Episode 1 of Showtime’s The Curse (Season 1), which is co-created and written by Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie, has to be one of the most uncomfortable pieces of television you’ll see all year. Starring the co-creators alongside Emma Stone, the A24-backed series follows Whitney (Stone) and Asher Siegal (Fielder), a recently married couple who are working on a new HGTV show titled Flipanthropy while Dougie (Safdie) is helping them turn their naive and problematic infomercial of a show into something better. However, the entire thing only turns sour and extremely odd for the couple when a mishap happens.
Let’s dive into the premiere episode of The Curse in more detail below. Please be aware that the article will be full of spoilers.
The Curse (Season 1), Episode 1 “Land of Enchantment” Recap:
Asher and Whitney have been married for almost a year. The episode introduces us to the couple as they are trying to make a reality show that will somehow allow them to help the local community of Español. The opening sequence digs into the facade of reality shows and their scripted emotions. The recording is taking place in Fernando’s house, who Ash and Whitney are trying to help out by offering a full-time job at the local coffee shop. Since Dougie, who is the creator behind the reality show, wants Fernando’s mother to show some real emotions, he stoops as low as putting water into her eyes in spite of knowing that she is suffering from a terminal illness.
Ash and Whitney get uncomfortable when Doguie goes to this extent just to get his perfect shot, but we soon learn that their uncomfortableness doesn’t come from their empathy towards the ailing women but because capturing this instance or them being a part of this ordeal may tarnish their reputations.
Now, to give you more context, Ash and Whitney are trying to basically revitalize the community by offering eco-friendly homes in Whitney’s signature style. They will sell these passive homes to rich folks and use the money they make out of these wealthy gentrifiers by allowing the local community to flourish by bringing in income and prosperity. To promote this ideology and bring Española up from the ground, they are making a show called ‘Flipanthropy,’ which will showcase everything that they are doing, including using the money they make to subsidize rent for the locals.
Ash and Whitney’s Desperate Gamble to Salvage Their Image
One of the first steps to promote the show involves Ash and Whitney sitting down with a local news channel that wants to interview the Siegles. Since the two of them think that the news interview would be a good publicist for them, they sit down with the interviewers right in front of the coffee shop that is being inaugurated. The same coffee shop where they had offered Fernando a job.
However, things turn south when Whitney’s father, Paul – the infamous ‘slumlord’ of Espanola, is brought up during the interview. It seems obvious that the couple has tried their best to keep their association with Whitney’s father a secret, even going to the extent of saying that their operation and vision are not like her ruthless father. However, the interviewer kept plodding them about Paul instead of asking them about their show. This makes Ash really angry, and he lashes out at the interviewer, Monica, on air. His snapping out, in turn, brings an end to the interview, and the couple soon realizes that their story will eventually turn sour and make their ambitious project come down in bad light.
So, the two of them decide that Ash would have to sell a metier story to Monica in exchange for not airing his freak-out and hypocrisy for the world to see. The couple unanimously decided that they would be pitching the story of Ash working in a casino before they started working together. Since he is aware of what shady activities went down there behind closed doors, he offers a part of that story to Monica, who gets intrigued and calls him to a nearby Subway outlet to have a chat.
Dougie’s ulterior motives and the awkward family dynamics
This is where we also learn that Dougie is out there trying to somehow sabotage (or maybe save?) their show by trying to get the couple to confess or do something truly odd on screen. To capture one of these things, he asks Ash to offer money to a little girl who is trying to sell sprites in the parking lot where they are waiting. Dougie insists that he offers the girl some money, and he captures it on camera. However, since Ash doesn’t have anything smaller than a 100$ bill, he gives it to the little girl and then later snatches it away from her, saying that he will give her a smaller bill by going to the nearby shop.
The girl, on the other hand, is not having any of his bullshit. She goes ahead and curses Ash, punctuating the first not-so-self-serious sequence of the show. Ash is not moved, but he sure wants to help the girl out, so he asks her and her father and sister to stay in the lot as he goes into a store to get some change. The episode’s funniest scene is when Ash is trying to get money out of an ATM, and a local helps him do it, but he stammers to share his PIN with him.
Anyway, when he comes out with the money, the girl or her father and sister are not to be found, so Ash goes in to talk to Monica about his story. However, he messes up again, but Monica still promises to drop his freakout incident if he is able to provide her with some concrete proof against the casino.
Later, we see Ash and Whitney visit Paul and Whitney’s mother for Shabbat. Some really awkward ‘small dick’ moments tells us that this is going to be super odd ride from here on out. Audiences not anticipating to see Nathan Fielder bare it all will not be able to consume ‘cherry tomatoes’ in the same way ever again. Additionally, one more layer of the relationship between Ash and Whitney is revealed when they have sex. We can clearly see that this is not as straightforward as we anticipate and since there is no better way to describe it, Ash and Whitney have sex with the help of a vibrator that they colleftively call ‘Steven’ as Ash jerks off by her feet.
The Curse (Season 1), Episode 1 “Land of Enchantment” Ending, Explained:
Is Ash able to lift the curse?
Till this point in the show, we have seen Ash going by and messing things up for the couple. So, when they sit down with Doguie to see the footage of the proposed pilot that they are trying to pitch to HGTV, Whitney stumbles onto the footage of Ash giving and taking away the 100$ bill from the little girl and the curse she instills on him. While Ash is completely unharmed by this incident, Whitney is pretty serious about it. She then insists that Ash should go find the girl and give her that 100$ bill so that no bad luck comes their way.
Ash drives around searching for the little girl, her father, or her sister but lands in an inoperative homeless shelter with none of them anywhere around. Now, as we know of Ash by now, he will do anything to appease people and get his wife off his back. So, instead of trying more, he hands over the 100$ to another poor woman and blatantly lies to Whitney about the curse being lifted. Since we, as audiences, are aware of this lie, we can now anticipate something truly chaotic or horrific coming towards the Siegels.
Additionally, another intriguing aspect of the show would be Dougie’s interest in Whitney. Since Ash and Whitney have a tumultuous sexual and intimate relationship, the sequence where Doguie flirts with her can be seen as a red-hearing of what could happen between them.
That and more, next week.
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