History Series / TheCurse2023

** Despite knowing that his wife's death was his fault because he was driving drunk, he often downplays what happened to other people such as telling a teenager that his wife was the one driving drunk and telling Asher that the only reason she died was because he was cursed. This seems to be a coping mechanism for the guilt he feels over her death.

* WhatDoesSheSeeInHim: Invoked and reconstructed. The test audiences are baffled by Whitney's marriage to the awkward Asher, and Dougie and Whitney both want to make "Flipanthropy" the story of Whitney breaking free from Asher. However, as time goes by, it becomes increasingly clear that Whitney is a {{Narcissist}} whose treatment of Asher is borderline abusive.

* FoolishHusbandResponsibleWife: Downplayed. Asher is the more awkward, impulsive, and neurotic of the duo, with Whitney being a voice of reason in multiple moments, yet Whitney clearly isn't very responsible herself and is a heavily flawed person. In later episodes it becomes clear that Whitney is actually even worse than Asher.

* UnwantedSpouse: Whitney is unhappy with Asher, and they have very little chemistry. Whitney is perfectly fine putting down her husband for her own self interest and is embarrassed by him frequently. Dougie, sensing drama that could make for better televsion, implores her to lean into this on "Flipanthropy."

The series began airing on Creator/{{Showtime}} and Creator/ParamountPlus on November 10, 2023.

* IFellForHours: [[spoilers: The gravity anomaly causes Asher to fall upwards for seemingly forever, as the last shot of him is his corpse continuing to float out of the atmosphere]].

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:It initially appears the series will end on an upbeat note, with ''Green Queen'' being renewed for a second season and Whitney and Asher about to become parents. Instead, an unknown supernatural force (possibly the titular curse) causes Asher to fall upwards out of Earth's atmosphere and into space. If taken at face value, this means that ''Green Queen'' is over and Whitney's son will have to grow up without a father.]]

* {{Curse}}: Nala places a curse upon Asher for taking away the hundred dollar bill he gave her (even if it was only to get change for a twenty). [[spoiler: According to her it was to take the chicken out of his dinner, and that night it was missing.]] The curse becomes a major plot point throughout the show, with Asher becoming obsessed over the possibility that the curse was real and that Nala has supernatural abilities.

* CelebrityCameo: Dan Cortese briefly plays himself as the host of the show ''Love in the Third Degree''.

** Asher and Whitney star in an HGTV show called ''Flipanthropy''.

* BumblingSidekick: Dougie convinces Whitney that they should portray Asher as this in "Flipanthropy". Rather than Asher and Whitney being shown as on equal footing, he instead wants to turn him into the "village idiot" and the butt of the joke to make Whitney look better in comparison.

* ExecutiveMeddling: Happens InUniverse. Whitney and Dougie wanted to make the show into the story of Whitney breaking free from an unhappy marriage with Asher, but the HGTV executives made Whitney and Asher staying married a requirement for the show. They wanted to downplay the marital strife and instead merely use Asher's awkwardness as comic relief.

** The main protagonists are the cause of most of the problems they face. For instance, Whitney's activism usually makes everything worse and causes people to dislike her more than before, even though she desires positive attention from everyone.

* TakeThat: This series very clearly criticizes and satirizes HGTV shows for being exploitative to its subjects, engaging in performative activism, and promoting gentrification.

* {{Hypocrite}}: Whitney is a massive hypocrite who claims to help her town and neighborhood even though she makes things worse for everyone. Despite claiming to be different from her parents who are exploitative real estate developers, she is just as exploitative, merely veiled under progressive language.

''The Curse'' is a comedy television series starring Creator/EmmaStone, Creator/NathanFielder, and [[Creator/TheSafdieBrothers Benny Safdie]] and created and written by Fielder and Safdie. The show focuses on Whitney Siegel (Stone) and Asher Siegel (Fielder), a married couple who host a problematic HGTV show. Their show ''Flipanthropy'' attempts to help a poor community by emphasizing eco-living, and Whitney and Asher take part in activism to help poor people of color. However, their show is not as selfless as they believe, as it is undermined by performative activism, virtue signaling, and promotion of gentrification. Their lives are further complicated by their attempts to conceive a child and what they believe to be a curse placed upon Asher by a little girl.

* TheAlcoholic: Dougie is addicted to alcohol, as his wife died from an accident when he was driving drunk and he still gets drunk all the time. He even still drives drunk.

* FoolishHusbandResponsibleWife: Downplayed. Asher is the more awkward, impulsive, and neurotic of the duo, with Whitney being a voice of reason in multiple moments, yet Whitney clearly isn't very responsible herself and is a heavily flawed person.

* NeverMyFault: Jeff, the teacher at the comedy class, goads Asher into making a joke about his small penis despite this obviously making him and everyone else uncomfortable. This makes some other members of the class angry at Jeff for continuing to push these uncomfortable jokes. Rather than apologizing, he blames Asher for making the joke even though Jeff forced him to and revealed to the class that he has a small penis, even saying that Asher shouldn’t come back to the class.

* SpoiledRichKid: Whitney was raised by wealthy slumlord parents, and everything in her life was given to her by her parents. She is incredibly spoiled and self-absorbed, still getting her parents to give her money and help her avoid any consequences for her selfish actions while downplaying their involvement.

* HourglassPlot: In the first episode, Whitney finds Asher selfish and is disturbed by some of his actions, as she is very invested in improving the town and helping its residents. As the show goes on, Whitney stoops to such lows that Asher is disturbed by her selfishness and shows more sympathy to people than she does.

* {{Curse}}: Nala places a curse upon Asher for taking away the hundred dollar bill he gave her (even if it was only to get change for a twenty). [[spoiler: According to her it was to take the chicken out of his dinner, and that night it was missing.]]