The Emmy nominations are out, and they come with a big reminder that Emma Stone’s The Curse is a TV show more than worth a watch. It went under the radar completely at the 2024 Emmy Awards with zero nominations. With its 94% Rotten Tomatoes score, the show should slot in with other highly rated shows that did receive a nod at the 2024 award ceremony.
As of late, Emma Stone has received significant buzz for her performances. Most recently, Stone was at the forefront of the Oscar conversation with her role in Poor Things. Among its four wins was Emma Stone’s Best Actress award. Initially, it was speculated that she could take home the most coveted award on the TV side of things as well. That ultimately won’t happen though, due to The Curse being snubbed by the Emmys.
Emma Stone and Nathan Fielder’s new show, The Curse, is getting positive early reviews, but where can viewers watch the series when it premieres?
What Emma Stone’s The Curse Is About
Synopsis For The Curse
The Curse is about the couple Whitney and Asher, played by Emma Stone and Nathan Fielder. They try to break through with their reality TV show that promises to put the area of Española on the map. They hand out jobs to people in the community, build so-called passive houses, and film every step of their journey. Whether the community wants them to do all those things, though, is a whole other story and an important part of the show.
Asher, encouraged by producer Dougie (Benny Safdie), pulls a stunt for the show where he gives a young girl $100, only to take it away from her again when the cameras stop rolling. Angry, the girl tells Asher she curses him. While initially this seems harmless, over time he worries that maybe the curse did work on Asher. The show’s story revolves around the fallout from the so-called “curse.”
Why The Curse Was Snubbed By The Emmys
The Curse Did Not Receive Any Emmy Nominations
While the performance by Emma Stone did receive a Golden Globe nomination for her role as Whitney, the same can’t be said for the Emmys, which didn’t extend a nomination to the actress or any other element of the show, for that matter. Even though the show is loved by critics, it’s not surprising that it didn’t bag any nominations. Despite the high critics’ score, audiences haven’t warmed up to it with a lukewarm 43% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. While there is an audience for The Curse, it seems to have gathered more of a niche following so far.
Emma Stone’s performance in The Curse is also one of her best in recent years. She brings a certain air to Whitney, a person that initially seems like she genuinely wants to do good, but over time, she seems to have ulterior motives. While Stone is a clear draw for the show, the release of The Curse was quite close to her Oscar-winning performance in Poor Things. Instead of the buzz around her encouraging audiences to watch her other performances, most of the interest for Stone remained with the Yorgos Lanthimos comedy.
Why You Should Definitely Watch The Curse
The Curse Has Many Reasons Why It Is Worth A Watch
It’s not just Emma Stone that makes The Curse worthwhile. The Curse is a collaboration between Nathan For You‘s Nathan Fielder and Uncut Gems‘ Benny Safdie, which lends itself well to the show’s quality. This combo is a welcome one as the pair blend their unique styles for the show. Fielder is known for blurring the lines between fiction and reality in Nathan For You, and Safdie manages to make fictional films feel realistic. The Curse creates a sense of spying on real people, and long takes filmed behind windows from outside buildings make it feel like the audience is watching the couple in real-time.
Besides the stunning and sometimes eerie filmmaking techniques in The Curse, the way the characters are built up and broken down throughout the show is another reason the show is so interesting. Characters Whitney and Asher clearly have a lot of underlying issues that they are trying to hide, and it is an unraveling mystery which of the two characters genuinely cares about Española and how much of their relationship is for appearances only. Whitney also seems to hold a certain power over Asher by constantly revealing herself to be a good person that he cannot compete with.
Producer Dougie likes to manipulate the couple as well as participants on the show, in order to create a better end product. The character of Dougie adds another sense of realism to the show, as the viewer gets a peek behind the scenes of the making of a reality show. Dougie also symbolizes the idea that reality television is less real than it feels, and whether it is moral as a viewer to even watch it.
Despite its Emmys snub, The Curse is a compelling television show that hopefully will continue to be found by viewers. The series is a fascinating partnership between Fielder, Safdie, and Stone and even if award shows disagree, it’s easily one of Emma Stone’s best performances in recent times. If it receives enough interest, it could warrant the release of The Curse season 2, which has been discussed as a possibility but not confirmed as of yet.
