NEW IN STREAMING: The year’s weirdest and most awkward series with above-ground Emma Stone

What is it about?

A curse seems to befall a newly married couple trying to conceive a child. Their daily lives are filmed 24 hours a day as they participate in a reality show.

The Curse, a TV series created by Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie with Emma Stone, Nathan Fielder, Benny Safdie…

The strangest TV series of the year

In The Curse, Asher (Nathan Fielder) and Whitney Siegel (Emma Stone) have been married for a year and live in Espanola, a working-class town in northern New Mexico. This is where they hope to start a real revolution with the so-called passive ecological houses, and at the same time they plan to sell their show pilot to HGTV – a television channel specializing in decoration, which focuses on the efforts of the duo to build. And sell these beautiful, sustainable homes designed by Whitney.

Whitney and Usher see themselves as philanthropists—even though they’re pure capitalists—and progressives in Española, hoping to attract out-of-town shoppers and high-end businesses. They believe their actions will ultimately help the community, even though most of the current residents struggle to make ends meet.

As Usher explained to local television reporter Monica Perez, “We truly believe that gentrification should not be a game with winners and losers.“.

But what the couple stubbornly refuses to admit is that believing something doesn’t make it true. Whitney, for her part, chooses to believe that people won’t make the connection between her real estate business in Espanola and her parents, Paul (Corbin Bernsen) and Elizabeth (Constance Shulman), who are referred to as “Merchants of sleepby the local press three years earlier.

And the TV interview the couple gives Monica is awkward when the latter asks Whitney questions “Ruthless approach to evictions“From his parents, and Usher loses his temper. A temper tantrum that has a series of damaging consequences for the couple.

The beginning of the nightmare

Meanwhile, their producer, reality TV veteran Doug (Benny Safdie), continues to insist that his stars be more confrontational, prompting Usher and Whitney to complain to each other on camera. Doug regularly tries to set up moments for the show, and in the premiere he convinces Usher to give money to Nala (Hikmah Warsame), a little Somali girl who sells soda in a parking lot.

As the cameras cut, Usher takes back the money—a $100 bill—and promises to return the $20, but Nala refuses. An angry little girl looks at him with the ferocity that only children can and declares, “curse youHe tries to ignore it, but as production continues, he and Whitney’s fake philanthropy backfires. And Asher begins to fear that Nala’s curse will have real consequences.

Whitney and Usher are surrounded by people who hate them but seem to tolerate them because it suits their needs. Like Cara (Nijonia Lux Austin), a local artist who takes the Zigels’ generosity almost without a second thought.

After an incident with Nala in the parking lot, the girl’s father, Abshir (Barkhad Abdi, from Captain Phillips), becomes the target of Asher and Whitney’s self-righteous generosity, which he takes with painstaking detachment. He tolerates the Siegels’ intrusion into his family’s life, but refuses to give them the grudging gratitude they so clearly desire.

It is only when Asher continues to ask Nala about her “curse” that Abshir finally reprimands his unwilling benefactor. “If you put an idea in your head, he warns It can become very realIt’s a lesson that comes too late for the Siegels — and the series explores how the beliefs we hold onto can be just as destructive, for better or worse.

Emma Stone, Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie try to make their characters funny and nasty. They are an overly self-righteous left-wing caricature. Their composition is often exaggerated, and even if it is intended, the effect on the viewer can be the opposite of the original intention. The series decries bad taste, with gleeful exercise, but without going the distance necessary for comedy.

Part of that comes from Fielder’s penchant for diving into moments of awkwardness, immersing the audience in their own discomfort for much, much longer than other series that have mastered the exercise.

Other scenes simply go nowhere, and one gets the feeling that Nathan Fielder and Benny Safed might have been too confident not to pursue it. But all that weirdness and that “awkwardness”—an ugly buzzword, but one aimed at the series’ potential audience—is enough to find it an audience.

The Curse currently airs on Paramount+ one episode per week.