Review: ‘The Curse’ Episode 6
‘The Fire Burns on’, Or ‘The One Where Whitney is Insanely Unlikeable’
Over the course of just a few episodes of The Curse, I feel like I’ve gone on a journey with these characters. The journey follows a simple formula; I hate them; I sympathise with them; I hate them again.
In The Fire Burns On, the series’ sixth episode, I find it impossible not to sympathise with Asher and despise Whitney and Dougie. The episode begins with the two latter characters watching a snippet of their show, concluding that it’s boring and frictionless. What’s more, the slow zoom ins on walls coated with fresh paint are hilariously overlong. The conversations between these bit-part characters quickly reveal how hollow these sections of the episode are, lacking any conflict or rapport.
As hilarious as these moments are, what’s more impressive is that they still feel like the end product of an earnest effort from the couple and their team. It speaks to Fielder’s keen understanding of just the right buttons to press when satirising reality television, a skill he’s been able to hone for years with his work on shows like Nathan For You and The Rehearsal.
Then the conversation turns to creating conflict, with Dougie deciding that Whitney should belittle Asher in post-production, recording short videos of her criticising how he is behaving throughout each episode.
Dougie, who recently expressed remorse to Asher about bullying him even if Asher never saw it that way, is now repeating the mistakes of his younger self. As painfully awkward and ripe for mocking as Asher is, he’s put in this unwinnable situation where no matter how much effort he puts into the show, he will end up being maligned and insulted by his supposed life partner all throughout it.
What’s so frustrating is that just in the previous episode when Whitney shuts down, Asher genuinely tries to comfort her in his earnest, cringe-inducing way. In episode 3, even as he’s having a full-blown meltdown (which is exactly what Whitney needed and couldn’t bring herself to do), he’s still able to rationalise why he’s upset, telling her that she doesn’t respect his emotions.
However, in The Fire Burns On, Asher is far too preoccupied with his hunch that he’s being cursed to even notice any deception on Whitney and Dougie’s part. Even as Whitney is openly humiliating Asher by blatantly flirting on camera with one of the firemen as her husband stands beside her, it’s like he’s not there, as he sadly contemplates… a hunk of chicken in the fire station’s bathroom sink.
Yes, that is currently Asher’s big dilemma this episode. And it is hilarious, but it’s hard not to feel concerned for the guy when it has obviously rattled him. What’s more, everything that a curse represents is being displayed by his old friend and his wife. He is being ignored and side lined by them, as well as having to suffer the indignity of never having his feeling validated by Whitney.
Not only does she refuse to open up about her own problems in episode 5, she then uses Dougie to vent about Asher. Even if Asher is mostly oblivious to all this, hellbent as he is to discover the answer behind the mystery of the bathroom sink chicken, he’s effectively living with the ramifications of a curse, looked down upon and alienated by the people around him, by people who are supposed to care about him.
In a way, he is cursed, it’s just not clear if he will ever understand why or how that is. It’s fascinating, it’s hilarious, it’s depressing, and it’s extremely cynical. I could be talking just as easily about the series here than just this episode, but in The Fire Burns On, out of all the episodes so far in The Curse, these different tones are conveyed more seamlessly than ever before.
