Nathan For You

With “The Curse” ending on Jan. 12, Safdie isn’t sure about a second season. “There’s a lot more fun to be had in this world. It’s not off the table,” he says. “There are ideas, but it’s definitely too premature to put them out into the world.”

Well that was a very satisfying on-screen translation of something that I've spent large amounts of idle time imagining throughout my life.

Uh

I knew there was no way I could guess what was going to happen this episode and I was right.

I just don’t even know how to react to it. I’m trying to decide if it was all just a big troll.

My interpretation

a curse was placed on Whitney at some point due to her and her parents being slum lords. That curse is lifted when she agrees to give away a house for no charge — even paying the property taxes — as Asher’s “gift” to her. Asher unwittingly seals his fate here though as he is Whitney’s curse. So as the physical manifestation of that curse, once it’s lifted he is physically removed as well.

hmmm...I like this interpretation.

God DAMN this was good.

I'm ... at a loss.

the scene regarding the “gift” was great, though. is this wanted? is it actually a burden and not a gift? the recipient seemed to understand a lot more about the implications and it answered the question about whether Whitney and Asher ever understood anything about what housing means as a basic need and the struggles people face. they don’t!

pretty funny after finding out that Whitney tried to shrug off her parents having an actual problem tenant. the way to not be a slumlord is to just let people do whatever and eat the cost and that makes you good. keep paying for those pants

the scene regarding the “gift” was great, though. is this wanted? is it actually a burden and not a gift?

I think the point is that it is an act of aggression from Asher, him telling her he knows this is what she would want when he knows it's NOT AT ALL what she wants but it's what she has to assert that she wants lest her entire concept-edifice break down; but she fights back, not letting the edifice break down, not breaking character and acting the part of the person who wants to give the house away, COLLABORATING with Abshir in denying Asher the whatever-it-is he's going for

oh I was referring to the man receiving the house as the gift receiver. from Asher to Whitney, it’s definitely him doing what she’s telegraphed but her moral compass doesn’t actually point anywhere because she just does something other than what she thinks is wrong

which means a different, also wrong thing

Per that hidden text up there, I think Asher was, or may have been, her curse, but the curse is (literally) lifted because Dougie (re)curses Asher, sucking him up to space. Granted, that (re)curse happened months before this final episode, and I'm totally stumped at what the unseen dynamics of the previous many months (after Asher's meltdown) might have been like, or even where their relationship stands at the start of this one. And the show was apparently a success? Kinda unclear. Of course, if the show were not called The Curse I'm not sure how much we're supposed to be seriously considering the curse stuff at all. For sure I was not expecting the explicit turn to magic realism, though I'm not at all sure what it's supposed to mean. I guess in the best way.

in the moment, she can’t come up with a reason why gifting Abshir the house is wrong. but Abshir makes it clear that it’s not ideal and she definitely feels vindicated. it’s Asher’s pants moment

well that was weirdly moving, cathartic even

I think there has to be some significance from Asher getting pulled away at that particular moment, right after giving away the house. If there is a curse that is lifted by that specific act, I don't think the recipient has to be grateful under the terms of the curse. It just has to be a major action that they receive zero benefit from, not even the feeling of satisfaction of the recipient being grateful.

I don't think Dougie has the ability(?) to curse Asher. Him believing he did is meant to compound the guilt and torture he already lives with.

Also, I think Judaism factors in to what happens but I don’t know enough to theorize.

Unpacking this show's relation to Jewish thought would require.... a serious man

Don’t know if the Alice Coltrane song playing had any significance but this was some sub Kaufmanesque shit…I mean seriously

I felt like Dougie’s breakdown at the end wasn’t because he felt responsible for cursing Asher. I think he was finally accepting that he had been a huge asshole, all the way up to the previous few hours. Compared, say, to his inability to take any responsibility for his wife’s death.

I haven't gone back and checked the exact chronology of events on screen (and maybe they're not shown in strict order anyway) but my immediate thoughts are that Asher is reborn as their own son David, and the curse therefore is being the baby to Whitney that he always aspired to be, and of course more generally samsara, or gilgul in Judaism. On the other hand, perhaps the good deed that he did for Abshir ensures he will be born to a loving mother, and exactly who he would have chosen.* This also fits in with my own impression that Asher's fate cannot be described as purely negative or a punishment as such - look how it's portrayed, the strange peace and transcendence (literally heh) and magnificence he achieves; he is the first human being in history to do that, or perhaps he is a modern day Elijah. John the Baptist is sometimes considered the reincarnation of Elijah based on Jesus' ambiguous words in Matthew 17:12-13, and John has come to prepare the way for Jesus, who was often referred to as "the new David", and of course "the son of David". So Asher has had greatness thrust upon him, like Jesus in Gethsemane, and maybe this is the curse, that he is being used for a higher purpose.

*I know that it's tempting to regard this as a humiliating sexual kink only, but I think Asher's psychological need for love and acceptance, as well as the general Freudian ideas of all men needing their wives to be their mothers, does elevate it to a more noble plane, potentially, if we choose to see it that way... It could however lead perfectly into the main comic horror theme for a second season if Whitney begins to realise that David is Asher reincarnated...

i just started watching this and blazed through 3 episodes in one afternoon on my day off. will go back and read thread when i am caught up!!

I finished it last night. Wowee!

usually shows that have this many anxiety-inducing moments in just the first twenty minutes of the episode stress me out but I'm engrossed instead.

ok finishing ep 1!

Nathan Fielder is dripping slime

Asher's "you're not validating me" tirade equal parts uncomfortable and yet funny in its patheticness

I like how they're both bad people in very different ways.

i’ve binged this past week & am on episode 9

re the bowling scene: asher wearing the bowling glove made me lol so hard. the accuracy of that small detail fits so perfectly with how much of a total knob he is

In retrospect I feel like this show would be better as a binge than a weekly drip.

finale: i feel like i was just tricked into going to a live improv show without my consent

somehow i knew this would happen
and yet i am still mildly annoyed lol

It's great as a binge!! I finished ep 8 and so far the time during this entire show when i was the most stressed out was when Dougie was driving. Esp when they were rapping/Dougie wouldn't stop holding up the magazine. I noticed that we know so little about Asher -- we know primarily 3 things:
He went to camp with Dougie as a kid and was bullied by him, he worked in a casino and laughed at an addict, and he came to the Southwest because of a prior relationship that didn't work out. Oh and that he has a small penis but that is ongoing, not backstory

Oh I also got a little nervous during the art party bc Cara and the elevator man?

Whatever you think about the finale, a lot of the talk I saw of this show was about how no one was watching it, now I see a bunch of people catching up.

yeah i think the fact that it's interesting to talk about is drawing some people in that otherwise would've skipped it b/c it can be so uncomfortable to watch. my friend said she literally has to look away from the screen sometimes, which i find relatable. i found myself checking texts and stuff to avoid having to watch certain conversations play out

I was drawn in by being told it had the pace of Uncut Gems and was set in a place we had literally just passed through on a trip to NM. I got a lot more than I bargained for to say the least.

I haven’t watched the last two eps yet and I keep wondering about Asher and how he got that way — what’s his family like? What was the failed relationship like? How did he and Whitney meet? I loved Dougie’s line about cosplaying as a good guy. Dougie otm.

i saw a couple of ilxors talk about it on social media elsewhere, and learned that it was a fictional drama which interested me
before that i had assumed it was more like nathan for you

overall i liked it more than i expected to
but i see now that it is prob 90% red herrings & 10% actual story lol

the interpersonal relationship stuff was so well observed

i think that’s what ultimately kept me watching

Whatever you think about the finale, a lot of the talk I saw of this show was about how no one was watching it, now I see a bunch of people catching up.

― Chris L, Friday, January 19, 2024 10:42 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Speaking personally, I knew I wanted to watch this show from the moment it was announced, but I waited until this month to sign up for a Paramount Plus With Showtime subscription so I could binge it and then cancel the sub.

Man Asher is an asshole and a bad husband but the shit Whit did to him in Ep 9 with the pottery video bombshell is still mega cruel.

And then he manages to do something to make me like him even less lol

Started in and am existentially bummed out because in the early 1990s I spent some time in the San Luis Valley/Southern CO/Northern NM territory and miss what it was like 30 years ago. The Rio Grande Cafe on the old Los Alamos Hwy in Espanola had the most amazing huevos rancheros.

HOLY FUCK the finale

How can you guys binge this?? I watched one episode and had to shower and take an anti-anxiety

i actually often would distract myself on my phone while watching.

leave it to Vanity Fair to have the worst take on the finale lmao

idk i kind of agreed w him

the part at the end where the doctor asks if Whitney wants to see if her husband has arrived and she hesitates and says "sure" was a great moment for Emma Stone. she was caught up in the panic of the horrific situation with Asher and being in excruciating pain but she feels free without him, he's an afterthought now that she has her beautiful baby, and won't be tied down by him and his desperate attempts to abase himself for her.

also the moment where Whitney mocks Asher for being such a nice guy and his 'there will be consequences' tough guy act was equal parts funny and devastating, like masterful moment from Emma Stone there as well

anyway I loved the finale. lot to ponder on, but the sheer absurd horror of it is something I'll not soon forget

I can’t say watching this show gave me noticeable anxiety? I binged without incident.

Haven’t read anything about the ending but did have some interesting convos about it. I keep thinking about all the things in the last ep, not the least of which was that charade about the house & Abshir.

they were so grossly patronizing to Abshir throughout the whole thing and he was one of the most normal people in the entire show

That model with the tiny figures of them waving outside…

I loved watching their faces when he asked about the property taxes.