If you've yet to watch The Curse but find yourself intrigued by it because it stars Emma Stone and has received rave reviews, you're probably wondering exactly what sort of show it is. Even devoted viewers of The Curse are still pondering; is The Curse a comedy? A satirical black comedy? Horror? Thriller? Dramedy?
The Curse is ostensibly a comedy that revolves around newlywed couple Whitney (Emma Stone) and Asher (Nathan Fielder) as they attempt to provide eco-conscious housing to the community of Espanola, N.M., while they make the reality show Flipanthropy alongside producer Dougie Schecter (Benny Safdie).
Those who have seen the work of Fielder — co-creator, co-writer and co-director of The Curse — know his comedies are different. The Canadian comedian has always been in pursuit of finding unpredictable ways to make people laugh, rather than the standard set-up and punchline.
In the likes of Nathan For You and The Rehearsal, both of which are as much documentaries as comedies, he is the joke. Or rather, his character is the joke; although it has become impossible to know where the real Fielder begins and the character ends. In these shows, Fielder reveled in being so deadpan and straight that both viewers and even the people he's on-screen with didn't know if he was joking or not.
Even though The Curse is scripted, with Fielder writing the scripts alongside Safdie and Carrie Kemper, it's still hard to know whether you should laugh, look away or ruminate over the absurd and sometimes excruciating scenes that feature. What often happens is that you do all three in quick succession or at the same time.
While The Curse is most definitely a comedy, it actually only produces just one or two major laughs an episode. Considering that some installments are an hour long, some might see that as a meager return. But The Curse's funniest scenes rival any other comedic TV moments of the year. In particular, Asher going to great lengths to get footage from a casino computer and a potential house buyer singing "Stand By Me" to the Siegels.
More often than not, though, The Curse will make you cringe and want to look away.
Just look at the scenes where Asher and his father-in-law bond over having small penises or the Siegels trying to recreate the difficulty of taking off a sweater for Instagram. The Curse grips its viewers the tightest after the laughter has stopped and the squirming has begun. It wants these moments to remain in viewers' heads and make them remember occasions when they went too far and were just as desperate and transparent as the characters.
In The Curse episode 4, one character even addresses the show's unique approach to comedy. After Asher is encouraged to go to a comedy class by Whitney following the test audiences' poor response to him, a teacher explains, "Some of the funniest jokes we tell, we don't even know why we're laughing." When it comes to The Curse, the reason you're laughing is most likely because you're uncomfortable, disappointed, horrified, shocked or find something too relatable.
The Curse actually uses techniques from genres other than comedy to help provoke such reactions. Sequences are regularly shot from outside or through a window, to make you feel as though you’re prying in on conversations like a documentary. This approach is often used in horror, a genre The Curse regularly leans into, as there's haunting imagery dotted through the series.
The music also feels as though it has been ripped from a scary movie, while the way that each episode builds the feeling of dread, tension and the inevitability that something bad is going to happen to Whitney and/or Asher means you can't help but look away in the same manner people try to avoid jump-scares.
This sense of peril isn't just because Nala (Hikmah Warsame) puts a curse on Asher that sends him spiraling. The characters' increasingly selfish and ignorant antics, juxtaposed with their insistence that they're good people, leaves you wondering when they are going to get their comeuppance, even hoping for it.
The Curse is undoubtedly not for everyone. At times episodes can feel meandering and aimless. Even people that enjoy the show can probably point out superfluous moments that didn't actually add anything. But viewers shouldn't be put-off or dismiss the fact that it's agonizing to watch. Instead, they should appreciate that it's challenging them and making them question themselves and their actions in a way that television rarely does. Even if it doesn't have the laugh-count they are custom to.
The Curse releases new episodes on Paramount Plus on Fridays, which then air on the Showtime cable channel on Sundays.
