a review of 诅咒

yeah, i dunno. i wouldn't recommend watching this. i want the ten hours of my life back. seems like a prime example of art that is purposefully confusing and pretentious and people end up thinking that because they don't understand it, then it must be brilliant or something. i'll also say that it feels primarily like horror (or a ten hour racist cringe porn) moreso than drama or comedy. so, if you're into existential horror that almost certainly is gonna make you feel like shit and maybe cause you to have a psychotic break. or, if you're into morally ambiguous satire that lets you think it's saying whatever you want it to be saying. or, if you're into watching white people be repeatedly racist while claiming to be the saviors of bipoc. or, if you're just that obsessed with nathan fielder or emma stone (her acting is amazing as always). if you're really into any of the aforementioned things, then maybe watch this. otherwise, i dunno what to tell you. the main characters are all pretty morally repugnant and grating. they move through the world with a level of privilege that leaves them blissfully (and not blissfully) unaware of the trail of harm they leave in their wake as they just "live their lives". i've seen a lot of talk about how these characters are relatable or something. nah. we should not normalize people who move through the world like this, and the fact that we (americans, mostly) have normalized behavior like this is why we're in the mess we currently are in culturally, ecologically, politically, morally... i have a real bone to pick with "satire" that just takes a sledgehammer to everything. i think it's lazy and fraudulent. in nathan fielder's "the curse" nobody is safe from critique. we have the couple at the center of the show, who are both insane racists trying so hard to not be racist, but just can't help it and continually abuse their immense privilege. it feels obvious to critique the gentrifying real estate developers who wanna weaponize social justice language to pretend they aren't what they are. it feels obvious to critique the television producer who is creepy to women, puts the lives of others in danger repeatedly with his drunk driving, and manipulates and bullies those around him. ...then we have an episode where we're asked to consider if a character (light skinned, but purposefully revealed through dialoge to be bipoc) (played by dean cain, who is an irl horrific piece of shit...why tf give money out of your film budget to fascists) who is blatantly fascist coded is like "better" or "more right" than liberals (also, we are seemingly asked to consider whether he might be right *just* because he's native). i think that's an interesting question, considering that most mainstream white democrats and liberals *are* in fact racist frauds. but the show asks the question in a way that feels weird, racist, and full of both sides logic and devil's advocacy. then we have a "bit" (if you want to call it that) that runs through several episodes that seems to mock whitney's desire to not call the police on people who steal jeans. well...fuck that. the cops ruin people's lives, and i don't really wanna hear from anyone who wants to poke fun at that reality, sorry nathan. the white people in this show are all racist and harmful as fuck. and yeah, i think that white people in america (or the white supremacy that they wield, more specifically) *are* generally pretty fucked up and have to do much, much better...but the representation here is so cartoonish that i don't think many people will take it seriously. then for some reason nathan made most of the bipoc charaters deeply flawed as well, as if to say "hey look, it's not just white people" or something weird like that. if you want to critique white supremacy, don't point a finger at bipoc in the very next breath. sorry nathan, that shit is bizarre behavior. there's also the issue of the hilarious and pathetic nature of people trying to critique the system (whether it be capitalism, colonization, racism, or the film industry) (and which one is nathan really critiquing here, because it's actually not clear to me) while still gleefully engaging with it, benefitting from it, and so on. i kind of imagine that the making of the show "the curse" had a lot in common (unintentionally and unironically) with the show "fliplanthropy" that it uses as the butt of like half its jokes. it's just weird that we buy into that as a society and as consumers of art. if you wanna critique the systems that be, either do it with force and conviction (which this does not), or do it in a way that won't lead to you benefitting from the exact systems you are claiming to critique (which this also does not), or both. but don't do it in this lazy ass bullshit way. not really sure who the intended audience is for this, but it was a big time miss for me. damn you letterboxd and your four . two star rating for making me continue down this dark and pointless path despite all my intuition telling me to pull the plug.