The Idol
Available on Now TV and Sky Atlantic
Anyone who has witnessed a smidgen of Euphoria’s audaciousness will know that Sam Levinson is a creator that, for better or worse, has a knack for getting tongues to wag. That show has always been a morally complex affair - in one breath a daring exploration of teenage vices, in another a gratuitous and voyeuristic sexcapade.
The Idol, co-created by Levinson with Abel ‘The Weeknd’ Tesfaye and Reza Fahim, requires no such compromise from its audience, as it is brazenly vulgar in such a way that only the most depraved of viewers could find artistry in its sordidness.
Focused on Lily-Rose Depp’s titular pop idol and her coercive relationship with Tesfaye’s cult leader/con-artist, the series is essentially a highlight reel of Levinson’s worst impulses as a director, with every rare moment of character development forsaken for an act of sexual violence that intends to shock but only succeeds in making you question the mental wellbeing of The Idol’s creators.
Art has always had an innate propensity to challenge convention (and long may that continue), but directors such as Levinson - whether consciously or otherwise - fetishise and, at their very worst, trivialise addiction, sexual abuse, and trauma in such a needlessly hollow way that it strips their work of any value it might otherwise have had. There are moments in The Idol that are desperately ugly enough to make you feel complicit in their making just by tuning in, so much so that, by the final episode, you’re just relieved the ordeal is over.
Since it concluded its problematically short five-episode run, many have speculated whether The Idol’s well-documented production issues meant that the show was always doomed to failure. It’s certainly intriguing to consider what sort of story its original director Amy Seimetz (She Dies Tomorrow, The Girlfriend Experience) would have told, especially when you consider the show in tandem with the problematic experiences of real-life pop idols such as Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus, and Kesha.
Alas, what we got was one of the worst television series HBO has ever put its good name to, one that is nowhere near as gripping as it clearly thinks it is and, in Tesfaye, features one of the most leaden leading man to ever be put to screen.
