by Jacob Kinman, Contributing Writer
Prestige television, and the unsuccessful attempts at it, doesn’t cease to intrigue me. The writers of these projects are tasked with telling a complete and coherent story in a limited amount of episodes. It allows more time than a film would, but still must be concise and efficient in its execution. This becomes even more difficult with a limited series. HBO, known to be a leader in producing excellent television, has recently had a slew of acclaimed limited series, such as The Undoing, The Outsider, I Know This Much Is True, and Mare of Easttown, among others.
The network’s latest attempt at this didn’t even come close to HBO’s standards.
The Idol, starring pop superstar The Weeknd and Lily Rose-Depp as Tedros, a twisted music-producer-turned-cult-leader, and Jocelyn, a struggling pop star who falls under the charms of Tedros, had its share of controversy before it even premiered. Originally helmed by Amy Seimetz, co-creator of the acclaimed Starz series The Girlfriend Experience, the show was eventually taken over by Euphoria creator Sam Levinson, despite most of Seimetz’s version being shot, which delatyed the show’s premiere until June.
It follows Jocelyn as she tries to rebuild her image and career after the traumatic death of her mother. She has a group of handlers and representatives who are very involved in her life — Chaim (Hank Azaria) and Destiny (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), her co-managers who become suspicious of the manipulative and controlling Tedros, Nikki (Jane Adams), the cynical and conniving record executive, Leia (Rachel Sennott), Jocelyn’s best friend and assistant, and Xander (Troye Sivan), creative director and longtime friend of Jocelyn. Out on the town one night, Jocelyn goes to the club that Tedros owns and grabs his attention. They immediately become sexually involved, going back to Jocelyn’s house; Tedros then tells Jocelyn he wants to produce her music. She then reworks the single that is about to be released, to the dismay of Nikki and the others. As the series progresses, Jocelyn falls further into the grips of Tedros as he alienates her from her original team and takes control over her whole life.
If you were to read that entire synopsis having never seen the show before, you would probably think it’s a raw, fast-paced, well executed drama that explores the depths of what it means to be young, famous, and female in today’s music industry. This is not the version we got.
Levinson’s vision of Tedros and Jocelyn’s journey is overcome with a lot of… ickiness, for lack of a better term. He says some of the most odd, creepy sex talk to Jocelyn at one point, which really isn’t even a sex scene, just him making Jocelyn present himself to her. And that’s just the second episode. There are so many more examples of things like this that might have already been spoiled for you on Twitter, where The Idol was ridiculed on a weekly basis when it was released.
Another thing that is lacking with The Idol is finding exactly what message the show is trying to say about Jocelyn’s story. In moments that could have been empowering or uplifting for her, the show goes in another direction that brings her down, only to then have a completely opposite shift in character when she goes against Tedros that it ends up feeling cheap and unearned.
The one positive aspect of this show is the cast. Azaria puts on his best Israeli accent and acts as the pseudo father figure to Jocelyn in a great performance. Randolph is so great as the tough but caring manager that is brutally honest with her client. Eli Roth and Daniel Levy show up as a concert rep and a publicist, respectively, and they’re always great. Rose-Depp can come off as a little vapid, but ultimately does a pretty good job portraying the troubled star. With Tedros and The Weeknd, for me, I can’t even get past how much I hate that character to even judge the performance. It’s actually made me dislike him and his music a little now. That’s how bad this show is.
What I really hate about that character is what he represents — the dark, painful, torturous side of the music industry that chews up young female artists year in and out, constantly vying for the sexiest and most innovative, the ones who sacrifice the most for their art. And what Tedros does, which is basically whatever he wants, just to “create” new artists, to any extreme possible, and ride their coattails, is exactly what happens in the industry. Tedros himself stands for the promotion and glorification of it. Call it a dark take on where music is today, call it what you will. I call it trash.
Rating: Didn’t Like It
The Idol is currently streaming on Max
You can read more from Jacob Kinman, and follow him on Twitter and Letterboxd