SummaryA newly married couple (Emma Stone and Nathan Fielder) are dealing with a possible curse, while hosting a home improvement show and trying to have a baby in this series co-created by Benny Safdie and Fielder. [Premieres on Paramount+ with Showtime on 10 Nov 2023 and on Showtime on 12 Nov 2023]
Created By:Nathan Fielder, Benny Safdie
❮ The Curse (2023)
Season 1
Season Premiere:
Nov 8, 2023
Metascore
Generally Favorable
76
User score
Mixed or Average
6.0
My Score
Drag or tap to give a rating
Hover and click to give a rating
Not available in your country?
ExpressVPN
Get 3 Extra months free
$6.67/mth
Season Episodes
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
76
79% Positive
27 Reviews
27 Reviews
21% Mixed
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Nov 27, 2023
100
The Curse is one of the most exquisite, excruciating pieces of entertainment I have watched, though entertainment might be the wrong word for this social satire that considers wealth, race and gentrification (“The G word!”) and veers between Fargo and a demented Grand Designs.
Nov 10, 2023
90
Rooted in strong writing and directing from Fielder and David and Nathan Zellner, the three central performances – including Emma Stone's – push this boundary-crushing series to cruel and dark yet magical places.
Nov 6, 2023
88
There is so much to say about this dizzingly ambitious gem of a series, and yet saying too much would be doing the viewer a disservice (and defying Showtime's spoiler policy). As hack as it is to say about a TV show, it makes for a uniquely cinematic experience and one of the most original series of the year.
Nov 14, 2023
80
For a series with such naked thematic ambitions, “The Curse” proves surprisingly moving, largely due to the depth of feeling that Asher reveals as his relationship disintegrates.
Nov 14, 2023
70
The Curse is not for everyone, but in general, it’s a lot more approachable than some of Fielder’s and Safdie’s other works. The series features such precise filmmaking and multi-layered storytelling that it naturally appeals to many different audiences.
Nov 8, 2023
60
In its early episodes, the show hits its targets with confident precision—it’s acidly funny and savagely heartbreaking. But eventually, all that sardonic miserablism gets the better of the show. Safdie and Fielder wander further into abstraction, suggesting that they’re maybe not taking things as seriously as they should be. The Curse carefully recognizes a fine line only to recklessly flout it later. The trouble is, I still don’t know if that was the whole point all along.
Nov 6, 2023
50
Although The Curse pulls it off in specific set pieces, the whole of it quickly starts to dawdle. The series hops unevenly between various plot threads — the curse, the TV production, the gentrification the couple refuses to call by its name, the strain on Whitney and Asher’s marriage, their ambivalence over conceiving a child, the fraying community support, a confusing and underdeveloped story involving Asher and a local casino.
User score
Mixed or Average
6.0
50% Positive
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
25% Mixed
1 Rating
1 Rating
25% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
Feb 9, 2024
3
(Mauro Lanari) "A24 + Safdie + Fielder = Amazing TV Series"? True for those who have renounced existential research and wallow in pollyannistic nihilistic defeatism, otherwise the topics covered (the artifice of reality television, gentrification, cultural appropriation, white privilege, Native American rights, sustainable capitalism, Judaism, pathological altruism, virtue signalling, marriage, and parenthood) are of unbeareable irrelevance. Black comedy that isn't humorous at all and that Nolan idolizes.
