Like Whitney says of herself, these characters really are so complex and full of contradiction and nuance. Similar to how it is basically impossible to boil real people down to a single personality type, these characters have so many more layers than I even get into! Which is one of the reasons this show is so compelling. Comment your views on Whitney, Asher, and Dougie!
Whitney's parents were into kundalini yoga I believe that's why she went to check the place/retreat. I'm curious why the Kundalini motif appears several times.
This is such a unique, original show. The further I’m removed from this show, the more I love it. Watching it week by week, I was always very intrigued, but kinda puzzled. Seeing it as a whole now, and having time to reflect, wow, what a show. I went from thinking “I don’t know if there’s a single person I could recommend this to” to “everyone needs to see this”
That's just a great way to describe it! Wanting everyone to watch it, while also not knowing who to recommend it to 😂 Definitely thought provoking and unique
I absolutely agree on Whitney’s moment of being worshipped after the footage. I think ultimately, her curse is contradiction; she wants a proper buyer for the homes, but not /that/ proper buyer; she wants to not worry about money, but, ooh, $10k on stolen jeans is pretty tough. She wants an equal, but she also wants someone who is genuinely about her instead of trying to fill some void. I think her expression says she wants to try with Asher one last time, even though deep down, she already wants Asher gone
I really liked hearing your thoughts on this show! You did a wonderful job talking about all the many different aspects of the show and the characters. I watched The Curse recently and loved it.
I love that you took the time to watch and share your perspectives. I’d like to point out that this show is a deep character analysis of a narcissist (Whitney) and her codependent enabler (Asher). You said that Asher does not register that he was bullied by Dougie. I disagree. He deeply registers it and is horrified by what that means. He needs love desperately because he’s never received it. He’s basically begging for it from Whitney throughout the show, which disgusts her. Everyone in the show has contempt for Asher, and this fact makes him stifled in his interactions.. which generates more contempt.. and so on in a continuous downward spiral. Whitney knows this.. and feeds off of it. She exploits him for narcissistic supply. You said she seemed to genuinely find him funny. I saw love bombing. Like Asher, you are willing to see love where there is none.
Thanks for commenting! You have some interesting perspectives, and as I think about it, yoooooouu are right that Asher does realize so some extent that Dougie is not a good friend.
So many questions have answers when you consider the show is depicting/symbolizing their relationship’s dynamic (and, importantly-end). Beautifully, fluidly interconnected symbolism
Why does everyone forget Lisa Kudrow and The Comeback? The Comeback created the cringe reality spoof 20 years ago. Yes it was more comedic than The Curse, but people keep praising Nathan Fielder for his unique exploration of cringe and reality TV. The Comeback did that in 2005 and though many didn't get it at the time, it had such a cult following HBO brought it back for a second season 10 yrs later.
Its a really uncomfortable viewing experience, and i couldn't stop watching lol. Although, for both Asher AND (even more so) Whitney, it's their personalities and their world views that get them in trouble
I had to binge the show after you posted this video 😂 Excited to see you talking about TV, you give great recommendations. The Curse was such an interesting watch. Very meta and extremely uncomfortable in some scenes, I found myself tensing up. All the characters are so complex and unpredictable especially Whitney I found myself going between liking and disliking her but not being able to pinpoint why. The show was so grounded in reality the final epsiode was shocking. There’s tons to analyze with this one, I’ve seen lots of people interpret the curse differently, anyways Great watch! 📚🎬📚🎬
Glad you liked it! Totally agree about the characters, and especially Whitney being so fascinating and complex and the surrealism of the final episode really comes as such as surprise! Thanks for sharing your thoughts! Thomas Flight has a great video about it that I watched after I uploaded this one, I loved what he had to say about it so I definitely recommend checking it out!
I was happy to read both the co creators have said there is a big possibility of a season 2 and they said that was a plan from the start ! I’m not in a hurry for season 2 if it means them taking their time to make the show as good as season one!!!
There's a branch of psychology called object relations theory which implies that you're relating to someone as an object that you act upon based on your own views. In essence, we are all just actors or pawns in our own subjective drama. These 3 people were using each other to live out their own unresolved trauma. Very sad. And very accurately depicted on so many levels. Said another way, we treat each other as we wish they would be, not as they are. The other is merely a fantasy you're engaging with to meet your own needs. It sounds like a tale of a female narcissist and a male borderline. Narcissus and echo.
I've heard of that and you're right about the charges characters having that attitude towards others, especially Whitney and Dougie I would say. Thanks for commenting!
I don’t think so. Whitney asks Dougie and he says that he’s not smart enough to do that, and that cameras would be rolling if he did. Asher watches the security footage later and Dougie never goes into the bathroom.
I really liked the series and their views on this kinda fake philantropy, it was so funny how on the final episode even Whitney knew this passive homes where more ego trophies than art or a viable home for people.
i am pretty sure Asher gifting Whitney the model house/gifting the property to Abshir was part of the dream sequence due to Whitney's clear hesitation for a loss of that size (estimated 300k based on the later conversation). it reminds me of a dream where i expressed interest for an old trainset on marketplace for 50k, met up with the family, and realize i should not spend 50k on a train set, but i felt like i had already wasted so much of their time and did not want to present as someone that would do that and i felt weird pressure to buy the train set, so i did buy it, then when i realized i had spent so much money (btw the train set ended up being a fake so i couldn't even re-sell), i realized that my only way out from such a huge financial mistake and the devastation it would cause my family, and mostly just having to face them, was to end my life lol
Such a polarizing show. After reading final episode was a train wreck and beyond terrible I watched without seeing previous nine episodes and I kinda thought final was great. I can take a little magic realism every now and then like at the end of the 1999 film "Magnolia" where frogs rain down from the sky. Here's a quirky recommendation...Nathan Fielder was executive producer for the HBO show "How to with John Wilson" which is one of the strangest and mostly delightfully funny/weird shows (3 seasons 18 episodes) ever. If you've never seen it I offer my "I'll eat a bug if you hate it guarantee". All the best Laura.
Yeah I saw a couple articles saying the finale ruined the show but I didn't think that at all! I will have to check out that show! I also have been wanting to watch The Rehearsal ever since it came out but I keep putting it off, so I need to watch that too. Thanks for sharing! I hope my video helped fill in the first 9 episodes for you lol
your analysis on the ending?!?! it makes so much more sense, I just thought what happened to asher occurred from the karma he's been collecting over the series
It’s so interesting how everybody thinks Whitney is such a bad person. The human mood ring? That’s basically everyone haha. If someone being cringey makes them bad then everyone I know is a bad person.
I think that's why I find her so compelling, because she is relatable in some ways. But the way she is so self absorbed, and talks crap and her husband behind his back for the camera, and not actually caring about others is what makes her a "bad" person.
Whitney was such an interesting character. Emma Stone was so brilliant with all her small facial inflections (she reminded me of Gracie in May December). I think the idea of “good/bad person” is so subjective since we all have our own idea of morality. However Whitney manipulates the people around her (Cara, her parents, Asher) and pretends to be someone she is not (a person who cares about indigenous peoples/culture, a woman who loves/appreciates her husband, a daughter who respects/admires her parents). in these ways you could say Whitney is at least a fake person. She does “good” things like subsizing tenants rent, allowing the shoplifters to go, etc but then you have to ask why is she doing these things? Is it because she really cares or is it to create an image of someone who cares?
@camhunts yeah very true that letting go of "good" or "bad", there's no denying she is fake and disingenuous. Which comes back to her parents who are also not great people, but at least they are upfront about who they are.
she’s a RAGING narcissist. i don’t think any character in any media has mustered more hated from me than Whitney. I have far more respect for people like her parents who don’t pretend to be saviors, even if they’re slumlords.
mmmmmm should I listen or watch it first? This is the third time I've come across this show and I was a fan of the last show he did w/ the crazy rehearsals
@WhytheBookWins 😄yeah u convinced me, I watched the first bit and I was already aware of the initial premise and had seen a clip so I'm going to come back after I check out the show this weekend. I have to see what this crazy ending is about 😄
I'd disagree on couple of things. Whitney is imo not "maliciously" ignorant or has completely wrong motivation. She was raised to care about other things, and the experiences she had with her aspirational lifestyle clearly weren't enough to change her outlook and not fall back into the imaginary woke world she created for herself. Her "friends" aren't honest either, and prefer to keep the connection going to quietly bully her. I think in the second half she becomes more introspective actually. Asher imo is not exactly a coward. Sometimes he wants to do bad things but he is too afraid to admit to them afterwards. But what struck me with him is that most stuff he does or says is rarely interpreted in a way he wanted to. He only "admitted" to be a bad guy because Whitney as his translator tells him he is. In conclusion they are very sad and delusional lol
I don't know I feel it's a tad overrated. The ending is attention grabbing but the horror of the situation is never as real as they want it to be - it's a very silly situation that nobody takes seriously. And while Whitney and Asher are deeply flawed, selfish individuals, it's undeniable that everyone around them is an ass. From the comedy teacher pinning his mistakes on Asher, to Abjer's complete lack of gratitude for a misguided but extraordinarily valuable gift. And if that's the point then we'll done, genuinely, but I have the suspicion that Ash and Whitney are meant to be the Bojack-like bad guys of the story, and that's just not as interesting as the narrative beyond that. Overall I think I prefer The Rehearsal. Nathan For You is by far the easiest rewatch.
Like Whitney says of herself, these characters really are so complex and full of contradiction and nuance. Similar to how it is basically impossible to boil real people down to a single personality type, these characters have so many more layers than I even get into! Which is one of the reasons this show is so compelling.
Comment your views on Whitney, Asher, and Dougie!
Whitney's parents were into kundalini yoga I believe that's why she went to check the place/retreat. I'm curious why the Kundalini motif appears several times.
This is such a unique, original show. The further I’m removed from this show, the more I love it. Watching it week by week, I was always very intrigued, but kinda puzzled. Seeing it as a whole now, and having time to reflect, wow, what a show. I went from thinking “I don’t know if there’s a single person I could recommend this to” to “everyone needs to see this”
That's just a great way to describe it! Wanting everyone to watch it, while also not knowing who to recommend it to 😂 Definitely thought provoking and unique
I absolutely agree on Whitney’s moment of being worshipped after the footage. I think ultimately, her curse is contradiction; she wants a proper buyer for the homes, but not /that/ proper buyer; she wants to not worry about money, but, ooh, $10k on stolen jeans is pretty tough. She wants an equal, but she also wants someone who is genuinely about her instead of trying to fill some void. I think her expression says she wants to try with Asher one last time, even though deep down, she already wants Asher gone
Such a great point about her curse being contradiction! Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
I really liked hearing your thoughts on this show! You did a wonderful job talking about all the many different aspects of the show and the characters. I watched The Curse recently and loved it.
Thank you so much!!
48:30 i didn't even think about that, along with several of your takeaways in this video! thank you!
Thanks for commenting! I'm glad you liked the video 😊
I love that you took the time to watch and share your perspectives. I’d like to point out that this show is a deep character analysis of a narcissist (Whitney) and her codependent enabler (Asher). You said that Asher does not register that he was bullied by Dougie. I disagree. He deeply registers it and is horrified by what that means. He needs love desperately because he’s never received it. He’s basically begging for it from Whitney throughout the show, which disgusts her. Everyone in the show has contempt for Asher, and this fact makes him stifled in his interactions.. which generates more contempt.. and so on in a continuous downward spiral. Whitney knows this.. and feeds off of it. She exploits him for narcissistic supply. You said she seemed to genuinely find him funny. I saw love bombing. Like Asher, you are willing to see love where there is none.
Thanks for commenting! You have some interesting perspectives, and as I think about it, yoooooouu are right that Asher does realize so some extent that Dougie is not a good friend.
So many questions have answers when you consider the show is depicting/symbolizing their relationship’s dynamic (and, importantly-end). Beautifully, fluidly interconnected symbolism
its SO good. Its shot like a 10h film and its criticisms on sociopolitical climate of America are brilliant.
Why does everyone forget Lisa Kudrow and The Comeback? The Comeback created the cringe reality spoof 20 years ago. Yes it was more comedic than The Curse, but people keep praising Nathan Fielder for his unique exploration of cringe and reality TV. The Comeback did that in 2005 and though many didn't get it at the time, it had such a cult following HBO brought it back for a second season 10 yrs later.
I'll have to watch that! Thanks for sharing
@@WhytheBookWinsLouie does this too…I guess I would recommend it because there was a whole lot of people working on it minus the rotten apple. :/
I agree with you on how Asher's situation was so stressful, it's so horrible.
Its a really uncomfortable viewing experience, and i couldn't stop watching lol. Although, for both Asher AND (even more so) Whitney, it's their personalities and their world views that get them in trouble
Really enjoyed this. Entertaining and thought-provoking.
I had to binge the show after you posted this video 😂 Excited to see you talking about TV, you give great recommendations. The Curse was such an interesting watch. Very meta and extremely uncomfortable in some scenes, I found myself tensing up. All the characters are so complex and unpredictable especially Whitney I found myself going between liking and disliking her but not being able to pinpoint why. The show was so grounded in reality the final epsiode was shocking. There’s tons to analyze with this one, I’ve seen lots of people interpret the curse differently, anyways Great watch! 📚🎬📚🎬
Glad you liked it! Totally agree about the characters, and especially Whitney being so fascinating and complex and the surrealism of the final episode really comes as such as surprise! Thanks for sharing your thoughts! Thomas Flight has a great video about it that I watched after I uploaded this one, I loved what he had to say about it so I definitely recommend checking it out!
I was happy to read both the co creators have said there is a big possibility of a season 2 and they said that was a plan from the start ! I’m not in a hurry for season 2 if it means them taking their time to make the show as good as season one!!!
There's a branch of psychology called object relations theory which implies that you're relating to someone as an object that you act upon based on your own views. In essence, we are all just actors or pawns in our own subjective drama. These 3 people were using each other to live out their own unresolved trauma. Very sad. And very accurately depicted on so many levels. Said another way, we treat each other as we wish they would be, not as they are. The other is merely a fantasy you're engaging with to meet your own needs. It sounds like a tale of a female narcissist and a male borderline. Narcissus and echo.
I've heard of that and you're right about the charges characters having that attitude towards others, especially Whitney and Dougie I would say. Thanks for commenting!
48:41 there is a scene where dougie admits to whitney ( if i am not wrong) that he put the chicken on the basin in the firefighter's toilet.
I thought he always denied it 🤔 Now you have me second guessing myself though lol
@@WhytheBookWins she asked him directly ,then he gave in.
I don’t think so. Whitney asks Dougie and he says that he’s not smart enough to do that, and that cameras would be rolling if he did. Asher watches the security footage later and Dougie never goes into the bathroom.
Glad I’m not the only one who can’t stop thinking about this show. I literally feel cursed …
Whooa that's another layer to the curse 😳
I really liked the series and their views on this kinda fake philantropy, it was so funny how on the final episode even Whitney knew this passive homes where more ego trophies than art or a viable home for people.
Yeah definitely.
i am pretty sure Asher gifting Whitney the model house/gifting the property to Abshir was part of the dream sequence due to Whitney's clear hesitation for a loss of that size (estimated 300k based on the later conversation). it reminds me of a dream where i expressed interest for an old trainset on marketplace for 50k, met up with the family, and realize i should not spend 50k on a train set, but i felt like i had already wasted so much of their time and did not want to present as someone that would do that and i felt weird pressure to buy the train set, so i did buy it, then when i realized i had spent so much money (btw the train set ended up being a fake so i couldn't even re-sell), i realized that my only way out from such a huge financial mistake and the devastation it would cause my family, and mostly just having to face them, was to end my life lol
(not saying that this WAS a dream, btw, but the show expressed a confused anxiety that i frequently experience in my dreams!)
Such a polarizing show. After reading final episode was a train wreck and beyond terrible I watched without seeing previous nine episodes and I kinda thought final was great. I can take a little magic realism every now and then like at the end of the 1999 film "Magnolia" where frogs rain down from the sky. Here's a quirky recommendation...Nathan Fielder was executive producer for the HBO show "How to with John Wilson" which is one of the strangest and mostly delightfully funny/weird shows (3 seasons 18 episodes) ever. If you've never seen it I offer my "I'll eat a bug if you hate it guarantee". All the best Laura.
Yeah I saw a couple articles saying the finale ruined the show but I didn't think that at all!
I will have to check out that show! I also have been wanting to watch The Rehearsal ever since it came out but I keep putting it off, so I need to watch that too. Thanks for sharing! I hope my video helped fill in the first 9 episodes for you lol
love that show so much! I was not prepared for the vacuum episode in the final season to make me sob
The Rehearsal and Nathan For You are two hilarious shows Nathan Fielder has made. Really worth it.
your analysis on the ending?!?! it makes so much more sense, I just thought what happened to asher occurred from the karma he's been collecting over the series
I'm glad my video helped it make sense!
The curse... Sent this to my son!!
You cursed your son?
It’s so interesting how everybody thinks Whitney is such a bad person. The human mood ring? That’s basically everyone haha. If someone being cringey makes them bad then everyone I know is a bad person.
I think that's why I find her so compelling, because she is relatable in some ways. But the way she is so self absorbed, and talks crap and her husband behind his back for the camera, and not actually caring about others is what makes her a "bad" person.
Whitney was such an interesting character. Emma Stone was so brilliant with all her small facial inflections (she reminded me of Gracie in May December). I think the idea of “good/bad person” is so subjective since we all have our own idea of morality. However Whitney manipulates the people around her (Cara, her parents, Asher) and pretends to be someone she is not (a person who cares about indigenous peoples/culture, a woman who loves/appreciates her husband, a daughter who respects/admires her parents). in these ways you could say Whitney is at least a fake person. She does “good” things like subsizing tenants rent, allowing the shoplifters to go, etc but then you have to ask why is she doing these things? Is it because she really cares or is it to create an image of someone who cares?
@camhunts yeah very true that letting go of "good" or "bad", there's no denying she is fake and disingenuous. Which comes back to her parents who are also not great people, but at least they are upfront about who they are.
she’s a RAGING narcissist. i don’t think any character in any media has mustered more hated from me than Whitney. I have far more respect for people like her parents who don’t pretend to be saviors, even if they’re slumlords.
Probably white too
Excellent analysis..
Thank you!!
@
Your welcome
I saw a few other reviews of The Curse and yours was easily the Best
I shared your review on my fb page, thanks
mmmmmm should I listen or watch it first? This is the third time I've come across this show and I was a fan of the last show he did w/ the crazy rehearsals
Watch the show first! Though I am spoiler free for the first bit
@WhytheBookWins 😄yeah u convinced me, I watched the first bit and I was already aware of the initial premise and had seen a clip so I'm going to come back after I check out the show this weekend. I have to see what this crazy ending is about 😄
I'd disagree on couple of things. Whitney is imo not "maliciously" ignorant or has completely wrong motivation. She was raised to care about other things, and the experiences she had with her aspirational lifestyle clearly weren't enough to change her outlook and not fall back into the imaginary woke world she created for herself. Her "friends" aren't honest either, and prefer to keep the connection going to quietly bully her. I think in the second half she becomes more introspective actually.
Asher imo is not exactly a coward. Sometimes he wants to do bad things but he is too afraid to admit to them afterwards. But what struck me with him is that most stuff he does or says is rarely interpreted in a way he wanted to. He only "admitted" to be a bad guy because Whitney as his translator tells him he is.
In conclusion they are very sad and delusional lol
I don't know I feel it's a tad overrated. The ending is attention grabbing but the horror of the situation is never as real as they want it to be - it's a very silly situation that nobody takes seriously. And while Whitney and Asher are deeply flawed, selfish individuals, it's undeniable that everyone around them is an ass. From the comedy teacher pinning his mistakes on Asher, to Abjer's complete lack of gratitude for a misguided but extraordinarily valuable gift. And if that's the point then we'll done, genuinely, but I have the suspicion that Ash and Whitney are meant to be the Bojack-like bad guys of the story, and that's just not as interesting as the narrative beyond that.
Overall I think I prefer The Rehearsal. Nathan For You is by far the easiest rewatch.
When she gets the money from her parents for the art she asks for$30,000 instead of $20, 000 so she pockets ten for herself !!!😆😈