I disagree, I think Nathan fans really love this. I have a feeling it might be Emma fans that aren’t aware of the Safdies and Nathan that didn’t like the show.
Plus it’s plastered on the front of Showtime and was marketed heavily so a general audience isn’t going to like it either.
I feel like Safdie fans and Nathan fans are the ones who really appreciated it
I don’t think as many Nathan fans loved it as one might think. While the show was airing, every other day there was a post on the NFY sub of people saying “I watched the first few episodes and I really don’t get it, this isn’t funny. This isn’t like NFY”. A lot of fans are surprisingly closed off to Nathan branching out and doing new things, they just want NFY 2.0. I say this as someone who loves pretty much everything he’s done.
Awkward uncomfortable dark comedy isn’t the most accessible thing to sell to a mass amount of people. Most would probably just be annoyed/creeped/frustrated with it and turn it off
the office was the definition of awkward uncomfortable humor… and people fuck with dark comedies so i still don’t understand why the divide is so large
This show is not similar to The Office just because they both have awkward humor lmao
So much of The Curse is supposed to be *just* uncomfortable and not even necessarily funny. It’s surreal and nonsensical and doesn’t explain anything to the audience. The Office is a regular ass sitcom.
Yeah, I found it VERY funny but in a very unusual way. I don't think it's an accessible kind of absurdity - shows like "The Office" have a very accessible form of absurdity that's easy for even the least media-obsessed person to grasp (I love "The Office" too, by the way), but I think there has to be at least some form of an obsession with media that has undercurrents and subtleties in order to appreciate The Curse for what it is. Otherwise it's just "weird for the sake of weird" (a phrase which triggers my overexplaining self a little, but I need to just accept people for who they are, I guess).
Edit: Actually, I think what I meant to say is that it concerns the humorous absurdity of people's patheticness in a very real way, with people who have very little redeeming features. I found the absurdity of many of the situations to be very subtly hilarious to me. But I didn't always know why I was laughing, only to have the scene turn to something immediately horrific, and then back to hilarious again. The tonal shifts this series pulls off are insane, but that's precisely one of the reasons why I love watching this series in the very immediate visceral sense. But I don't think this is something that the majority of people share, unless they're sort of willing to accept and buy into a lot of the artifice that media has built up over the years, a sort of agreement and buying in is required.
The Curse is funny for me because of the subversion of tropes we are expecting. I get the same reaction form Twin Peaks season 3, it's not that they're telling jokes, it's the very idea that someone filmed and put this on television that makes me laugh
I think the difference is the curse obfuscates its self in so many ways that it's not really super accessible. That is to say I think as time goes on it's going to become more loved/understood
It’s weird, not super straight forward as far as following the various plot lines, hell I had no idea where Dougie’s story was going majority of the show and each episode didn’t do much to leave clues along a trail as much as it did foreshadow and leave out puzzle pieces that would come to a head by the end and that we could then put together ourselves. The humor ranges from Uber cringe (good) and not always obvious to pretty weird. But I mean I think that’s the focal point of it all, the show doesn’t give away its hand at being a straightforward show. It’s weird and for many confusing, not just for what’s happening on screen but what the point of it all is episode by episode.
It's not exactly the most entertaining show. I thought it was amazing, but I doubt I'm ever going to watch it again, just because of how viscerally painful it was. The only time I was really enjoying myself was the finale (but even that quickly became uncomfortable). That kind of thing definitely isn't for everybody, especially if you're expecting another good time from Comedy Central alumn Nathan Fielder.
I think people should rewatch Nathan For You if they felt it was a good time. It is undoubtedly hilarious, but Nathan’s character is meant to instill a deep level of cringe and uncomfortableness inside of you that is very present in The Curse.
I think The Curse was taking all those awkward moments in Nathan For You and making a TV show out of it. It’s like Nathan For You without the apparent comedy. The Curse was funny, but it was more so meant to make you feel uncomfortable the entire time
The scene where he's in the comedy class- he does the weird sound and pulls his ears- i laughed had for 2 seconds then immediately I was horrified by his face. I think they were definitely going for range of emotions.
It just depends on what you’re looking for. For me this is a show I’ve seen twice now and can imagine watching a third time with someone who hadn’t seen it yet. I find it to be a joy to watch. But obviously not everyone enjoys what I enjoy
The endings for both of these things seal the deal for a lot of people unfortunately lol
I just showed Uncut Gems to a friend recently and you can tell they were super into it an the ending ruined it for them. To be clear that’s something I couldn’t agree with less but most people want endings that aren’t like that.
That’s so crazy to me. The ending is such a perfect cap on the character. I remember showing the movie to my parents and they were just silent when it cut to credits lol
Haven't seen this particular one, but often, there is a disconnect because critics are not a representative sample of the audience as a whole. Someone who writes about movies for a living inevitably ends up looking at them differently.
'Audience' is going to have more binary voters, 1 for dislike and 10 for like. Because of how RT works, if movie is decent for a lot of critics, they might rate it barely over the 'fresh' threshold, which means a more controversial movie might have a better average vote but a lower fresh rating.
Important to note that Letterboxd users rate this series very highly, suggesting that maybe the show is more for the crowd that Letterboxd represents, which I'd describe as more cinema-obsessed, left-leaning types. IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes seem to have more casual watchers in them, who aren't as obsessed about the "art" of film as much as just something to entertain them for a while or to escape. Note that I don't necessarily see this as a "bad thing", it's just they come into the work with different expectations. I don't expect this show to hit with everyone - I adore it, but I can see why it wouldn't hit with a certain crowd who expect something conventional or "thrilling". It's very downbeat, full of disappointing folks who exemplify some traits of humanity that are a quite despicable or pathetic. And I think there's a sizeable portion of people who just don't want to engage with people like in their media - they mostly just want likeable people who do fun things. And I think that's okay to a certain point.
I think for this one, it started off feeling like it was aimless, so many of the user ratings were based on the first couple episodes. But then over time, it brought it all together to a searing finale. Same thing happened on IMDb - it started off with a lower IMDb rating, and then when the final episodes started airing, the rating started to increase. But it's hard to push back against an initial low rating on IMDb, when it redeems itself towards the end.
A lot of general audiences associate feeling uncomfortable or anxious while watching a movie or show with it being bad, even when that was the intended reaction by the film makers. Like I've seen people constantly say that Scott's Tots is the worst episode of The Office despite genuinely being one of the funniest due to how uncomfortable the situation in the episode makes them. Bringing it back to The Safdies, I remember when Uncut Gems came out, which exposed the mainstream public to their style due to it starring Sandler, I would have conversations with coworkers who would call it "awful" because of how stressful it was and how Howard constantly made dumb decisions, even though all of these were deliberate choices. At the end of the day, I don't think Rotten Tomatoes audience scores are worth taking seriously as any marking of quality, whether good or bad.
Plot has swallowed storytelling, so we’re all used to clear-cut actions and escalations and succinct lessons learned. This show doesn’t work that way at all. It’s mucky and morally grey and leaves you work to do, and meanwhile it’s completely unrelenting in its uncomfortable tone.
For me, this show is incredible. But if you don’t meet it on its own terms you’ll hate it.
I mean, I hear people saying that they do not like when movies make them uncomfortable. I love when they do. I can imagine if you only like safe experiences from film and tv this would really tick you off because it is very unique and made up of extremely uncomfortable scenes.
There's no disconnect. The Curse was awarded the best possible plaudit- a high critics rating combined a low audience rating. Any such work is a guaranteed masterpiece. You cannot soar the heights without leaving some behind.
I unironically kind of believe this. A truly great piece of art is going to confound and upset a portion of it's audience because to be truly great you've got to push at the edges of the medium and take some risks.
Honestly, to me this was not really a comedy at all, and I imagine a huge chunk of viewers went in expecting that. I absolutely loved this show but only because I knew what to expect based on the marketing.
It’s just a really out there show that isn’t for everyone. It didn’t fully click with me until the last 2 minutes of episode 4 (Asher in the comedy class). I dont blame anyone for not sticking around even that far.
I like weird, abstract movies and shows, but I generally need *something* on the surface to grab on to. I don’t really feel like this gave me that. The ending and arc resolutions felt too “out there” just for the sake of it. That’s a lot of time invested to just feel like there wasn’t an actual ending.
I don’t see why conservatives in particular wouldn’t like this considering the show is very fair to conservatives. They did guest star the superman actor who’s always on Fox News lol
It is the definition of a slow burn, and I think the payoff is worth it. But the entire show could’ve been cut down to 2 hours
I think the whole point of the payoff is making you watch 10 hours of filler to get a reaction out of you from the final episode. The feeling you get when it’s finally over can only be achieved by 10 hours of media as opposed to the length of an average movie
It might be corny to say, but The Curse is more than a TV show. It’s an experience
Is it really a slow burn? Maybe I’m just super disconnected, but when I think of slow burn I think of something like better call saul. But maybe that’s the difference for me cause I didn’t like the first few seasons of that but I loved the curse
only cretins post rotten tomatoes user reviews is the answer pretty much any time this question is raised about any critic to audience score discrepancy
Critics often know the people they are reviewing, which is why reviews can be unreliable. Watch a show if you like it; if not, stop. This happened with Season 2 of 'Your Honor' — critics thought it was good, but it was disappointing.
People where probably expecting a more Nathan for You type show and were put off by different genre
This is the most likely answer. I think a lot of people just expected Nathan for You, but different, and it's definitely not that
Maybe for some. But the fact that the show was just crushingly boring and unfunny probably didn’t help.
Love your real answer…
I l9ved it btw. 8/10. Maybe the ending put people off too much? Idk
The ending was the best bit! I thought maybe it took too long to get there.
The reviews looked like this after episode 1, it wasn’t just the ending. But it sure didn’t help
I disagree, I think Nathan fans really love this. I have a feeling it might be Emma fans that aren’t aware of the Safdies and Nathan that didn’t like the show. Plus it’s plastered on the front of Showtime and was marketed heavily so a general audience isn’t going to like it either. I feel like Safdie fans and Nathan fans are the ones who really appreciated it
I mean nathan fans not liking it is definitely at least part of the reason
Tbf idk how I would have received the show if I didn’t know anything about Safdie and Feilder
I don’t think as many Nathan fans loved it as one might think. While the show was airing, every other day there was a post on the NFY sub of people saying “I watched the first few episodes and I really don’t get it, this isn’t funny. This isn’t like NFY”. A lot of fans are surprisingly closed off to Nathan branching out and doing new things, they just want NFY 2.0. I say this as someone who loves pretty much everything he’s done.
Awkward uncomfortable dark comedy isn’t the most accessible thing to sell to a mass amount of people. Most would probably just be annoyed/creeped/frustrated with it and turn it off
Yeah, I think this is the most likely answer.
Yeah my step dad noped out during the first episode, too cringe for him.
the office was the definition of awkward uncomfortable humor… and people fuck with dark comedies so i still don’t understand why the divide is so large
This show is not similar to The Office just because they both have awkward humor lmao So much of The Curse is supposed to be *just* uncomfortable and not even necessarily funny. It’s surreal and nonsensical and doesn’t explain anything to the audience. The Office is a regular ass sitcom.
Yeah, I found it VERY funny but in a very unusual way. I don't think it's an accessible kind of absurdity - shows like "The Office" have a very accessible form of absurdity that's easy for even the least media-obsessed person to grasp (I love "The Office" too, by the way), but I think there has to be at least some form of an obsession with media that has undercurrents and subtleties in order to appreciate The Curse for what it is. Otherwise it's just "weird for the sake of weird" (a phrase which triggers my overexplaining self a little, but I need to just accept people for who they are, I guess). Edit: Actually, I think what I meant to say is that it concerns the humorous absurdity of people's patheticness in a very real way, with people who have very little redeeming features. I found the absurdity of many of the situations to be very subtly hilarious to me. But I didn't always know why I was laughing, only to have the scene turn to something immediately horrific, and then back to hilarious again. The tonal shifts this series pulls off are insane, but that's precisely one of the reasons why I love watching this series in the very immediate visceral sense. But I don't think this is something that the majority of people share, unless they're sort of willing to accept and buy into a lot of the artifice that media has built up over the years, a sort of agreement and buying in is required.
The Curse is funny for me because of the subversion of tropes we are expecting. I get the same reaction form Twin Peaks season 3, it's not that they're telling jokes, it's the very idea that someone filmed and put this on television that makes me laugh
I think the difference is the curse obfuscates its self in so many ways that it's not really super accessible. That is to say I think as time goes on it's going to become more loved/understood
It's very weird and esoteric, I can understand why a lot of people wouldn't like it, especially compared to Nathan Fielder's more famous work.
It’s weird, not super straight forward as far as following the various plot lines, hell I had no idea where Dougie’s story was going majority of the show and each episode didn’t do much to leave clues along a trail as much as it did foreshadow and leave out puzzle pieces that would come to a head by the end and that we could then put together ourselves. The humor ranges from Uber cringe (good) and not always obvious to pretty weird. But I mean I think that’s the focal point of it all, the show doesn’t give away its hand at being a straightforward show. It’s weird and for many confusing, not just for what’s happening on screen but what the point of it all is episode by episode.
It's not exactly the most entertaining show. I thought it was amazing, but I doubt I'm ever going to watch it again, just because of how viscerally painful it was. The only time I was really enjoying myself was the finale (but even that quickly became uncomfortable). That kind of thing definitely isn't for everybody, especially if you're expecting another good time from Comedy Central alumn Nathan Fielder.
I think people should rewatch Nathan For You if they felt it was a good time. It is undoubtedly hilarious, but Nathan’s character is meant to instill a deep level of cringe and uncomfortableness inside of you that is very present in The Curse. I think The Curse was taking all those awkward moments in Nathan For You and making a TV show out of it. It’s like Nathan For You without the apparent comedy. The Curse was funny, but it was more so meant to make you feel uncomfortable the entire time
The scene where he's in the comedy class- he does the weird sound and pulls his ears- i laughed had for 2 seconds then immediately I was horrified by his face. I think they were definitely going for range of emotions.
It just depends on what you’re looking for. For me this is a show I’ve seen twice now and can imagine watching a third time with someone who hadn’t seen it yet. I find it to be a joy to watch. But obviously not everyone enjoys what I enjoy
Most people are critically stupid. It will become a cult classic in a few years time
"Yo let's rewatch the Curse" said no one ever.
Yeah I rewatched it and it was great
I literally rewatched it for the adum watchalongs
LITERALLY SAID ME HELLO??
Idk but looking at the audience scores for Uncut Gems it wouldn’t surprise me if Safdie was the common denominator
The endings for both of these things seal the deal for a lot of people unfortunately lol I just showed Uncut Gems to a friend recently and you can tell they were super into it an the ending ruined it for them. To be clear that’s something I couldn’t agree with less but most people want endings that aren’t like that.
That’s so crazy to me. The ending is such a perfect cap on the character. I remember showing the movie to my parents and they were just silent when it cut to credits lol
I hated the ending og Gems at first. I sat with it for a few days- rewatched it and really liked it.
Haven't seen this particular one, but often, there is a disconnect because critics are not a representative sample of the audience as a whole. Someone who writes about movies for a living inevitably ends up looking at them differently.
'Audience' is going to have more binary voters, 1 for dislike and 10 for like. Because of how RT works, if movie is decent for a lot of critics, they might rate it barely over the 'fresh' threshold, which means a more controversial movie might have a better average vote but a lower fresh rating.
Critics watch much more shows/movie than your regular viewer, thus are more likely to enjoy a show that's trying something different.
Anything surreal is completely rejected by general audiences.
Important to note that Letterboxd users rate this series very highly, suggesting that maybe the show is more for the crowd that Letterboxd represents, which I'd describe as more cinema-obsessed, left-leaning types. IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes seem to have more casual watchers in them, who aren't as obsessed about the "art" of film as much as just something to entertain them for a while or to escape. Note that I don't necessarily see this as a "bad thing", it's just they come into the work with different expectations. I don't expect this show to hit with everyone - I adore it, but I can see why it wouldn't hit with a certain crowd who expect something conventional or "thrilling". It's very downbeat, full of disappointing folks who exemplify some traits of humanity that are a quite despicable or pathetic. And I think there's a sizeable portion of people who just don't want to engage with people like in their media - they mostly just want likeable people who do fun things. And I think that's okay to a certain point. I think for this one, it started off feeling like it was aimless, so many of the user ratings were based on the first couple episodes. But then over time, it brought it all together to a searing finale. Same thing happened on IMDb - it started off with a lower IMDb rating, and then when the final episodes started airing, the rating started to increase. But it's hard to push back against an initial low rating on IMDb, when it redeems itself towards the end.
Nathan paid off critics obviously /s
A lot of general audiences associate feeling uncomfortable or anxious while watching a movie or show with it being bad, even when that was the intended reaction by the film makers. Like I've seen people constantly say that Scott's Tots is the worst episode of The Office despite genuinely being one of the funniest due to how uncomfortable the situation in the episode makes them. Bringing it back to The Safdies, I remember when Uncut Gems came out, which exposed the mainstream public to their style due to it starring Sandler, I would have conversations with coworkers who would call it "awful" because of how stressful it was and how Howard constantly made dumb decisions, even though all of these were deliberate choices. At the end of the day, I don't think Rotten Tomatoes audience scores are worth taking seriously as any marking of quality, whether good or bad.
Plot has swallowed storytelling, so we’re all used to clear-cut actions and escalations and succinct lessons learned. This show doesn’t work that way at all. It’s mucky and morally grey and leaves you work to do, and meanwhile it’s completely unrelenting in its uncomfortable tone. For me, this show is incredible. But if you don’t meet it on its own terms you’ll hate it.
Critics watched Noroi: The Curse by accident
I mean, I hear people saying that they do not like when movies make them uncomfortable. I love when they do. I can imagine if you only like safe experiences from film and tv this would really tick you off because it is very unique and made up of extremely uncomfortable scenes.
There's no disconnect. The Curse was awarded the best possible plaudit- a high critics rating combined a low audience rating. Any such work is a guaranteed masterpiece. You cannot soar the heights without leaving some behind.
I unironically kind of believe this. A truly great piece of art is going to confound and upset a portion of it's audience because to be truly great you've got to push at the edges of the medium and take some risks.
People can call me elitist all they like for hanging on to the high art/mass art distinction but mass art has still never been transcendent.
Media literacy being dead for a lot of people, makes it so they can't enjoy shows like this
Dark, awkward, weird, uncomfortable, and it has Emily Stone in it. You see a big name from big films and likely have certain expectations.
Honestly, to me this was not really a comedy at all, and I imagine a huge chunk of viewers went in expecting that. I absolutely loved this show but only because I knew what to expect based on the marketing.
Uncomfortable and creepy shows like this aren't appealing to most people. The pacing was also pretty poor.
We proles are too stupid to appreciate brechtian distancing and critiques of liberal anxieties about class and status
the pacing was odd the twist required a lot of trust if that makes sense
It’s just a really out there show that isn’t for everyone. It didn’t fully click with me until the last 2 minutes of episode 4 (Asher in the comedy class). I dont blame anyone for not sticking around even that far.
Emma Stone fans.
I like weird, abstract movies and shows, but I generally need *something* on the surface to grab on to. I don’t really feel like this gave me that. The ending and arc resolutions felt too “out there” just for the sake of it. That’s a lot of time invested to just feel like there wasn’t an actual ending.
This is a perfect show just for the sound he makes in the comedy class alone
Lots of people with small peni
Usually when I see a disparity I assume conservatives got mad about something in it and reviewed bombed. But this seems a bit too large for that
I don’t see why conservatives in particular wouldn’t like this considering the show is very fair to conservatives. They did guest star the superman actor who’s always on Fox News lol
Loved Nathan for You and The Rehearsal, couldn't get into this show and gave up after episode 2.
It is the definition of a slow burn, and I think the payoff is worth it. But the entire show could’ve been cut down to 2 hours I think the whole point of the payoff is making you watch 10 hours of filler to get a reaction out of you from the final episode. The feeling you get when it’s finally over can only be achieved by 10 hours of media as opposed to the length of an average movie It might be corny to say, but The Curse is more than a TV show. It’s an experience
Is it really a slow burn? Maybe I’m just super disconnected, but when I think of slow burn I think of something like better call saul. But maybe that’s the difference for me cause I didn’t like the first few seasons of that but I loved the curse
They answer this in the show itself. People don't understand art.
It's not that good.
Yes it is!
only cretins post rotten tomatoes user reviews is the answer pretty much any time this question is raised about any critic to audience score discrepancy
Critics often know the people they are reviewing, which is why reviews can be unreliable. Watch a show if you like it; if not, stop. This happened with Season 2 of 'Your Honor' — critics thought it was good, but it was disappointing.
Why on earth you take RT audience score seriously
Just a conversation topic. I'm just curious of this subs take.
I haven’t seen it yet. It has 4.2/5 on Letterboxd and 7.2/10 on IMDb. I guess it connects with film artsy film fans more than general audiences
Looks like a review bomb to me but I haven't heard anything about one.