Review: ‘The Curse’ Episode 8
In episode 8 of The Curse, Down and Dirty, Asher hasn’t been able to shake the feeling that he is being toyed with by cosmic forces. The series, which has adopted slow zoom ins on characters and objects to add an element of encroaching terror into its storylines, places Asher in full focus as Whitney puts on a childish voice at the start of the episode, sarcastically commending him for his empathy.
As he watches her, mouth agape, unable to decipher what she’s experiencing or what this outburst means for their relationship, it’s as if he’s slipped through the cracks of the Earth and descended into hell. The feeling is replicated when Dougie brings up Asher’s cuckoldry in an interview for the show, right in front of the crew members as he is under the glare of the Fliplanthropy cameras.
Dougie has little regard for Asher’s existence, and this episode cleverly parallels that with how Cara and her friend treat Whitney. These characters see Asher and Whitney for what they are rather than the image of themselves they hope to project. The key difference here is that for as awkward and inept as Asher is, he’s rarely performing. He can put on an agreeable expression and lend an occasional smile for the cameras, but this is only for the sake of politeness and showmanship.
Whitney’s action are almost always performative, which calls into question what she even believes. While initially I was under the impression that her self-delusion was so strong that she’d convinced herself she cared about people, her callousness towards Fernando hints at the cracks forming in her façade. Asher is correct in trying to rebuke Fernando for his behaviour, since he acts aggressively towards them, his hand gravitating towards his gun as he continues to swear and shout at the couple.
Instead of providing any pushback, Whitney tries to deescalate the tense situation, before calling the man a coward after he’s left and telling Asher that he should be fired. This is a rare case of Asher having the correct moral response, where he attempts to defend his wife’s honour and let Fernando know what he’s doing is inappropriate, while still believing that he shouldn’t be fired for his actions. But Whitney, for all her moral posturing, can’t bring herself to be honest with Fernando.
I’m starting to notice that Asher is almost always honest and transparent around Whitney, since he views her as his shining light, so he constantly tries to paint himself as someone better to emulate her delusional self-image. But Whitney is only comfortable behaving like herself around Asher now that she is able to accept that she looks down on him, showing him her true colours while concealing them around everyone else. As for what it means for the series, I simultaneously can’t wait and anxiously anticipate how this toxic trainwreck of a relationship will turn out in the show’s next two episodes.
The inherent creepiness of this series, from its camera movements, the characters’ pitfalls, and its haunting soundtrack, always give the impression that just about anything could happen. When Asher stands over Dougie near the beginning of the episode, it’s impossible to decipher what he’s planning on saying or doing. Given what happened before this, I wouldn’t have been surprised if he assaulted Dougie.
The interaction is fairly amicable, while still offering a hint of tension and foreboding that lingers over the pair’s interactions throughout Down and Dirty. It reaches its peak when Asher, tired of being the victim of Dougie’s demeaning comments, brings up the producer’s dead wife. Here it’s Asher’s brutal honesty as he’s defending himself that leaves Dougie feeling devastated by the episode’s conclusion.
As for Cara, Whitney’s delusions of grandeur grind her down and drain her emotionally. After the artist describes her work, her very pretentious work, depicting it as a pained and tragic expression of the Native American experience, Whitney responds with the same level of fake adoration she’s always given. In reality this is just content for Fliplanthropy, since it’s been obvious from the outset of The Curse that Whitney only superficially cares about Cara’s artwork.
Cara’s rare glimpse of honesty is reflected in Dougie’s plea to Nala to curse him, yet both outpourings of the heart offer no catharsis for these characters. Whatever the intentions behind Fliplanthropy are, Whitney and Asher, as well as their documentary series, have brought themselves and others nothing but heartache.
It’s a fitting choice, then, for Asher to comment on Dougie’s dead wife after Dougie’s plea, and for Whitney’s cameraperson to not have any usable audio at hand to record Cara’s heartfelt interpretation of her work. With the latter example, the footage wouldn’t have been used anyway in a show as saccharine and fake-happy as Fliplanthropy. Even still, it marks a tragic conclusion in the episode for these two deeply unlikable characters.
I can understand why many viewers would be put off by The Curse, and I recognise that it is not a show for a mainstream audience. For those that appreciate it, it’s a masterstroke of tension and humour. But its greatest quality is the series’ ability to make us pity these awful people. It has excelled at this quality time and time again throughout its eight episodes. I’m not sure how it can possibly conclude this story on a satisfying note in just two more episodes, but after such an impressive run, I have no doubts about the storytelling abilities of series creators Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie.
