Emma Stone’s New TV Show Is Absolutely Perfect For Her

Emma Stone‘s new TV show has finally created the perfect role for the Academy Award-winning actor. Undoubtedly, Stone has crafted a genre-spanning career, cementing her as one of Hollywood’s most versatile performers. After getting her start in blockbuster comedies like Superbad and Zombieland, Stone landed her breakthrough, leading role in 2010’s Easy A — a teen comedy that grafts the premise of The Scarlet Letter onto a high-school setting. From there, she nabbed supporting roles in the ensemble rom-com Crazy, Stupid, Love; the controversial drama The Help; and, of course, The Amazing Spider-Man movies.

While 2016’s divisive La La Land earned Stone an Oscar, it’s her other post-Spidey films that really allowed her to shine. First came director Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman, a 2014 black comedy that’s meant to look like it’s filmed in one long shot. Several years later, Stone landed a leading role in writer-director Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Favourite, a black comedy that’s dripping with the Greek auteur’s signature strangeness and atmosphere. Although Poor Things, Stone’s latest film with Lanthimos, is creating quite a stir, it’s the actor’s imaginative, unsettling satire The Curse that reiterates what makes her such a compelling performer.

Emma Stone’s Role In The Curse Explained

Created by writers Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie, The Curse stars Emma Stone as Whitney Siegel, the co-star of a new, and highly problematic, HGTV series called Flipanthropy. Both writers also star in the series: Fielder plays Asher, Whitney’s co-host and husband, while Safdie is the couple’s trusted HGTV producer, Dougie Schecter. Set to premiere on Showtime in mid-November, the half-hour comedy series is keeping much of its content under wraps. However, the network’s official premise suggests that the newly married Siegels will navigate not just the titular hex, but the struggles of hosting their ill-conceived HGTV series, all while trying to have a child.

The first three installments of the 10-episode series premiered at the New York Film Festival, garnering favorable reviews from early viewers and critics alike. A somewhat-divisive, boundary-pushing comedian, writer, and performer, Fielder is best-known for shows like the parody reality show Nathan for You and, more recently, The Rehearsal, an HBO docu-comedy. Safdie, meanwhile, has co-directed hit crime thrillers Good Time and Uncut Gems. With her dead-pan delivery and penchant for self-deprecating, self-aware humor, Stone is a perfect fit for a character like Whitney. Serving as the series’ glue, Stone will captivate viewers even as The Curse makes them uncomfortable.

Why The Curse Continues An Exciting Emma Stone Career Trend

Despite her comedy roots, Emma Stone pursued more hard-hitting dramas for a time. However, 2018 marked a shift in her career, with the actor appearing in both The Favourite and the psychological drama-meets-black-comedy miniseries Maniac. In both, the ever-captivating Stone was able to show off her comedic and dramatic sides, delving into the off-beat humor and sensibilities of the projects. Like Poor Things, a black comedy with a Frankenstein-inspired premise, The Curse allows Stone to explore an incredibly weird world. If anything, The Curse continues an exciting Stone career trend — one that pushes her to make viewers laugh and squirm.

The first episode of The Curse premieres on Paramount+ on November 10 and Showtime on November 12, with subsequent episodes dropping on Fridays and Saturdays through January 2024.