The Curse (American TV series)

The Curse is an American satirical black comedy thriller television series created and written by Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie, and starring Emma Stone, Fielder, and Safdie. It was filmed from June to October 2022 and premiered on streaming and on-demand for all Showtime and Paramount+ with Showtime subscribers on November 10, 2023, before making its on-air debut on Showtime on November 12. Its first three episodes premiered at the New York Film Festival on October 12, 2023. The first season concluded on January 12, 2024, receiving critical acclaim.

The series explores "How an alleged curse disturbs the relationship of a newly married couple as they try to conceive a child while co-starring on their problematic new HGTV show, Fliplanthropy."

Main

 * Emma Stone as Whitney Siegel, Asher's wife and co-star of an HGTV show about passive homes
 * Nathan Fielder as Asher Siegel, Whitney's husband and co-star of the HGTV show
 * Benny Safdie as Dougie Schecter, the producer of the HGTV show and Asher's friend

Recurring

 * Constance Shulman and Corbin Bernsen as Elizabeth and Paul, Whitney's slumlord parents
 * Hikmah Warsame as Nala, a young girl who curses Asher
 * Dahabo Ahmed as Hani, Nala's older sister
 * Christopher Calderon as Fernando, an economically struggling local employed by Whitney
 * Barkhad Abdi as Abshir, Nala and Hani's father
 * Gary Farmer as James Toledo, Governor of the San Pedro Pueblo
 * Nizhonniya Luxi Austin as Cara Durand, a Picuris Pueblo artist working with Whitney

Guest

 * Dean Cain as Mark Rose, a home buyer
 * GiGi Erneta as Martha, an HGTV executive
 * Rachael Ray as herself
 * Vincent Pastore as himself

Production
The Curse was given the green-light by Showtime in February 2020. It was created and written by Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie, inspired by an anecdote Fielder told Safdie about moving from Canada to Los Angeles in 2009 where a woman asking for a handout replied "I curse you" after Fielder did not have money to give her. Fielder was bothered by her words and withdrew cash from an ATM, returned to the woman, and gave her twenty dollars, prompting her to declare the curse lifted. Fielder stated "I don't believe in that stuff, but I can't get those things out of my head. Sometimes if someone says something to you, even conversationally, where you feel like you messed up something, it can linger in your mind and grow and consume you. Then we just started riffing on that idea, like, 'Wouldn't it be interesting if that vibe was hanging over an entire show?'" Safdie said the series "started out as a 30-minute comedy and became an hour-long comedy-drama".

In December 2020, Emma Stone joined the cast of the series. In July 2022, Corbin Bernsen, Barkhad Abdi and Constance Shulman joined the cast. Principal photography took place in Santa Fe and Española, New Mexico, from June to early October 2022. The original score for the series was composed and performed by frequent Safdie collaborator Daniel Lopatin and John Medeski. Additionally, the music of Alice Coltrane is featured heavily in the series.

Themes and analysis
The show deals with subjects such as the artifice of reality television, gentrification, cultural appropriation, white privilege, Native American rights, sustainable capitalism, Judaism, pathological altruism, virtue signalling, marriage, and parenthood.

Critical response
On Metacritic, the series has a weighted average score of 76 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

The Curse was named among the best TV shows of 2023 by Entertainment Weekly, IndieWire, Elle, Time, The A.V. Club, and The New Yorker.

Director Christopher Nolan described The Curse as "an incredible show" and likened it to Twin Peaks, The Prisoner, and The Singing Detective as "genuinely [having] no precedence" in television. Safdie said that Nolan texted him after the finale asking "How did you guys do that?" in regard to its stunts.

Future
In a January 2024 interview, Safdie addressed the possibility of a second season, saying, "It's not off the table. There are ideas, but it's definitely too premature to put them out into the world." In April 2024, Fielder stated that "there definitely could be" another season, and "from the start, we had it mapped out beyond the first season".