SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers from the premiere of Showtime’s The Curse, now streaming on Paramount+.
In the opening scene of Showtime’s “The Curse,” Asher and Whitney Siegel do a good deed. Well, sort of.
Cameras are rolling on the couple’s new HGTV series, and they’ve offered a down-on-his-luck man a job at a new coffee shop. A producer steps in to bring tears to the face of his cancer-stricken mother, whose genuine reaction to the news apparently isn’t enough for TV. Barrier Coffee, this man’s new employer, is little more than a set piece – a paid sponsor of the series with no long-term business plan.
Created by Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie, “The Curse” follows philanthropic house flippers — “flipanthropists,” if you will — who come to a New Mexico town to do good, or at least their idea of it. Asher and Whitney, played by Nathan Fielder and Emma Stone, aren’t your parents’ gentrifiers: They’re new-age liberals wary of how their show might portray them as white saviors. But they also truly believe in the power of their mission: to build environmentally friendly “invisible” homes and provide opportunities for the Española community.
“We’re not HGTV. We don’t share those values,” reminds Whitney Asher after her producer turns her latest scene into charity porn. But it sounds more like she’s calming herself down.
As Asher and Whitney travel through Española filming their pilot, they make it a point to portray themselves as the good guys. “Rather than ignore residents who could be displaced by our actions, we use a portion of each home sale to subsidize local rent,” Whitney said in a television news interview. Things quickly go awry when Asher berates the reporter (literally) after she asks a tough question about Whitney’s parents, property owners the journalist refers to as “slumlords for their ruthless approach to evictions.”
The interview is a train wreck and it is Asher’s new mission to stop the interview from being broadcast. His first strategy: apologize to the reporter and make a deal by offering scandalous information about Whistling River, a tribal casino where he used to work. He insists he doesn’t want to harm the indigenous people who run the casino, but rather “shine a light on the injustice.”
While waiting for the journalist, Asher convinces producer Dougie (Safdie) to support two young girls selling lemonade in the parking lot to show him that he is “giving back to the community.” But when Asher hands them a $100 bill — and then snatches it back, promising to come back with change and buy their entire supply of Sprite for $20 instead — one of the girls looks him in the eye and says, “Me curse you.” Asher tries to get smaller bills or withdraw money from an ATM, but when he returns to the parking lot, the girls are gone. As turmoil plagues Asher and Whitney’s production – and their marriage – Asher becomes increasingly convinced that a supernatural force is responsible.
Things get uncomfortable – even by the “Nathan for You” creator’s standards – when the couple has dinner with Whitney’s parents Paul (Corbin Bernsen) and Elizabeth (Constance Shulman). While Asher is in the bathroom, Paul tests out the size of his penis, much to his daughter’s feigned annoyance. The camera then cuts to Asher urinating and focusing on his genitals for a disturbing amount of time.
After dinner, Paul pulls Asher outside and shows him the garden. “People are like tomatoes. You’ve got your big old beefsteaks… and you’ve got your little cherries. They’re very different, but if you slice a cherry and put it in a sandwich, it tastes great,” he says with a wink. “As soon as you put it between the bread, everything is the same.”
As Asher’s discomfort increases, Paul begins to pee on the floor. “Asher, break the illusion in your head. “Hey, I’m the guy with the little dick. I tell all my friends, they know,” he says. Paul awkwardly assures Asher that his daughter has “no problem” with Ash’s size and then shows him his own penis, which is smaller than his son-in-law’s. “Be the clown,” Paul says. “It’s the most liberating thing in the world. It’s like fucking a 10 inch cock.” All Asher can muster in response is “Thanks.”
When they return home, Asher notices that his food delivery service left out the chicken in the chicken penne. Nothing goes his way – until Whitney calls him for sex, which in her case means Asher using a vibrator on his wife while she calls out the name “Steven.” When Asher asks the imaginary participant if he can join in, Whitney replies, “He’s not saying yet.” As Whitney nears climax and tells her husband it’s his turn, Asher says, “I want to watch like you.” “can handle him” while he masturbates on her leg.
The next day, Asher and Whitney gather at Dougie’s apartment to review footage. As they argue over editing decisions, it becomes clear that Dougie is more interested in sowing drama and conflict, while Asher and Whitney are concerned about protecting their reputations in the community (at least the reputation they think they have in the community). ). When a recording of Asher giving the girl $100 appears on Dougie’s computer, Whitney demands to see the entire encounter. She is horrified by her husband’s actions and worries about the curse. She orders Asher to find the girl and give her the full $100.
So that night, Asher drives to a local animal shelter that is closed for the night due to lack of funding. Unhoused Spanish people camp in tents outside in the rain. Unable to find his curse, Asher gives the money to a mother and child. When he gets back to Dougie, he lies to Whitney and tells her that he found the young girl. That the curse was lifted.
While Asher suppresses Whitney’s superstitions in the hallway, the camera eerily photographs her behind a peephole – and it’s not Dougie’s door. Their show hasn’t been taped yet, but it seems like they’re already being watched.