We already know Nathan Fielder can build a house and make a TV show about it — just go back and watch The Rehearsal. Now, he’s committing to the bit by playing a cheery HGTV-style home-flipper in the trailer for Showtime television series The Curse, created by Fielder and Benny Safdie. In it, Fielder and Emma Stone have moved to the southwestern town of Española to do some gentrifying, captured on-camera by Safdie in a really cool wig. “This isn’t your typical home-flipping show. My homes are reflecting the local community,” Stone says in voice-over, as she stands in front of a house that is entirely covered in reflective siding, which we’re sure won’t lead to some kind of disaster in the blinding sun. “And we’re husband and wife. So what can go wrong?” Just ask Chip and Joanna Gaines.
The real meat of the trailer begins when Safdie asks Fielder to “grab a quick shot” of Fielder giving money to a Black girl in a parking lot, and when the camera stops rolling, he snatches it back from her, because the $100 bill was all he had on him. Looking back at the footage, he and Stone see the girl say, “I curse you.” From there, everything seems to unravel: There’s marital tension, tension between the couple and the community, a car swerving off-road, and guys with guns. “This thing that you’re doing right now, it’s helping the community. It’s immune to criticism,” Safdie says in voice-over while he applies fake tears to an old woman. Forget the Magnolia Network comparisons — this might actually be the first great work of art about Mr. Beast. With Fielder directing, A24 co-producing, and guest appearances from Barkhad Abdi, Corbin Bernsen, and Constance Shulman, The Curse premieres November 10 on “Paramount+ with Showtime plan only,” if that makes sense to you.
