‘The Curse’ Kicks Off With Nathan Fielder’s Micropenis
There is a trend that has been going around on social media that has been peeving me for months. The popular phrase goes something along the lines of “golden retriever girlfriend, black cat boyfriend,” or vice versa, depending on the couple. The gist of it is that one partner is bubbly and sweet, while the other is dark and quiet. I can’t put my finger on why it bugs me so much. Then along came The Curse, which perfectly illustrates why that dynamic should be sending a shiver down all of our spines.
Nathan Fielder, the king of cringe comedy, teams up with Oscar winner Emma Stone to recreate that dynamic in The Curse, Showtime’s new, wacky series. This married couple is the embodiment of the black cat BF and golden retriever GF, illustrated by their outfits in the series premiere: Asher (Fielder) sports an all-black fit, grimacing while arguing with a news anchor, while Whitney (Stone) smiles in a knit adorned with a rainbow graphic. While Asher causes chaos, Whitney smiles it all away. Welcome to the Siegel family, and welcome to The Curse.
Asher and Whitney are developing a possible HGTV show about flipping houses and battling gentrification—two opposing forces—in Española, New Mexico. While Whitney builds “passive homes,” houses that use the same amount of energy that they are able to produce, the two-person team also works to find employment for local Española residents, to keep them from being displaced by these housing developments. For example: In the opening scene of Episode 1, Whitney and Asher help an unemployed resident get a job at a coffee shop, so that he can pay for his mother’s cancer treatments.