The Curse recap: How to be good
In “Self-Exclusion,” Cara tries to calculate Whitney’s intentions
TV Reviews The Curse
“You wouldn’t do anything good if I didn’t force you to.”
The line, delivered with bitter resignation by Whitney (Emma Stone) to her husband, Asher (Nathan Fielder), may well be the central kernel upon which Showtime’s The Curse hinges. For the quest for goodness—and the attendant motivations for doing and being good—is what animates Whitney; and what is increasingly putting her at odds with her husband-cum-business partner. For Asher, as Whitney tells the camera this episode (!), is only ever interested in the bottom line. He rarely aims to do good (let alone appear so) if it isn’t also motivated by something else. Money, say. Or a good shot. That’s what first got him in trouble in the first episode: his attempt to look good on camera by giving a young Black girl a $100 bill was only ever done to get a shot of him being charitable. And it ended with him being cursed. Or so he continues to believe.
In the time since, he’s continued to try to make (or appear) good for Nala, the young cursing girl who now spends her days trying to will schoolmates to fall during gym class. But that’s long been fueled by a desire to have the curse reverse. Whitney, though, truly believes she’s a good person. Someone who is driven to do good with her money and her business. And now this TV show. Of course, we are inclined to be as wary of Whitney’s motivations but at some level (performative as it may be) she does think she’s a good person.
But we will be the judge of that.
For “Self-Exclusion” asks us to really question who Whitney’s goodness is good for. Mostly through the way she’s working with both her producer Dougie (Benny Safdie) and her artist BFF Cara (Nizhonniya Luxi Austin). It’s from Dougie, for instance, that Whitney first learned that Cara had found a rather racist Native American statue at a nearby mini-golf course. And she uses said information as anyone would: She goes ahead and buys it and then plops it right outside of Cara’s door (while hiding around the corner).
This is deranged behavior for anyone. But such playful pranks are Whitney’s everyday language. We’ve seen her pull these stunts with crew members and even with Asher himself. She’s always toeing the line between the appropriate and the inappropriate, hoping to straddle it to show she knows where the line is but all but cautioning those around her that she knows where she’s not to cross. It’s a way of making everyone around her uncomfortable and maybe—as it happens in this case—anticipate the kind of racist/controversial/needlessly provocative positions she may be attacked for.
Here it’s also a way to talk to Cara face to face and, you know, gently nudge her about the release form she’s yet to sign that would allow Flipanthropy (or is it Green Queen now?) to showcase her work on camera. Cara is still skittish. As she should be, given everything she’s seen about the show (and knows about Whitney’s parent’s predatory practices). But Whitney will not be deterred. Weaponizing her charm and even her own performed vulnerability, she cajoles Cara into sympathizing with her: Whitney shares how she’s clearly lost right now. How her marriage is a bit of a sham. How she hates that all Asher cares about are the financials. How he may be holding her back. How she values Cara’s frankness. How she cherishes that about her friendship. In sum, she disorients Cara, then offers her a kind of no-strings-attached consultant gig all while downplaying the whole release form thing.
Cara is rightly skeptical. And as the camera pans from her to the racist statue Whitney has now gifted her (she couldn’t possibly have left it out in the public; she’d rather Cara turn it into her own artwork), you see her trying to calculate how much of Whitney’s confession (“I’m unhappy in my marriage”) to take at face value. And trying to calculate whether the money she’s being offered is worth the kind of association she’d be making with Whitney, Asher ,and the show as a whole. The conversation may be about how real and vulnerable they are but there’s some canny calculations happening right underneath every line. Whitney, though, seems to have said the right things: Cara agrees to be a consultant (and will think again about her artwork).
At home, Whitney finds even more ammunition with which to feed her rancor. The casino story Asher had been waiting for is finally here: It showed how the casino he’d worked at had willfully turned a blind eye to gambling addicts winning money on the floor (knowing full well they’d be able to keep those winnings). As the local news anchor puts it: There’s nothing funny about this. And yet a shot of Asher (seen from the back) laughing at a gambling addict winning at the slots is front and center. Whitney can’t believe it. She knew he’d witnessed all these illegal practices—but didn’t know he enjoyed himself while doing so. It’s there that she spits the line about him never doing any good unless prodded to do so. Which looks like it’ll become the wedge between the two.
It’s what Whitney most focuses on when she sits down for a proper confessional with Dougie, talking about how she no longer recognizes Asher. Perhaps because they’ve been together for so long: “You start to see these glimpses of a person you don’t recognize,” she says. And, just as with Cara, it’s unclear how much of this is a performance. Is she giving Dougie what he wants? Is she voicing real concerns she has? Is she nicely positioning herself away from him at a time when she can go solo? Is this revelatory or merely for show? Stone keeps us guessing, especially as she’s made Whitney equally clueless and canny, self-aware yet seemingly only when it suits her.
The episode ends with a few more revelations: It seems Whitney is running low on funds (all those credit card charges from petty theft add up, you know?) and is forced to ask her father for some cash. Because, unbeknownst to Cara, it is Whitney who will be paying the artists her consulting fees. Which, surprise, also comes with Cara’s decision to sign the release form, finally! A win-win, apparently. Though what the show will continue to look like as Whitney and Asher’s marriage splinters in the process is anyone’s guess.
Stray observations
- Did you catch Asher looking at his wounded, healed hand as Whitney excoriated him?
- I want nothing else but to watch an extended version of Whitney’s Robyn-scored drive to Cara’s house. Who knew “Dancing On My Own” could so easily lend itself to being the anthem of a woman enraged and frustrated by everyone around her?
- Raise your hand if you know who Rodney Dangerfield is and if you felt personally victimized by that entire comedy class segment—all of which felt a little bit like a The Rehearsal outtake (in all the right ways). Also, it’d take an entire other essay, but it is fascinating how a bit about Asher’s inability to poke fun at his own micropenis (“There’s one thing I’d like to stretch a little bit; my penis”) devolves into a kind of comedy cancellation, no?
- My favorite shot in this entire episode was that of Asher in the makeup chair, seen from the distorted reflected images from their mirrored walls. A perfect encapsulation of the way cameras and other people’s perceptions can warp even our own self-image.
- Speaking of: the Dougie and Asher passive aggressive rivalry is becoming ever more hostile. Seems like Dougie is done being faux nice to Asher, especially since he can’t even get an invite to Shabbat dinner.
31 Comments
knowing full well they’d be able to keep those winningsUnable?
I took me a moment, but I think it’s supposed to be referring to the casino keeping the winnings because the addicts are always going to lose it back to them.
can somebody explain this? these people can play but the casino keeps their earnings? is it a real thing?
Gambling addiction. Obviously if the win that money that means they can win more so they throw those winnings into another gamble. Then ‘oh crap! I lost that and need to gamble more to win it back!Agh! I have that now I have to gamble even more to get even. I can obviously since I already won that one time’
Actually, that’s not what it was. The woman had signed an agreement banning herself from gambling at the casino for her own protection (because she was addicted to gambling). Then she went and gambled anyway, and Asher and the casino knew she wouldn’t be able to keep the money because she’d banned herself from gambling there. That’s why they were laughing at her on the security cam footage, which came off as cruel and led to the TV news story and a pissed-off Whitney.Now, in real life, if you did that (banned yourself from gambling somewhere but then gambled anyway and won), I have no idea if you’d be able to keep the money. I couldn’t find any examples of it actually happening.
It is an option compulsize gamblers can take to limit their access to gambling opportunities. They are supposed to bar them from entry completely (for a set amount of time), so it seems a little sketchy (and possibly illegal) to refuse them service after they have won money.
We managed to get Rodney Dangerfield back into new comedy???
I’m surprised you didn’t mention the last shot, which had Asher listening to the fight he apparently recorded and taking notes similar to the rules of comedy listIt read from what we saw: Agree more, nod and smile, be less combative, keep the past in the past, use softer tone, and don’t cut her off (we were then cut off from the scene)
Chekhov’s Notes, indeed. Watch for those behaviors.
he already put it in practice when he said paying for stolen jeans was “a great idea”
Whitney, though, seems to have said the right things: Cara agrees to be a consultant“Fifteen or twenty thousand dollars” were the right things she said.
Geez, this was a hard episode to watch for me, in terms of how relatable Whitney’s issues felt. I think you’re right to approach every interaction Whitney has with someone else as a calculation; her decision to open up about her marriage was an almost-transparent emotional ploy to sway Cara. But I don’t think Whitney is a very good actor (we saw as much when she tried to re-create the sweater fight with Asher), and I think every time she opens up about her marriage, she’s telling the truth. The truth can be weaponized as effectively as a lie.And poor Asher. You can tell that he is trying to be better for Whitney. And as for “only caring about the financials,” though there are plenty of examples to point to where that’s gotten Asher in trouble (his mind would be a lot more at ease if he’d just let Nala have the $100), Whitney seems like she needs a partner like Asher to balance her spending habits.This show is so layered, and gives so much to talk about. Emma Stone better win that Golden Globe.
Whitney seems like she needs a partner like Asher to balance her spending habits.Not as much as she needs a slumlord dad to keep “loaning” her money.She really is in her own little world.
I guess “like Asher” undermined my statement because he’s clearly not effective, but she needs someone to rein in her spending habits so she doesn’t have to run to daddy to “loan” her money. Someone to tell her, “Hey, I know you want to do good, but telling a store to charge your credit card every time something ‘gets shoplifted’ is a bad idea” and “No, really, we need to sell a house.”
She should also get gold for her work in Poor Things. She’s astonishing in that film while playing a very different type of character from Whitney in a completely different style of acting. She fucking rules.
Just got into this and binged it last week. It’s really good, and I had seen The Rehearsal so I understand Nathan Fielder’s comedy, but I’m having a really hard time understanding how Whitney and Asher would ever be together! It really seems like it’s more financial than love. And Dougie is just the worst. They tried to make him more sympathetic a few episodes ago with his dead wife, but where is that now?
Dougie has some sort of deep loathing for Asher, and now he has a hard on for Whit. Maybe he’s jealous that a loser like Asher (in his eyes) married her.Even when they tried to make him sympathetic, he was still really pathetic. He really is the worst.
I think they were very good friends and Dougie is rightfully pissed he’s been ignoring his propositions to hang out. honestly he’s not coming out of this bad compared to the couple.
I don’t see how Dougie is “rightfully” pissed. He admitted an episode or two ago that he teased and bullied Asher when they were younger, and when Asher admits that that’s not how he interpreted their relationship, Dougie slyly withdraws his apology. If Dougie thinks Asher wouldn’t reflect on their past and how it would recontextualize their friendship after that conversation, then Dougie is pretty dumb.But even if you remove that aspect, no one is entitled to someone else’s friendship. If Asher wants to keep his relationship with Dougie more professional than friendly, Asher is entitled to those boundaries.
Dougie had his eye on Whitney since the first episode. He’ll do whatever he can to put down Asher.
Since Dougie seems responsible for his wife’s death, I don’t think that made him the least bit sympathetic. Just the opposite since he likes to play the dead wife card with dates.
I don’t think he is “playing the card” in a calculated way, like he knows it will gain him sympathy – I think it is more that Dougie is deeply broken by it and is incapable of keeping himself from talking about it. He is sleazy and manipulative as we’ve seen but that is one area in which I think he’s being sincere (even if he is also in deep denial about his culpability).
Sometimes, I must ask, “Does Emma Stone have to be in everything?”But then I must ask, “Would I want to live in a world where she wasn’t?”
It’s weird how with most shows it’s so frustrating when people make such stupid decisions (like splitting up and searching the basement for your missing friend), but in this case (like with Whit and the statue), it’s the point of the show, and I’m buying it.The Joke Guy coercing him into making a dick joke, and then kicking him out for that dick joke was a stretch though.
or it wasn’t enough of a stretch.
Because, unbeknownst to Cara, it is Whitney who will be paying the artists her consulting fees.that’s a very shitty thing to do to pretend to give a job to someone (not mentioning materially you’re robbing them of the social benefits that come with it; which is probably something you don’t have much of in the US anyway?)Seems Dougie is genuinely fed up with how his old friend has been constantly ignoring him; that’s understandable.Whitney and Asher I think were made for each other; that Whit would have a moral superiority in this is hard to swallow. Ash is awfully non confrontational until he bursts; he’s pretty self serving; but I don’t think Whitney is better, she just wants to believe it so bad. Also everything she does seemingly for good (giving Cara a “job”; paying for the jeans) benefits her one way or another.
Whitney isn’t pretending. She offered Cara the “job” of consultant, and spelled out exactly what the compensation would be (and then paid her in advance). That sounds like standard contract work that an artist like Cara would be used to. And by getting paid in cash, Cara might be able to avoid paying taxes on that income. I doubt Whitney is going to tell Asher about the arrangement or send Cara a 1099.Of course at the end of the day, Whitney offered Cara a job for her own benefit. But all things considered, the arrangement is probably better for Cara than if she was paid through the show. Gig work like that usually doesn’t come with any benefits (see: Uber, et al), especially on a low-budget reality show.
Since the episode when Asher stole the CCTV fottage, the following eps have not been as good. the eps seem to plod along.
So, seven episodes in, you know it’s spelled “Fliplanthropy” right?