“Streaming” reviewer NICK OVERALL looks at “The Curse” a cringe-comedy that feels less like a show and more like a diabolical experiment to test just how much awkwardness viewers can endure. 

IN the world of television, cringe comedy is its own force of nature.

For some, the excruciating antics of shows such as “The Office” make for A-grade entertainment.

For others, it’s hell.

Many are unable to stomach the spine-chilling awkwardness of David Brent forcing his own original songs on staff at an HR retreat or Michael Scott reneging on an 18-year promise to pay for disadvantaged students’ college fees after mistakenly thinking he’d be a millionaire by the time they were grown up.

And yet for those who can endure it, cringe comedy has more than carved out its own beloved sub-genre.

“Arrested Development”, “Peep Show”, “Curb Your Enthusiasm”, “The Inbetweeners”, “Fleabag” and the list goes on.

While these are all bound to get viewers squirming in their seats, all pale in comparison to Paramount Plus’ newest streaming offering “The Curse”, which feels less like a show and more like a diabolical experiment to test just how much awkwardness viewers can endure. 

It’s a treat for TV masochists.

What’s it all about?

Ensconced in middle-class suburbia of New Mexico are Asher and Whitney Siegel, (played by Nathan Fielder and Emma Stone) a dysfunctionally holier-than-thou couple attempting to start a reality TV show where they perform good deeds for their uninterested local community.

Whether it’s getting former crooks jobs at coffee shops or peddling carbon-neutral real estate, the Siegels are desperate to make themselves local heroes by “redesigning” their hometown. Not gentrification, they say, but “flipanthropy” a term which also happens to be the title of their struggling reality show.

Amongst this sanctimonious chaos is their producer Doughe Schecter (Benny Safdie), who is doing whatever he can to ramp up the emotion to get their fledgling show off the ground.

In one shoot he sprays an elderly woman in the face with some water in order to make sure she’s “crying” for the camera after the Siegels secure her deadbeat son a job at a local business.

It gets worse.

In another excruciating exchange, Asher is urged to give a young girl selling drinks in a car park some cash because “it’ll be great for the camera”.

Of course, it turns out he only has a $100 bill, which after giving her for the show he quickly demands back after the cameras stop rolling.

In return the young girl “curses” Asher and that’s where things really start to get strange.

It’s never quite revealed whether this eponymous “curse” is supernatural in nature or not, but with the roster of events that go on to befall this strange couple one wouldn’t be surprised.

Indeed “The Curse” starts out as what seems like an offbeat comedy, but as things unravel over its 10 episodes it becomes something more akin to horror.

I’ll leave that for the viewer to discover.

Fielder (who doubles up as the creator of the show) is well and truly on his A-game here.

The Canadian comedian is a virtuoso of cringe-comedy. One can see the discomfort emanating from every inch of his body language. Emma Stone is just as good, her awkwardness hidden behind a thin veneer of smiles and pleasantries. 

As is the divisive nature of cringe, “The Curse” has well and truly split its audience.

A breakdown of the show’s reception on IMDb puts the audience score at 6.9/10 – divided by the majority of user reviews either giving it a 10/10 or a 1/10.

This is no doubt exactly what “The Curse” was going for. 

It’s unafraid to alienate some of its audience if it means hitting its satirical targets.

If all of this doesn’t exactly sound like a pleasant viewing experience, I don’t blame you.

It’s a hard show to say one “enjoys”, but this is a fascinatingly unique and often hilarious takedown of virtue signalling.

“The Curse” may dial up cringe-comedy to the nth degree, but it’s a spell I just couldn’t help but fall under.