Nathan Fielder's Hitchcockian head trip

IN THE THIRD EPISODE OF SHOWTIME'S strange, riveting, and often hilarious new series The Curse, the married co-hosts of an in-development reality show watch a focus group respond to the pilot. "I like the lady," says one woman. "I do wish that he had a sense of humor or a personality." "There's zero sexual tension," another participant complains. The final verdict: "There was just something off about him. Like I said, either be hot or funny. He wasn't either to me."

- JUDY BERMAN

The character in question, Asher Siegel, is played by co-creator Nathan Fielder, of the high-concept reality comedies The Rehearsal and Nathan for You. And the persona he adopts here shares much with the fictionalized versions of himself that he's portrayed in those series: awkward, pushy, disconcertingly affectless. Genre-wise, The Curse is a different kind of show; what begins as a scripted satire of HGTV real estate porn builds tension until it becomes, of all things, a Hitchcockian psychological thriller. Fielder's inscrutable presence is as pivotal to building suspense as it was in setting the offbeat tone for his past projects.

Asher and his wife of one year, Whitney (Emma Stone), have moved to the small, economically depressed New Mexico city of Española on a mission to reinvigorate the community by building environmentally friendly houses. Aware that these expensive dwellings are bound to displace low-income residents, the socially conscious couple plan to offset the inevitable gentrification by attracting new businesses, including a high-end coffee chain and a designer denim boutique, that will create jobs for unemployed Españolans. They're also, of course, hoping to become the next Chip and Joanna Gaines.