The Idol
Year: 2023
Created by: Reza Fahim, Sam Levinson & Abel Tesfaye
Starring: Lily-Rose Depp & Abel Tesfaye
Episodes: 5
BBFC: 18
Published: 04/07/23
Created by: Reza Fahim, Sam Levinson & Abel Tesfaye
Starring: Lily-Rose Depp & Abel Tesfaye
Episodes: 5
BBFC: 18
Published: 04/07/23
Fame is an ugly thing. You have to stab so many people in the back to get to the top, and then once you’re there you have everything exposed to the whole world all of the time, it only takes one slip for it all to be taken away, and it’s not just your life you ruin but everyone supporting you. Even since the turn of the millennia we have seen so many cases of celebrities’ lives unravel before our eyes, some deserved, but most of them are the victims of circumstance or just the pressure of fame.
The Idol has had a rocky development at HBO, that like a celebrity, has been under a huge amount of scrutiny, and shortly before its release was the subject of major controversy when the details of the shows production started to come to light. Showrunner Sam Levinson is no stranger to controversy following his work with Euphoria, but The Idol may push the boat out too far, and his last-minute takeover of the show does bear some odd similarities to the plot. But is it worth getting all in a flap over? It’s a no from me.
Following a nervous breakdown prompted by her mother’s death, popstar Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp) is facing the pressure of a comeback album and tour. The label wants to market her as a good girl gone bad, but she feels as though she’s unable to artistically commit to anything they want her to be. But when she meets nightclub owner Tedros (Abel Tesfaye), he is able to bring out this sexual goddess inside of her and pushes her to become the superstar they both know she is. But Tedros’ extreme methods concern Jocelyn’s management, and they are worried that she is becoming indoctrinated into a cult.
In the lead up to The Idol’s release I had seen the critical reception for the show being almost entirely negative, slamming the show for its disgusting and misogynistic focus on sex and manipulation. But following Euphoria I was really quite excited because one complaint levelled against that show is how much of a focus is on sex and drugs for a story concerning children, and yeah…that’s the whole point and it’s great. So, I was expecting The Idol to be much the same, but the reality was much bleaker and more uncomfortable than I possibly could have imagined.
The Idol has had a rocky development at HBO, that like a celebrity, has been under a huge amount of scrutiny, and shortly before its release was the subject of major controversy when the details of the shows production started to come to light. Showrunner Sam Levinson is no stranger to controversy following his work with Euphoria, but The Idol may push the boat out too far, and his last-minute takeover of the show does bear some odd similarities to the plot. But is it worth getting all in a flap over? It’s a no from me.
Following a nervous breakdown prompted by her mother’s death, popstar Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp) is facing the pressure of a comeback album and tour. The label wants to market her as a good girl gone bad, but she feels as though she’s unable to artistically commit to anything they want her to be. But when she meets nightclub owner Tedros (Abel Tesfaye), he is able to bring out this sexual goddess inside of her and pushes her to become the superstar they both know she is. But Tedros’ extreme methods concern Jocelyn’s management, and they are worried that she is becoming indoctrinated into a cult.
In the lead up to The Idol’s release I had seen the critical reception for the show being almost entirely negative, slamming the show for its disgusting and misogynistic focus on sex and manipulation. But following Euphoria I was really quite excited because one complaint levelled against that show is how much of a focus is on sex and drugs for a story concerning children, and yeah…that’s the whole point and it’s great. So, I was expecting The Idol to be much the same, but the reality was much bleaker and more uncomfortable than I possibly could have imagined.
Five episodes is a weird amount for a series. It’s too long to have just been a film cut up into more digestible portions, and it’s too short to actually explore anything with a meaningful amount of depth. The result is that every single episode, come the credits I had this gnawing feeling that I was having my time wasted, and on finishing the series the first words that left my mouth were “What was even the point of all this?”. It was all just so directionless, a total waste of time, and there was so little about the show that I ever felt I could latch on to.
I feel a lot of this comes down to Tesfaye’s script. Better known to most as musician ‘The Weekend’, The Idol represents Tesfaye’s first attempt at breaking into film and television and I’m unsure if I’ve ever seen a worse attempt. The characters are so weak and have a complete lack of agency, every single one of them is either an asshole or pathetic, and I never for a second believed any of their motivations. It’s tough to hide a bad script but it’s impossible to draw attention away from it when the performances are also lacklustre. Neither Depp nor Tesfaye ever commit to their roles, they genuinely feel like they rolled out of their trailers drunk or high, did a couple of takes and called it a day; and everybody else is pushed so hard to the side-lines that they never get the opportunity to prove themselves. It feels like a vanity project through and through, and a really bad one at that.
I feel a lot of this comes down to Tesfaye’s script. Better known to most as musician ‘The Weekend’, The Idol represents Tesfaye’s first attempt at breaking into film and television and I’m unsure if I’ve ever seen a worse attempt. The characters are so weak and have a complete lack of agency, every single one of them is either an asshole or pathetic, and I never for a second believed any of their motivations. It’s tough to hide a bad script but it’s impossible to draw attention away from it when the performances are also lacklustre. Neither Depp nor Tesfaye ever commit to their roles, they genuinely feel like they rolled out of their trailers drunk or high, did a couple of takes and called it a day; and everybody else is pushed so hard to the side-lines that they never get the opportunity to prove themselves. It feels like a vanity project through and through, and a really bad one at that.
I can’t say for certain, but you do have to wonder whether a decent amount of the blame also falls on Levinson. Based on reports of how he came to be the showrunner and director, and how he took control of the production to turn it into something different than what it originally was gives him a striking parallel to Tedros. He comes in and disrupts the status quo, he makes all these changes to turn the show into what he wants it to be rather than what it was written to be, and then he gets called out for being a misogynistic creep when other people catch wind of it.
I really loved Levinson’s work on Euphoria, but The Idol lacks almost any kind of artistic integrity. I liked that it had a film grain effect, with imperfections and a slight flicker to it; giving Los Angeles this kind of sweaty and humid feel, and making the show look as dirty as its subject matter. But that’s really as far as my praise goes. With Euphoria, Levinson managed to tell a lot of the story visually through clever camera angles and cuts, but with The Idol it’s all so static and by the numbers.
This is especially noticeable during the sex scenes, of which there are a lot. It’s all so nasty and mostly serves little to no purpose in the story. Euphoria is notorious for its raunchy sex scenes, but they are often genuinely arousing or at least serve a purpose in the narrative. Here it so often toes that line between being a bit rapey or just being straight up rape, and the way that it’s framed just makes me so uncomfortable. I’ve never been less aroused than when Tesfaye has his hand between Depp’s legs in a recording studio whilst she writhes and moans in front of a crowd of her crew. This kind of sex shouldn’t be filmed as though it’s erotic, because it’s really not. We know Tedros as a character is just manipulating Jocelyn, so visually it should represent the danger, not the pleasure.
I had hoped for a great soundtrack too as Euphoria uses music really well, and I like The Weekend, however the music was really crap. It feels like a collection of songs Tesfaye rejected from his albums because they just weren’t good enough. Not a single one of them was well used, often clashing with what was happening in the scene, creating this odd disconnect between the audio and the visuals.
Just don’t even bother with The Idol. Whether you’re a fan of Levinson, Tesfaye, or both, it is arguably the worst work either of them has ever produced. To add insult to injury the ending is just baffling. It felt like a response to the initial reactions to the show, hastily rewritten to make Tedros not seem like such a bad guy and his manipulation like it wasn’t as dangerous as it really was. Thankfully it was a short show, but it’s five hours of my life I’m never getting back and I was horrendously bored for most of it. It’s rare that HBO make a complete stinker but The Idol may well be one of the worst shows that the network has ever produced.
I really loved Levinson’s work on Euphoria, but The Idol lacks almost any kind of artistic integrity. I liked that it had a film grain effect, with imperfections and a slight flicker to it; giving Los Angeles this kind of sweaty and humid feel, and making the show look as dirty as its subject matter. But that’s really as far as my praise goes. With Euphoria, Levinson managed to tell a lot of the story visually through clever camera angles and cuts, but with The Idol it’s all so static and by the numbers.
This is especially noticeable during the sex scenes, of which there are a lot. It’s all so nasty and mostly serves little to no purpose in the story. Euphoria is notorious for its raunchy sex scenes, but they are often genuinely arousing or at least serve a purpose in the narrative. Here it so often toes that line between being a bit rapey or just being straight up rape, and the way that it’s framed just makes me so uncomfortable. I’ve never been less aroused than when Tesfaye has his hand between Depp’s legs in a recording studio whilst she writhes and moans in front of a crowd of her crew. This kind of sex shouldn’t be filmed as though it’s erotic, because it’s really not. We know Tedros as a character is just manipulating Jocelyn, so visually it should represent the danger, not the pleasure.
I had hoped for a great soundtrack too as Euphoria uses music really well, and I like The Weekend, however the music was really crap. It feels like a collection of songs Tesfaye rejected from his albums because they just weren’t good enough. Not a single one of them was well used, often clashing with what was happening in the scene, creating this odd disconnect between the audio and the visuals.
Just don’t even bother with The Idol. Whether you’re a fan of Levinson, Tesfaye, or both, it is arguably the worst work either of them has ever produced. To add insult to injury the ending is just baffling. It felt like a response to the initial reactions to the show, hastily rewritten to make Tedros not seem like such a bad guy and his manipulation like it wasn’t as dangerous as it really was. Thankfully it was a short show, but it’s five hours of my life I’m never getting back and I was horrendously bored for most of it. It’s rare that HBO make a complete stinker but The Idol may well be one of the worst shows that the network has ever produced.