HBO's The Idol, Episode 1: Review
it's so bad that it's good?
When a show is beleaguered by scandals way before its release, there arises a certain necessity to watch it just to participate in the communal bashing. And yes, there is a pinch of schadenfreude when a show that is supposed to be impossibly dark and glamorous is instead widely ridiculed.
After watching the first episode it’s safe to say that we’ll keep watching not because it’s good but because it’s that bad. The Idol falls into the same trap as Gossip Girl 2.0: the creators rely on astronomical production value, lots of nudity, and cool music to cover up extremely average dialogue and lack of chemistry.
For those not in the know: The Idol is the brain (and I use that word lightly) child of Sam Levinson, Euphoria creator, and The Weeknd, whose idea of paradise is skinny white women alternating between crying and taking bumps of coke. so let that inform your consumption of this show as it will.
Premise: Jocelyn is a young, hot, and volatile pop star who is coming back into the spotlight with a new single, her first since the tragic loss of her mother. She is jaded and feels like the new song she’s about to drop is terrible and everyone on her label is lying to her about it.
Quick break for nepo baby awareness: It’s not only Lily-Rose Depp! Sam Levinson is the son of Rain Man director and Academy Award winner Barry Levinson. Sorry, I still haven’t gotten over Gracie Abrams being JJ Abrams’ daughter and now I’m pathologically looking up every famous person’s parents. Moving on…
Aside from the nepo baby of it all (we see you too, Dan Levy!), they are NOT casting any non-famous people for this show. A side effect of this is that I keep on thinking of the characters by their actors’ names (obviously the Weeknd and LRD but also Hari Nef, Troye Sivan, etc.) and not the characters’ names within the show.
The intro sequence is so funny because it’s very clear what they’re going for — they want us to be impressed and low-key frightened by her capacity to fake all these different emotions, but in real life, it just looks like she’s making a lot of different sexy model faces and then randomly crying.
So you’re telling me she’s an ultra-famous one-name pop star a la Prince, Rihanna, Madonna etcetera…and that name is JOCELYN?
The record exec: You’re not gonna find a lot of people like Jocelyn in Iowa
The assistant: But you’ll find a lot of people NAMED Jocelyn in Iowa
Of course, EUPHORIA CREATOR Sam Levinson’s greatest enemy in the world is an intimacy coordinator (the person who’s supposed to make sure all nudity/sex scenes are above board). Like they really went out of their way to make the intimacy coordinator this sniveling effete beta male who’s trying to stop Jocelyn from empowering herself through bravely showing her nude body.
In case you didn’t notice, women WANT to take their clothes off and there are all these horrible men who prevent them from living out their dreams.
This show is such a dark male fantasy. Like, couldn’t she have a more PG-13 scandal than that particular photograph (and did they really have to show it…)? Maybe there were some lightly homophobic tweets from 2018 or something?
Also yes, in the real world, there would be 20 social media employees hard at work making sure Jocelyn gets rebranded as a feminist hero who owns her sexuality etc. etc.
There is something so cringey about the self-insert that is The Weeknd’s character. Like, I can’t stand when famous people cast themselves in shows they write/produce and then use it to aggressively stroke their ego in this way. To go off on a tangent a bit, I did enjoy Aziz Ansari in Master of None, but it was also kind of funny how his character is a struggling actor yet is constantly hounded by all these beautiful Italian women falling in love with him. It is soo embarrassing and everyone sees what you’re doing.
Just a small example of the type of thing I’m talking about: the show is filmed at the Weeknd's house; so it’s so lame when they literally have Tedros do a double-take as he walks into the house because he’s so impressed. Like, you’re literally having your character marvel at how nice your own house is😭
I kind of love Nikki (the record exec) and her disdain for the college-educated, Internet types. It was so funny when the creative director said hi to the red-haired Vanity Fair writer and she goes “Of course you guys are friends”.
I definitely think the more intriguing side of this show is seeing all the various execs and creative people that keep the Jocelyn machine running – like the banter between the assistant, manager, and general record people as they figure out what to do about the photo is entertaining. I’m less interested in the actual happenings in Jocelyn’s personal life and her weird courtship with Tedros – that part of the show is aesthetically very beautiful but just feels like a Weeknd music video.
If there is a way to tell that something is a vanity project then it’s by the way the said vanity character does absolutely nothing to deserve the level of attention they get from a love interest. Tedros is wearing this FIT and tells Jocelyn “how can anyone not fall in love with you” and 2 seconds later they are about to have sex on the stairwell:
And the way he was giving Jocelyn fast, loud kisses on the neck. Please tell this man what to do!
Tedros tells Jocelyn that pop music is in fact deep because it’s “the ultimate Trojan Horse” and she suddenly wants him to listen to her new record?
It’s fascinating to see how The Weeknd, who has arguably one of the sexiest voices of the decade, completely fails to convince us that his character has any sex appeal. Also, I love a lot of The Weeknd’s songs but let’s be real, his music is not a commentary, it’s an aesthetic. Like, we get it, you’re rich and surrounded by hot girls but you’re sad because it’s sooo meaningless. His music is not so insanely deep that his character should be lecturing anyone on how shallow their lyrics are. I mean, would it help if Jocelyn recorded the song in a minor key?
The show thus far has a very faux-jaded high school vision of “this is what this world is about…I bet.” Do you get it guys? This music industry thing ain’t all it’s cracked to be. It’s daaaark.
Am I the only one who loved the original lyrics for Jocelyn’s comeback single? I’m sorry she slayed. That whole line of thought is also so trite. I’m not like those other slutty pop stars. I want to make DEEP music. I love how she’s all of a sudden disillusioned with how shallow & superficial her lyrics are as if she’s not clearly shown to be a Britney Spears-esque pop singer. Like, I don’t think she rose to fame off of heartfelt acoustic indie pieces lmao
I like Leia, Jocelyn’s best friend/ assistant. So far she’s been pretty good at making it clear how difficult it is to balance her responsibilities to Jocelyn as a friend but also as her employee. We can see her reluctantly agreeing to go with Jocelyn’s every whim, which is obviously not what a real friendship should look like.
I also enjoyed the scene of Jocelyn descending the stairs and Tedros watching her. The music choice for the scene was surprising and pleasant.
What was the point of the incredibly prolonged scene when Andrew Finkelstein from LiveNation is trying to get into the house and the security doesn’t let him?
