In the latest installment of UNBINGED we find that The Curse might make you want to look away — but you’ll be missing a lot. Similarly, Fargo, in its fifth season, allows compelling characters to shine amid some very dark humor, and Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is entertaining, but only for the already indoctrinated.
The Curse (Showtime and Paramount+)
A24’s latest foray into the small-screen space is the hard-to-watch but can’t-look-away cringe “comedy” The Curse, created by and featuring Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie, as well as starring Oscar-winner Emma Stone. Taking aim at performance activism, The Curse offers a cold, hard look at reality TV talking heads and YouTubers who exploit the vulnerable for views and likes.
In The Curse, Fielder and Stone play Asher and Whitney, two DIY eco-friendly home rehabbers who want to get into the business of making the world a better place. Attempting to make Española, New Mexico, the city of the future, Whitney brings her impractical mirrored “passive homes” to market as the duo shop their show, Flipanthropy. Along for the ride is cameraman/producer Dougie Schecter (Safdie), Asher’s childhood buddy who has a lot of experience when it comes to twisting reality.
Whitney, Asher, and Dougie cannot perceive the devastation they cause, seeing only how it will affect them.
As he’s shown in Nathan For You and The Rehearsal, Fielder is an expert in conjuring tension and discomfort in an audience by using the distress of onscreen characters to maximum effect. In turn, Safdie is skilled at sky-rocketing anxiety by allowing his characters to make one awful choice after another and following them to their disastrous conclusions, such as in Uncut Gems. Together, the duo seem poised to take down society through one manufactured existential crisis at a time.
The Curse catapults its characters between soul-crushing scenes of disappointment and disquieting moments brimming with internal strife. From menacing music played over scenes of complete devastation to ridiculous reality show exploits that destroy a person’s life, The Curse creates one uneasy space after another for viewers to occupy. It can be painful at times, but because of the dynamic between Fielder and Stone, it is mesmerizing to watch.
The bleakness that surrounds the supporting characters, compared to the staunch ridiculousness of Stone and Fielder, creates a tone that is both off-putting and jarring, as an abysmal situation created by nincompoops is examined closely. Whitney, Asher, and Dougie cannot perceive the devastation they cause, seeing only how it will affect them. We, as an audience, are left to deal with that aftermath.
There is nothing on television like The Curse, which is ambitious, arduous to watch at times, and brilliant. Fielder and Safdie have created something completely unforgiving toward the viewer, biting commentary that is clearly not for everyone. The morose nature of the show and its use of uncomfortable comedy to make a point about the phony nature of on-air advocacy is absolutely brutal at times. But for those who can do it, don’t look away. It needs to be seen.
Fargo (Year 5, FX)
The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. Though in the world of Fargo, it is often hitmen, villainous lawmen, evil CEOs, and the general scum of the earth whose plans turn askew. In its fifth season, the off-beat crime anthology series gets back to its basics, so to speak, and in doing so, returns to form.
Set in a pre-pandemic American Midwest, the show features Dot Lyon (Juno Temple), a spunky Minnesota housewife whose arrest after accidentally tasing a cop sparks a series of events that alerts her abusive ex, Sheriff Roy Tillman (Jon Hamm), to her current whereabouts, causing him to reclaim her by any means necessary. But Dot is more than she seems. She might be wee, but she is deadly, and vastly underestimated. And soon, Tillman’s exploits include the murder of a law enforcement officer, the interest of the FBI, and a very vengeful hitman, to name a few.
Part “true” crime anthology with a bit of dark comedy mixed in for good measure, Fargo has been a mixed bag of storytelling genius ever since it premiered, back in 2014. Now, under the eye of writer/director Noah Hawley, the fifth season of Fargo returns the show to its roots, focusing on more personalized matters rather than on the larger issues of previous seasons, such as dissension in the underworld. By centering on the drama of the characters, the crimes become more personal, allowing audiences to appreciate the humanity of the story rather than just enjoy the heroes, scoundrels, and oddballs who populate the series.
As always with Fargo, the cast is outstanding. Temple’s Dot is mesmerizing as a woman whose survival instincts make her a formidable foe. Together with Hamm, the two are irresistible, as they create a cat-and-mouse dynamic in which it becomes clear that the perceived mouse packs quite a punch. Hamm shines when he is unhinged: Be it as a spiteful sheriff or a Madison Avenue exec selling wares under a false identity, the actor projects a seething intensity behind a smiling but unsettling facade. As Tillman, Hamm is a pompous, misogynistic lawman who uses his power to set up authoritarian rule. And he has his eye on getting Dot back under his thumb.
Fans of the original 1994 film will find certain beats of the series oddly familiar, in a way that pays homage to the source material. With the combination of going back to its origins and an exceptional cast, which also includes Joe Keery, Dave Foley, David Rysdahl, Lamorne Morris, and Jennifer Jason Leigh and her mid-Atlantic accent, Fargo returns froma small hiatus in triumph.
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (Netflix) – EMBARGOED UNTIL NOV. 17
Back in 2004, Bryan Lee O’Malley introduced slacker Scott Pilgrim to the Western world through a series of beloved manga. Then, in 2013, Scott made his way to the silver screen where … nothing happened. This despite the fact that many felt director Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim vs. The World was a vastly underappreciated film, and one of the best comic-to-film adaptations ever made.
So now, the Torontonian ne’er-do-well makes its way to Netflix, in Scott Pilgrim Takes Off. But will people care?
In the original film and comic, 23-year-old Scott was a dude of questionable conduct who had to battle seven evil exes to win the hand of Ramona Flowers. But what if he lost that first fight?
Using the original actors from the 2013 pic to voice the series — including Michael Cera, Brie Larson, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Chris Evans, and Kieran Culkin — Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is a revisionist version of the story, in which Scott is defeated and the world mourns his loss. Well, as much as a bunch of apathetic assholes can possibly feel loss outside their own needs. Regardless, only Ramona seems to lament his passing, until it becomes apparent that perhaps Scott might not be quite so dead.
The series continues the tradition of both the comic and the film by throwing conventional storytelling methods to the wind to create absurdist humor. Fourth wall breaks, a surreal use of cartoon laws in conventional narration, onscreen epistolary notes … anything goes. But unlike the source material, where the focus is clearly on Scott, Takes Off centers on the side characters that live in the ruins of Ramona and Scott’s shitty decisions. So while Scott is in peril, Take Off gives Ramona a chance to evolve beyond the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope by resolving her own problems rather than have a morally ambiguous slacker fight on her behalf.
However, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is possibly only fun for the already converted. Fans of the movie and manga will probably find the Netflix version charming, while nonbelievers will continue to lambast Scott as a hipster parasite. And while it’s great to get the band back together with the voice talent, the novelty wears off quickly as the jokes wear thin. So while the series might make longtime fans happy, newbies looking for an introduction to Mr. Pilgrim and his Canadian friend group should probably start elsewhere. ❖
Erin Maxwell has been writing in the pop culture space for the better part of two decades covering cinematic delights, streaming television, the occasional graphic novels, and punk music. She also enjoys snacks.
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