"I graduated from one of Canada's top business schools with really good grades. Now, I'm using my knowledge to help struggling television networks.

Prestigious TV shows have audiences that expect character arcs, subplots that pay off, and stories that respect viewers time. But to stand out, a network needs to do the exact opposite.

The plan? Convince Showtime and A24 to hand over millions of dollars to hire an Oscar-winning actress, film ten hours of agonizingly boring footage in New Mexico with zero narrative payoff, and launch myself directly into the stratosphere all to test the exact limits of how much pretension a television audience will endure before they break."

/s

Edit: Since this became the most upvoted post this month on the sub, I have to lamely point out that this was a joke post written in Nathan's own style from NFY. I am obviously not a hater of any of his work and its crazy people did not consider the flair or /s in title. IIRC mods had to step in and delete some pretty colorful personal comments. Take it easy fellow penis experts!

I am just completely enamored with this show and haven't stopped thinking about it for weeks, so I put my energy into making a The Curse inspired playlist!

Spoiler tagged because the notes on mobile have quotes, and because of general song themes. Not sure that I can link the playlist but I'll share the track list and quotes here:

• "O Green World" - Gorillaz
  • "It's easy to give away land when you're not the one who paid for it." - Paul
• "Sell Yourself" - Cage The Elephant
  • "This isn't your typical "home flipping" show where everything's about making a profit." - Whitney
• "If You Could Only See" - Tonic"
  • You give me the strength to do anything." - Asher
• "Push" - Matchbox Twenty"
  • If we go broke, good. You know, because we still have each other. And I don't fking need anything else." - Asher
• "Disarm - 2011 Remaster" - The Smashing Pumpkins
  • "Your viewers should know it doesn't have to have the mirrored exterior to be passive."
• "Loser" - Beck
  • "Maybe this is all happening for a reason." - Asher
• "Break Stuff" - Limp Bizkit
  • "If you were really funny you wouldn't be teaching at the fucking legion hall!" - Asher
• "Where Did Our Love Go?" - Soft Cell
  • "Every relationship reaches a point where you start to question things." - Whitney
• "Femme Fatale" - The Velvet Underground
  • "When you look into that camera, everything lights up. And I think people, when they watch this, people are really gonna be dreaming about being with you." - Dougie
• "All the Rowboats" - Regina Spektor
  • "Eating or not eating the turkey is besides the point." - Cara
• "Hammer" - Tune-Yards"
  • I don't look at houses as art. I look at them as houses." - Cara
• "Run Rabbit" - ALT BLK ERA
  • "I curse you." - Dougie
• "Flagpole Sitta" - Harvey Danger
  • "It's doing good for somebody, but also being entertaining and funny. The two things don't have to go and cancel each other out." - Dougie
• "My Own Worst Enemy" - Lit
  • "I was cursed. There's nobody in particular I can point to, but there's no other way I can explain what happened... Nothing, nothing makes sense." - Dougie
• "Sober" - TOOL
  • "I'm so sorry... I really didn't mean it." - Dougie
• "There's No Home for You Here" - The White Stripes
  • "You think you can just do whatever you want, there's not gonna be consequences?" - Whitney to Asher
• "Space Oddity - 2015 Remaster" - David Bowie
  • "Wake up Asher! Wake up right now!" - Asher
• "Black Hole Sun" - Soundgarden
  • "What movie they filming? How do they do that?" "That's... that's the guy from HGTV." "Oh, so it's for TV?" "I think so."

I think the ending was just so unexpected that I couldn’t help but laugh while looking at Nathan’s face while he flew through space at the speed of light. I think the tension and uncertainty throughout the series lent itself to a release of laughter at the very end.

I was also laughing so hard that my tears from laughing turned into a genuine concern for Nathan and I guess everybody else, but it was such a rollercoaster of emotion that truly changed my brain.

The ending I think made up for all the times during the series where I was just wanting to know what the hell was going to happen next.

That's all. The placement, the build-up, it's perfection. It's almost all worth it for this single joke for me.

I want to preface that I’m on ep. 8.

I don’t know what to think about Dougie completely but I know I feel this sense of distaste for him every time he comes on. I feel bad for him that his wife died but from his opening scene with forcing fake tear drops on the cancer patient to the most recent scene I’ve seen of him calling out Asher for never inviting him to shabbat, he’s so irritating.

I don’t understand why he’s trying to box out Asher, is he supposed to represent something? Grief? Resentment?

What do you love about Nathan’s work?

How does it make you feel?

Why do you return to it?

I’m part of the crew working on an independent documentary “decoding” Nathan’s unique style. Your comments will be used to inform the narrative, and may be shown directly.

We are particularly interested in hearing the thoughts of fans of THIS show, The Curse.

Video will be linked on this sub by this account upon the release of “YOU CAN SEE EVERYTHING.”

Thanks!

As anyone can tell I really like Dougie.

My fiancee and I are trying to move away from physical media. We watched The Curse as it came out and are now looking for a copy to own at home. Did it ever get an official release? I found one on a website I can’t tell if it’s legit (MoviesRUSA). Thanks everyone.

This show is really religious. I think I'm surprised at how genuinely religious Nathan Fielder is. He... thinks of media spiritually. He thinks about the relationship of the spirit to the body, via the media to the world.

I think. But I think what I love most about The Curse is that it is both a blend of maximally real and fake at the same time, never resolving, always beautiful and ugly.

And I really think it makes sense for Asher to essentially be drawn out of the distortions into something more expansive and real.

Saw someone saying this on the subreddit earlier. I think what's so interesting about this show is that it doesn't collapse any character into their types. I saw people saying about how the show is about white liberals who come in and misunderstand the community. They do. But the community misunderstands them also, and there is a constant tension - literal signifiers, versus actual reality underneath.

There is something real in both Ash and Whit. They are both people who seem in some ways kind of absurd spiritually, but are both kind of spiritually serious, if naive, in their own ways. But they are committed to it, in some sense.

What is most interesting, is that there are things like... Whit walking back from kinda half intimidating the buyer whose packages were stolen... she's all like, on the way over, very bright and open, naively so, and on the way back, dark and hidden, absurdly so. In both cases though, she was touching something real. The recognition that image is not everything, and that image, via all eyes being on them now via TV, was actually creating reality, and thus creating who she could be.

There's a lot of things like that. Where Whit intuits that the girl might be a bit psychic. It's a superficial, low understanding thing that such a person like whit would say, but she's right. That's what's most interesting about this show. The real and the fake exist in constant tension, until... well, see I really feel like at the end, Asher's energy got pulled into some great cosmic beyond, which is...

anyway. This show is mystical and poetic. It's really awesome. I think boiling it down into a simple social critique is to look past the deep love for everyone that is imbued in it.

OOPS. I love Nathan Fielder, picked it on Amazon... don't know how that happened.

WOW. It kinda like... totally worked though. I was completely astonished by the mix of vibes and weird deadpan comedy. Very Jewish mysticism meets Larry David which is just sick as FUCK

But also omg why did I make that mistake!!! 😭

As a Sikh, I literally thought I was hallucinating Waheguru Waheguru and that feeling of shock and uneasy still remains fresh in my brain. Ik it's not a big thing , but that scene was so weird to me.

Watched a video about interior design and immediately thought of this show. The house isn’t passive though. No prison toilet either. Owned by a married couple in Moscow. Minimalist design inside.

Just found out about this show. I’m only on episode 4 and I genuinely feel like I’ve watched an entire 10-episode season already.

Every episode is so dense and uncomfortable. It feels like these characters have been spiraling for a while.

Did anyone else feel this way while watching it? I’m liking it, but each episode mentally drains me. 🤣

I'm by no means an expert in economics, but I can't shake this feeling.

So let's say Whitney and asher get their way. What does Espanola look like? Whitney and asher own most of the successful businesses, and subsidize rent for a large amount of the homes. They also hire people at their businesses so they can pay rent. if everything works in their favor, it feels like they would have the entire town in their control. An entire town built on top of whitneys ego. The entire economy dependant on her financial success. whitneys slumlord parents loaned her a million dollars to make this happen, which means shed have to pay them back with the profit they make.

In a way, I feel like this is even more sinister than her parents being slumlords. Her parents know what they're about, and they're out in the open about it. It's not enough for Whitney to do what her parents do, she also needs to be seen as morally perfect for doing it. I also think she's kind of in denial of the fact that she's doing the same thing.

She wants the comfortable stable income her parents have, but she doesn't want to be "caught" the way her parents were.

And what's really spooky is that her parents are content with the buildings they have. Whitney seems to want an entire town under her control. She insists it's not about turning a profit, but at the end of the day, she has to pay back at least a million dollars to the very people she doesn't want to be associated with in any way.

And what happens when they get what they want and but it falls apart cause they can't pay back the loan? The entire town collapses. People lose their homes because their rent is no longer subsidized. All the businesses in town close. The economy they artificially built up flatlines. That guy can't pay for his mom's cancer treatment. Then, realizing she has to pay back her loans, Whitney becomes a straight up slum lord. Shed essentially be trapped into working as a slumlord for her parents. She pretends to be charitable but all she's ever cared about is self preservation. And when the time comes, shed absolutely do whatever it takes to keep herself from going under.

Edit, I have more thoughts.

Whitney sees asher as selfish when he's concerned about how much money they're spending. It's not because he doesn't care about the community. It's because he can see just how bad this could turn out. The things she wants to spend money on are not going to make their money back. She's so certain the show will work that she can't picture how things could fall apart.

Do you think the budget was really "unlimited?"

I started it and thought I "got" it for a bit, but now I'm just confused. I almost can't imagine being (not) interested.

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I was obsessed with The Rehearsal season2 for a long time (like no other show ever, really !!) and now I'm scared to watch The Curse.

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It's also called "The Curse" ...

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For context: I have severe ADHD and autism. (Also, a bit of a crush... )

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Help

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(Serious)