Television series
The Curse
A newlywed couple in New Mexico tries to launch an eco-conscious home-improvement show while navigating an alleged curse, a chaotic producer, and the corrosive weight of being watched. It's comedy and unease braided together, watching intelligent people make increasingly complicated choices. For fans of awkward social friction and stories that prize discomfort over resolution.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you love comedy that squirms, where the joke is the gap between how people see themselves and how they behave, and you don't mind staying with a character who keeps making it worse.
Skip it if you want a clean laugh or a story that resolves neatly; its discomfort is the point, and the mood can feel bleak and airless for long stretches.
What it asks of you: Ten episodes of about 54 minutes each, played deadpan and slow, so it wants patience and close attention to what's left unsaid rather than constant jokes.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Succession2018
Ruthless family dynamics, sharp dialogue, and characters trapped in systems of their own making. Like The Curse, it finds dark comedy in watching competent people sabotage themselves.
But It's a long commitment (four seasons) and can feel airless. Some find the characters too rich and awful to care about.
Schitt's Creek2015
A couple rebuilds their life in a small town they think they're too good for. The show balances genuine warmth with satire of performative morality, much like The Curse's core tension.
But The early seasons lean broad. If you hate fish-out-of-water comedy, you'll bounce off before it deepens.
Staged2020
Real chaos intruding on performed life: two actors try to rehearse via Zoom as their homes, families, and egos collapse. Meta and funny without losing the genuine strain underneath.
But Only two seasons and quite short. Some find the self-referential comedy exhausting rather than clever.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Curse
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
The Morning Show2019
Both are structured around the production of a show-within-the-show, and both understand that the machinery of media can become the entire story, consuming the people inside it.
Behind a major network morning show, egos and power collapse when a scandal breaks. It shares The Curse's fascination with how media production creates its own reality, separate from truth.
But Season one is taut; seasons two and three dilute the premise with too many characters and subplots. Start it knowing you might not finish.
More like this (7)
The White Lotus2021
Tropical resort, beautiful people, moral rot just beneath the surface. It shares The Curse's interest in how performance and reality warp each other in contained spaces.
But Anthology format means no recurring characters if you want to keep watching. Season two is notably darker.
Network1976
A satire about TV eating people from the inside out, where the system corrupts faster than anyone can resist. Prescient, furious, and genuinely hilarious.
But It's an angry movie from 1976 about 1976 problems. The satirical distance might feel like a lecture depending on your mood.
Marriage Story2019
A couple coming apart in real time, watched by lawyers and judges and friends. Raw dialogue, no easy answers, both of them right and wrong at once.
But It's a grief film disguised as a divorce film. Not an evening for escapism; it will sit with you for days.
Veep2012
Ambitious people in a dysfunctional system, destroying themselves through ambition and miscommunication. Faster and meaner than The Curse, but the same skeleton.
But Seven seasons of escalating cynicism. Some find the relentless cruelty exhausting by the end.
The Girlfriend Experience2016
A law student performs intimacy for money. It's about the performance itself—how we construct selves for audiences, and what it costs. Slow, strange, completely original.
But Experimental structure and long takes will feel boring if you want plot momentum. Very much asks you to sit in discomfort.
Made for Love2021
A woman escapes a tech-billionaire husband who implanted a chip in her brain. Dark comedy about control, autonomy, and how marriage warps when one person has power. Weird and fun.
But Only two seasons before cancellation. The tonal shifts between comedy and genuine creepiness can feel uneven.
A Separation2011
Both understand that couples arguing are also performing—for each other, for witnesses, for the audience. Both ask whether sincerity can survive the moment someone is watching.
An Iranian couple's divorce spirals across class, law, and ethics as each tries to prove they're the moral one. Devastatingly sharp about how arguments become performances, and how good intentions curdle.
But No resolution, no catharsis. It ends leaving you holding all the pieces. Not in English, and the legal framework may feel foreign.
People
Cast
Writing
- Benny SafdieCreator
- Nathan FielderCreator
Production
- Ali HertingExecutive Producer
- Benny SafdieExecutive Producer
- Dave McCaryExecutive Producer
- Emma StoneExecutive Producer
- Josh SafdieExecutive Producer
- Nathan FielderExecutive Producer