamental fails to explain the show while simultaneously making it sound horrendous. I’m assuming Manuel here has a Master’s degree.
You’re honestly describing this show as “maybe only a little uncomfortable”? For me it’s like a 50 minute lowkey panic attack. Emma Stone is just incredible, maybe the best I’ve seen her.
this show is self inflicted torture; and yet I’ve still pushed through it.
Love Nathan Fielder, so it is exciting to see him apply his craft to fiction. Can’t wait to see where this goes.
“Sometimes a pan to a great prop piece”Zoom, not pan
nathan “diminishing returns” fielder
I came to hear a recap of Benny Safdie’s UNCOMFORTABLE DATE.
I’m pausing every 10 seconds now from the cringe; I’m never gonna make it to the end
I thought it was ham in the tent/teepee but it was turkey; so the symbolism becomes quite obvious. I really like how the artist girl said “why did you do that?” and you aren’t sure if it’s part of the act or if she says that to her “friend” (I think the first one; I think the idea of the performance is people eat the meat and she screams and they’re supposed to feel bad); but that’s precisely this ambiguity that seem to crush her, and why in a later scene she tries to get friendly with the artist and get her approbation so bad (but really can’t); she thinks she definitely has done something wrong by eating the turkey (she probably hasn’t). I think the scene in the restaurant when she rebutes Fielder is about the same thing; and the scene with the photo as well; she genuinely want to get perceived as this “good ally” to the native community (or any community she’s in); it’s not for calculated reasons of selling houses, it’s well white guilt or something like that.
From what I understand the performance art piece was a representation of the artist’s “self” in the turkey and giving each person a piece of herself to sell her soul to the art. whether they ate it or not is besides the point.
Yo I will fucking proofread your shit for free if it means we can avoid articles like this one. Or at least run a basic spelling and grammar check, please.
I think I’ve decided I don’t want or need any more of this show. I also don’t see how what the creators are doing is any different than the characters in that none of them seem to be native people but they are just sort of using them in their stories about white people for white people.