After the strange and wild ride that was The Rehearsal, we can’t wait to see more from Nathan Fielder. Luckily, we won’t have to wait much longer because The Curse, the new series Fielder created with Benny Safdie, will be coming out soon! Starring Fielder and Emma Stone as a married couple who host an HGTV house-flipping show, The Curse looks to be a hilarious and bizarre series.
Editor’s Note: This piece was updated on October 1, 2023.
When and Where Can You Watch ‘The Curse’?
Image via A24/Paramount+
The Curse will initially be available to stream on Paramount+ with Showtime and on-demand starting on November 10, 2023. The series will then have a linear debut on Showtime on November 12.
The series is set to premiere its first three episodes during the New York Film Festival, which runs at Lincoln Center from September 29 through October 15.
Is There a Trailer for ‘The Curse’?
“Did you know you can put out fires with the sun?”
An eerie minute-long teaser trailer for The Curse was released on Showtime’s YouTube channel on September 27, 2023. The preview doesn’t reveal too much and instead consists of the characters played by Stone and Fielder awkwardly filming an intro for an episode of their home renovation show, as the camera slowly begins to zoom out from them and ominous music plays in the background.
Who Stars in ‘The Curse’?
The Curse stars Nathan Fielder and Emma Stone as a husband and wife house-flipping team. Fielder, who plays Asher, is hot off his unsettling 2022 series The Rehearsal which seamlessly mixed reality and simulation with remarkable results. Fielder was also the star of the Comedy Central docuseries Nathan for You, a hilarious series focusing on him helping struggling businesses, often to mixed results. Fielder’s awkward earnestness is what made The Rehearsal and Nathan for You work, so it will be exciting to see him in a different kind of project. Outside of playing himself, Fielder has also appeared in films such as The Night Before and The Disaster Artist.
Academy Award winner Emma Stone also stars in The Curse, playing Asher’s wife, cohost, and business partner Whitney. Stone is known for roles including Wichita in the Zombieland films, Gwen Stacy from The Amazing Spider-Man movies, Olive from Easy A, Mia from La La Land, and she played the titular role in Disney’s Cruella.
Benny Safdie also stars, playing the producer of Asher and Whitney’s show. Safdie has made a name for himself for both his filmmaking and his acting. He was recently in Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret, Licorice Pizza, and Oppenheimer.
In addition to its fantastic main cast, The Curse also boasts an impressive supporting cast with Constance Shulman, Corbin Bernsen, and Academy Award nominee Barkhad Abdi having all been confirmed to be guest starring in the series. Shulman has previously voiced Doug Funnie’s love interest Patty Mayonnaise in the classic Nickelodeon series Doug and played Yoga Jones in Netflix’s Orange is the New Black. You may also recognize her as Helen in the series Search Party. Corbin Bernsen has been in everything from L.A. Law to JAG to The White House Plumbers, but he is probably best known as Shawn’s dad Henry from the USA series Psych. Barkhad Abdi has previously been in Captain Phillips, the Hulu anthology series Castle Rock, and Blade Runner 2049. He also worked alongside Safdie on the film Good Time.
What Is ‘The Curse’ About?
With a plot that focuses on “how an alleged curse disturbs the relationship of a newly married couple as they try to conceive a child while co-starring in their new home-improvement show,” The Curse doesn’t sound like anything else on television right now. The show’s tone is described as “genre-bending,” seamlessly touching on topics of class, race, and gentrification, as Whitney and Asher must struggle with the ethical implications of inflicting their house-flipping services on a struggling New Mexico town. The Curse, a series about filming a series called “Flipanthropy,” is looking like a must-watch for fans of the Safdies and Nathan Fielder.
Who Is Making ‘The Curse’?
In addition to starring in The Curse, Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie are also the show’s co-creators and co-writers. Fielder has previously written and directed The Rehearsal. Safdie also has multiple writing credits, including for the Adam Sandler-led film Uncut Gems, which Benny Safdie also co-directed with his brother Josh Safdie.
In addition to Fielder, The Curse’s directors include Nathan Zellner and David Zellner. The Zellners previously wrote Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter, which was directed by David. The duo also co-wrote and co-directed the Robert Pattinson film Damsel.
All three of The Curse’s stars, Fielder, Stone, and Safdie, are executive producers, as is Benny Safdie’s brother and collaborator Josh. Stone’s producing partners Dave McCary and Ali Herting are also executive producing the series.
Shows Like ‘The Curse’
The Watcher (2022)- This Ryan Murphy series is often billed as true crime, but the number of liberties The Watcher takes with its source material makes its genre hard to classify. Focusing on a family whose dream home becomes a nightmare after strange and threatening letters begin appearing, The Watcher, like The Curse, touches on how cut-throat and intense the world of high-stakes real estate can be.
Flip or Flop (2013-2022)- The real show that The Curse likely owes the most to, Flip or Flop is an HGTV classic. Starring former husband and wife Christina Haack and Tarek El Moussa, the series shows the two working through the process of buying, renovating, and selling dilapidated houses.
UnREAL (2015-2018)- This Lifetime original series was created by Marti Noxon and Sarah Gertrude Shapiro and chronicled the backstage drama and producer interference on the fictional dating show Everlasting. Starring Shiri Appleby as a producer who struggles with the ethics of the show’s manipulation, UnREAL focused on the ways the producers manufactured drama to ensure the audience received the over-the-top excitement they demanded. UnREAL wasn’t always the most realistic look at making reality television, but it sure was fun.