Paramount+/Showtime’s wildly audacious “The Curse” has to be seen to be believed. It’s no doubt an uncomfortable watch, but it’s also one of the most daringly bold, absurdist and rule breaking shows ever put on on television. This is not hyperbole.
Benny Safdie and Nathan Fielder’s series, which came out in November, is a mix of domestic drama, horror, satire and docu-fiction. Is it even fully scripted? We already know about Safdie’s work with brother Josh, but Fielder is a genuine comedic genius.
Safdie co-stars as a reality TV producer who follows a, supposedly, cursed married couple (Emma Stone and Fielder) as they co-star in their problematic new HGTV show. Actually, that’s too simple a description. There’s a lot more to “The Curse” than just a simple synopsis because it tends to, frequently, delve into the unexplainable.
All of this to say, it turns out that Christopher Nolan is also a huge fan of ”The Curse”and is so enthusiastic about the series that he decided to moderate a 25-minute Q&A with Fielder and Safdie, right in the middle of Oscar season (via The Playlist).
Nolan says for those who think they know where the show is eventually heading, “You do not.” And, he’s right. In the Q&A, Nolan praised the series and said it was groundbreaking. “It’s an incredible show, and it’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen on television before.”
There are so few shows that come along that have genuinely no precedence. You’re going back to things like ‘Twin Peaks,’ or ‘The Prisoner,’ or Dennis Potter’s ‘Singing Detective’ and things like that, so you’re in an amazing space, and I can’t wait to catch up with the climax.
The conversation is well worth a listen, and if you still haven’t seen “The Curse,” then please change that immediately. It’s incredibly rare to find a show that manages to reinvent the way a story can be told — Safdie and Fielder have done just that.