The Idol - General Discussion

[BetterButter]

[AnimeMania]

The Idol is a 6 or 7 episode Drama TV Series that Abel "The Weeknd" Tesfaye, co-wrote with Sam Levinson (Euphoria), that will be airing on HBO. The Idol follows an up-and-coming female pop singer (Lily-Rose Depp) who is navigating the Los Angeles Music Industry, who starts a complicated romance with an enigmatic L.A. Night Club Owner (Abel "The Weeknd" Tesfaye), self-help guru, and leader of a modern-day secret cult. 

Abel "The Weeknd" Tesfaye
Lily-Rose Depp
Steve Zissis
Troye Sivan
Anne Heche
Melanie Liburd
Tunde Adebimpe
Elizabeth Berkley Lauren
Nico Hiraga
Juliebeth Gonzalez
Maya Eshet
Tyson Ritter
Kate Lyn Shell
Liz Sierra
Finley Rose Slater

[BetterButter]

[AnimeMania]

[AnimeMania]

The Idol airs Sunday, June 4, 2023 at 9 pm on HBO. With so many edits, who can say how many episodes there are.

Edited April 17, 2023 by AnimeMania

[AnimeMania]

"Double Fantasy" is the lead single from the upcoming The Idol television series.

[luckyroll3]

I read something that said part of the delay of this show is because The Weeknd didn't like that the director/showrunner was ruining his vision because of her "feminine lens". Lol! Should be interesting to see what we end up with. 

[AnimeMania]

The Idol will be 6 episodes.

[AnimeMania]

[AnimeMania]

The Weeknd Says “Everything’s a Risk” While Talking ‘The Idol’ Reshoots, Adds He “Sacrificed My Health and Home” to Retool HBO Show

[Snazzy Daisy]

The BTS dramas:

‘The Idol’: How HBO’s Next ‘Euphoria’ Became Twisted ‘Torture Porn’

Some harsh critics:

‘The Idol’ Is More Toxic and Way Worse Than You’ve Heard

Quote

The double-dose the festival screened felt nasty, brutish, much longer than it is, and way, way worse than you’d have anticipated.

 

The Weeknd and Sam Levinson’s ‘The Idol,’ Starring Lily-Rose Depp, Plays Like a Sordid Male Fantasy: TV Review

Quote

The script (overhauled by Levinson, Reza Fahim and The Weeknd after an earlier, Amy Seimetz-helmed version was scrapped) seems calculated to fool audiences into thinking they’re observing how Hollywood operates, when so much of it amounts to tawdry clichés lifted from Sidney Sheldon novels and softcore porn. “Showgirls” at least was a thinly veiled “All About Eve” remake, whereas “The Idol” plays like a sordid male fantasy.

 

HBO’s sleazy new drama has the worst line of dialogue you’ll hear all year

Quote

Notably, of all the characters Tesfaye helped create for the show, his is one of the few who isn’t required to spend their time on screen parading around in their underwear – or less. But he has given himself some eyebrow-raising dialogue. Sex talk that manages to be a turn-off in two different ways is some screenwriting feat.

Even the music is dreadful.

 

 

Edited May 24, 2023 by Snazzy Daisy

[luckyroll3]

Abel's tweet in reply to the Rolling Stone article....so tone def and cringey!

 

[SunnyBeBe]

I’ve been reading about it and it’s not good. I really wonder what’s wrong with Levinson.  It’ll eventually come out.  

https://screenrant.com/the-idol-show-rotten-tomatoes-score-sam-levinson-career-comparison/

Edited May 27, 2023 by SunnyBeBe

[luckyroll3]

I'm kinda loving how while at Cannes, everyone is being ignored by the photographers because they only care about Jennie from BlackPink. Apparently only Abel and Lily Rose Depp were supposed to get solo pics on the red carpet and everyone else had to get photographed with the group. But they had to pull Jennie out separately because the photographers were literally chanting her name. 

[AnimeMania]

[Snazzy Daisy]

The Weeknd and Lily-Rose Depp on Creating The Idol

Quote

“I had to take off the Weeknd outfit, put on Tedros’s wig, shoot with Jocelyn, then go back to being The Weeknd. It was tough to go from one head to another. Then, after the concert, I lost my voice. No voice came out at all. That’s never happened before. My theory is that I forgot how to sing because I was playing Tedros, a character who doesn’t know how to sing. I may be looking too deeply into this, but it was terrifying.”

- Abel Makkonen Tesfaye

Dude, you have too many personas at one time. Why don’t you just be yourself? 🙄

 

Lily-Rose Depp ‘Would Steer Clear’ of the Weeknd on ‘The Idol’ Set at Times, but Stresses: Nobody ‘Went Full Method’ or ‘Lost Their Minds’

Quote

“I don’t think anybody went full method — nobody lost their minds. Well, sometimes when Abel would get — I don’t want to reveal too much about where Abel’s character goes, but when he would be in full Tedros mode sometimes, I would steer clear of him. I’d be like, ‘He’s in his zone right now.'”

 

Edited June 3, 2023 by Snazzy Daisy

[aghst]

May have to check it out because of the furor this show seems to have caused.

Nothing else on and I guess HBO gambled on this after Succession and Barry ended.

[AnimeMania]

S01.E01: Pop Tarts & Rat Tales

After having a nervous breakdown that caused the cancellation of her last tour, an aspiring pop star begins a complicated relationship with a self-help guru and the head of a contemporary cult.

Premiere Date: June 4, 2023    HBO    9pm

[Lethallyfab]

I thought I had prepared for this by reading the Cannes takes, but in execution, it is so much worse.  The entire first act seemed like a big FU by Levinson to Sydney Sweeney, et. al - “no, I don’t *need* a nudity rider, because I am *empowered* and will flash my tits if I WANT TO.”

Levinson could have (a) not shown the “human cum-sock” photo at all (props to the writers’ room for coming up with that turn-of-gross-phrase!)  and having it live off-screen or (b) shown it but out of focus, instead he chose (c) showing the audience a pic of his leading actress with jizz on her face.  

Hilarious that The Weeknd is betting on the “I’m not The Weeknd anymore, I am Abel Tesfaye, a serious actor and you will treat me as such!” for…this.  Big David Caruso energy.

The irony is that Lily-Rose Depp is not a good or charismatic enough actress to portray a world-famous superstar on the level of Britney and Abel Tesfaye is too much of a pop star to be a believable enough actor to portray his character.

The Amy Seimetz situation is horrible but it’s not the first time HBO has done this to a female showrunner/director - it apparently snatched all of Season Two of ‘Big Little Lies’ from Andrea Arnold’s hands and gave it to Jean-Marc Valee to recut and re-edit it to seem more along the lines of season one.

[AntFTW]

Ummm... didn't really care for the first episode.

[SHD]

On 6/3/2023 at 3:07 PM, aghst said:

Nothing else on and I guess HBO gambled on this after Succession and Barry ended.

They lost.

I canceled my series recording after watching the first episode. I couldn’t even figure out what tone they were going for. The opening scene with all her “people” dealing with the photo crisis seemed like a funny satire of the ridiculousness of the business (Dan Levy was great), but then it turned into something completely different.

For me, a big nope.

[MrWhyt]

well that was certainly a Sam Levinson show

[dwmarch]

I thought her handlers went in the wrong direction when trying to do damage control on her selfie. They immediately started talking about revenge porn but this was while they had the nudity coordinator locked in a bathroom because Joss is not shy. One person even mentioned that she was the one who took the photo. So she seems to have been a willing participant and she didn't even seem upset that this photo was out there. I thought they were going to reveal that she leaked it herself.

I must also wonder if this would be a scandal if it happened to a celebrity in the real world. Every freaky thing that human beings can think of to do has probably also been done by a celebrity. There is also a thriving community of people out there who use Photoshop (and now AI art) to turn any and every celebrity into the porn version of themselves. If I want to see a picture of any celebrity in a similar situation I'm sure I wouldn't take much time or effort to find such a thing. I think the handlers would have been better off saying the photo was a fake. Especially since once things are on the internet, they never come off.

[Guest]

My many moods of watching the first episode:

And after 40 minutes when I decided I could take no more:

 

 

[luckyroll3]

Oooh chile, this was a hot ass mess. But that's exactly what I was expecting.  

9 hours ago, dwmarch said:

I thought her handlers went in the wrong direction when trying to do damage control on her selfie. They immediately started talking about revenge porn but this was while they had the nudity coordinator locked in a bathroom because Joss is not shy. One person even mentioned that she was the one who took the photo. So she seems to have been a willing participant and she didn't even seem upset that this photo was out there. I thought they were going to reveal that she leaked it herself.

I had the same thought. It was so bizarre to me that they were overly concerned about how the leaked photo would impact her comeback but then at the same time wouldn't listen to the intimacy coordinator urging them to consider why the nudity contract was important. 

Also, who the hell were all those people. One dude was her manager, mousey girl is her assistant, and the asshole with the lambo was from Live Nation; who the heck was everyone else?

I'm waiting for the reveal that Tedros and his "cult" are actually a vampire cabal working to rebuild their empire by getting their hooks, ehrm fangs, in the biggest star in the world. I would enjoy the awfulness and cheesiness of this a lot more if they were vampires....

 

[Snazzy Daisy]

Special message for Mr. Abel Makkonen Tesfaye...

[NeenerNeener]

Well, I tried watching it. I guess I'm not the target audience for this thing. Yuck.

[RachelKM]

I have a friend who worked on this show before it shut down. I was somewhat curious what ended up happening to it and maybe watching it. After reading the above, never mind. This sounds terrible and not in a fun way. 

[SHD]

2 hours ago, NeenerNeener said:

Well, I tried watching it. I guess I'm not the target audience for this thing. Yuck.

This is exactly how I feel about Euphoria, too.

[luckyroll3]

52 minutes ago, RachelKM said:

I have a friend who worked on this show before it shut down.

Any inside scoops???

[CherryMalotte]

It's one thing to be provocative and sexy and dangerous.   That's a great combination of elements for a show, especially if you have the acting, writing, and directing also in line and all the working parts are in sync.  

This show isn't an example of that.  I doubt I'll be back for seconds.

[RachelKM]

2 hours ago, luckyroll3 said:

Any inside scoops???

Honestly, I don't know how much of what I know was already reported. I sort of forgot about this show until it popped up on my app the other night.

From what I understand, everyone (or maybe just women and non-creeps? unconfirmed) liked the original script (which I think was 5 episodes).  They essentially filmed 4 (extensively rewritten) episodes, shut down, and rewrote and reshot the whole thing. 

My friend works in costuming. So, I'm usually only up on fittings and styling nonsense. The fact that I even knew about the daily rewrites is testament to what an absolute shit show it must have been. But that is part me reading between the lines because I know my friend and what level of shenanigans it takes to be worth them mentioning. 

Edited June 6, 2023 by RachelKM

[tomsmom]

Me going from Succession to this…

Edited June 6, 2023 by tomsmom

[cmfran]

I think the thing that disappoints me the most with this show is the concept itself. The "bad girl pop star" isn't really a thing in pop culture anymore, and the trope of "I'm really an artiste, but my handlers won't let me express myself" has been done a million times. And this had none of the interesting visual flair of Euphoria.

I'll likely give this another episode to see where it goes, but yeah, the pilot wasn't good.

[candall]

Hey, show.  You've only put out one episode.  Maybe it's not too late to release the episodes the woman showrunner produced, starting with Episode 2.

Because everyone who is not The Weeknd hates this mess.

[heatherchandler]

On 6/4/2023 at 10:34 PM, Lethallyfab said:

The irony is that Lily-Rose Depp is not a good or charismatic enough actress to portray a world-famous superstar on the level of Britney

She’s a really bad actress. Like I know how she got the show but oooof she’s terrible.

The person playing the writer from Vanity Fair, did she win this role, like a walk-on part auctioned off?  There is no way she’s an actual actress.  She’s the worst.  Is she someone’s kid?

[SHD]

3 hours ago, heatherchandler said:

The person playing the writer from Vanity Fair, did she win this role, like a walk-on part auctioned off?  There is no way she’s an actual actress.  She’s the worst.  Is she someone’s kid?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hari_Nef

[marny]

I was vaguely familiar with Hari Nef for her modeling, but hadn’t seen her act before. Agree with the above poster that she ain’t great. Very wooden. Maybe she was better in the original shoots but she seemed super-awkward in the episode that aired. Lily Rose-Depp isn’t much of an actress either, but it appears a willingness to wear nothing was the only requirement, so she nailed that part. 
And I truly do not see The Weeknd’s sex appeal at all, so unfortunately his terrible acting and dialogue are way too noticeable for me. 

[Lethallyfab]

My pet theory is that the show deliberately opened with the whole “make a bunch of facial expressions!  Show me a whole range of emotions!” photo shoot with Jocelyn to trick us into thinking Ross-Depp can actually act for the rest of the show and distract us from the fact that she…doesn’t have a whole bunch of facial expressions.

[Adgirl]

This is for people who don't want pornhub in their search history.

What absolute trash. I also hate her assistant and totally believe she leaked that photo.

[SlovakPrincess]

If the stories of significant changes to the show in the middle of shooting are true, you have to feel a little bad for Lily Rose Depp.  They have given her nothing of interest or substance to play here and if she weren’t a nepo baby this could wreck her career.  It’s pretty obvious they had no interest in trying to create a realistic or well rounded character.  The character is there to be sexy (and often nearly naked), mentally unwell and exploited.    It’s pretty gross.  
 

A story about a pop star getting sucked into a cult could be interesting, and I imagine that’s why she signed onto this.  I don’t know how Dan Levy and Hank Azaria found themselves in this hell dimension, but it certainly lends credence to the idea that the project changed drastically after they were already trapped in a contract.

Between the awful Velma series and this, I really have to wonder what the hell is going at HBO ..  Max … whatever the hell it is.

[aghst]

Well Levinson probably had a lot of buzz off Euphoria.

So either he lost it all of a sudden or maybe his previous work will have to be seen in a new light somewhat.

[AnimeMania]

S01.E02: Double Fantasy

After clashing with her team over her album’s first single, Jocelyn pushes herself to the limit on the set of her new music video, while Nikki sees potential in backup dancer Dyanne. Later, Tedros introduces Jocelyn and Leia to Izaak and Chloe from his inner circle.

Premiere Date: June 11, 2023    HBO    9pm

[luckyroll3]

Something that has been bugging me all week is that they keep referring to Tedros' hair as a rattail. That is not a rattail; It's a ponytail! Dude from Grownish has a legit rattail:

[Lethallyfab]

This remix of ‘World-Class Sinner’ is…also bad, over-produced and trite?  But it’s somehow genius because it has The Weeknd’s touch and her handlers just don’t get it because they’re out-of-touch and it’s not commercial because there’s so much heavy breathing and moaning?  
 

Donna Summer’s ‘Love to Love You Baby’ came out in *1975*.

Edit: I guess it’s the closing song, so some recognition there.

If I were a recently de-platformed/canceled/silo-ed HBO/Max show who got shuttered due to budget cuts or tax breaks, I would be *livid* that HBO paid $75 Million to Sam Levinson & The Weeknd to feed a BDSM for Beginners’ subreddit into an AI to come up with these sex scenes.  Nothing about them feels remotely attuned to actual human behavior or things that are genuinely sexy.
 

Edited June 12, 2023 by Lethallyfab
Song edit

[SHD]

I thought I might’ve been too harsh, so I gave this show a second shot. Nope. I usually say I guess this show’s not for me, but honestly, I don’t know who this show is for.

I don’t think it would’ve helped, but I would’ve cast someone like Jared Leto as the creepy, cult leader Svengali. At least he can act.

And I understand that there’s a lack of content now, but does HBO/MAX have to run the same episode three times in a row? I mean, just put on some Succession reruns!

[dwmarch]

I liked episode 2. Jocelyn's handlers are ignoring her or humoring her most of the time, constantly pushing her around and demanding "sexy" from her in conditions that are the exact opposite. The first half of the episode is agonizing as they all treat her like a piece of meat but also insist that she's the problem and she should be grateful for all the shit they are giving her. And when she does knock it out of the park, these so-called professionals aren't even looking at her. She's trying her best, apologizing constantly and still attempting to soldier through even though she can't stop crying. The whole time all of this is going on, I'm in the audience feeling uncomfortable with having to watch her go through this and wondering when they are going to let her go. But instead of a big blowup they pull the plug when she's still trying to fulfill her obligations. It is difficult to watch but it is supposed to be.

Contrast this to when Tedros and friends come over. Instead of some weird superhero costume that she has to be sewn into, she's just wearing a simple but undeniably sexy leather mini and a tank top. Everyone is getting along, having a good time (although with the added assistance of booze and drugs) and folks just start having sex because they end up in the mood. After that release (which she seems quite happy about) she ends up making some incredible music with some folks who are just effortlessly talented. There's no one shouting directions or telling her she's doing it wrong. She's just happy and comfortable and safe (for now) and listen to the result! But no one will hear the result because they're not recording it. The back half of the episode goes by a lot quicker than the first half, as wonderful moments in a person's life tend to do.

[Maurina]

This is a very confusing show.  Either it really was supposed to be a satire at first (which explains the absolutely laughable 'sex' and 'sexy talk') that later devolved into utter silliness when it got re-shot, or it always was just straight-up laughable and vaguely embarrassing. Even the supposedly 'deep' song at the end - the lyrics, "that's my family/we don't like each other very much" - wtf?

As for the acting, I think Depp is pretty good considering the hilariously bad material.

[marny]

We gave it one more episode. I found myself feeling sorry for Lily-Rose Depo that this is the project she chose as her breakout role. I’m done. 

[cmfran]

Somehow ep 2 was worse than the first. I just don't know who this show is for. If I wanted to be turned on, I'd just watch porn, because this isn't going to do it. And as a drama, it's ridiculous. 

I also can't figure out who all the handlers are. And why would they all be in the same place all the time?