SPOILER ALERT:This post contains spoilers from the premiere of Showtimes, The Curse, now streaming on Paramount+.
In the opening scene of Showtimes The Curse, Asher and Whitney Siegel do a good deed. Well, sort of.
The cameras are rolling on the married couples new HGTV series, and theyve offered a down-on-his-luck man a job at a new caf. A producer is stepping in to apply fake tears on his mother, sick with cancer, whose genuine reaction to the news apparently isnt sufficient for TV. Barrier Coffee, this mans 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 descend into a New Mexico town to do good, or at least their idea of it. As played by Nathan Fielder and Emma Stone, Asher and Whitney are not your parents gentrifiers: theyre new-age liberals who are hyper-aware of how their series might paint them as white saviors. But they also genuinely believe in the power of their mission: to build eco-friendly invisible homes and provide opportunity in the Espaola community.
Were not HGTV. We dont share those values, Whitney reminds Asher after their producer turns their latest scene into charity porn. But it sounds more like shes reassuring herself.
As Asher and Whitney parade around Espaola shooting their pilot, theyre careful to frame themselves as the good guys. Rather than ignoring residents that might be displaced by our actions, we use a portion of each home sale to subsidize local rent, Whitney says in a television news interview. It quickly goes south when Asher (literally) snaps at the reporter after she asks a tough question about Whitneys parents, real estate proprietors the journalist describes as slumlords because of their ruthless approach to evictions.
The interview is a train wreck, and its Ashers new mission to prevent it from airing. His first strategy: apologize to the reporter and make a deal by offering scandalous information about the Whistling River, a tribal casino where he used to work. He insists he doesnt want to harm the Native people running the casino, but rather shine a light on injustice.
While waiting for the journalist, Ashers producer Dougie (Safdie) convinces him to patron two young girls selling soda in the parking lot, to show him giving back to the community. But when Asher hands them a $100 bill and then snatches it back, promising to return with change and buy their whole stock of Sprite for $20 instead one of the girls looks him in the eye and says, I curse you. Asher attempts to get smaller bills or pull money out of an ATM, but by the time he returns to the parking lot, the girls are gone. As turmoil infects Asher and Whitneys production and marriage Asher becomes increasingly convinced that a supernatural power is to blame.
Things get uncomfortable even by the Nathan for You creators standards when the couple has dinner with Whitneys parents, Paul (Corbin Bernsen) and Elizabeth (Constance Shulman). While Asher is in the bathroom, Paul takes a crack at the size of his penis, much to his daughters feigned offense. The camera then cuts to Asher urinating, zeroing in on his genitals for an unsettling amount of time.
After dinner, Paul pulls Asher outside and shows him the garden. People are a lot like tomatoes. You got your big old beefsteaks and you got your little tiny cherries. Theyre very different, but once you slice up a cherry and put it in a sandwich, it tastes great, he says with a wink. Once you put it between the bread, its all the same.
As Ashers discomfort grows, Paul begins peeing on the soil. Asher, break the illusion in your mind. Hey, Im the guy with the small dick. I tell all my friends, they know, he says. Paul awkwardly assures Asher that his daughter has no issue with Ashs size and then shows him his own penis, which is smaller than his son-in-laws. Be the clown, Paul says. Its the most liberating thing in the world. Its like fucking with a 10-inch cock. All Asher can muster in response is thank you.
When they return home, Asher notices his delivery meal service left out the chicken in the chicken penne. Nothing is going his way until Whitney summons him for sex, which in their case means Asher using a vibrator on his wife as she calls out the name Steven. When Asher asks the imaginary participant if he can join in, Whitney responds: He says not yet. As Whitney approaches climax and tells her husband its his turn, Asher says, I want to watch you finish with him, as he masturbates by her leg.
The next day, Asher and Whitney gather in Dougies apartment to review footage. As they bicker over editing decisions, its made clear that Dougie is more interested in sowing drama and conflict, while Asher and Whitney are concerned about protecting their reputation in the community (at least, the reputation they think they have in the community). When a shot of Asher giving the girl $100 flashes onto Dougies computer, Whitney demands to see the whole encounter play out. Shes horrified at her husbands actions, and worried about the curse, ordering Asher to go find the girl and give her the full $100.
So that night, Asher drives to a local shelter, which is closed for the night due to low funding. Unhoused Espaolans camp out in tents outside in the rain. Asher cant find his curser, so he gives the money to a mother and child. When he gets back to Dougies, he lies to Whitney and tells her he found the young girl. That the curse has been lifted.
As Asher quells Whitneys superstitions in the hallway, the camera eerily frames them from behind a peep hole and its not Dougies door.Their show hasnt gotten picked up yet, but it seems like theyre already being watched.