The Idol finale, review: farewell to the worst TV show of the year

Cut short by an episode, HBO’s disastrous music industry drama became as illogical as it was boring and sexist

Lily-Rose Depp as confused pop star Jocelyn

Credit: Sky Atlantic

It’s looking like there won’t be an encore for The Idol (Sky Atlantic), the toe-curlingly naff and sexist music industry drama from pop star The Weeknd and Euphoria creator Sam Levinson. If anything, the set has been cut short, with the show mysteriously trimmed from six to five episodes, the last of which confirmed it was not only the worst TV show of the year – but a potential turkey for the ages. It was the Dark Side of the Moon of terrible telly –  so cringe-inducing it’s hard to imagine how it got off the drawing board, let alone on to our screens.

In a way, you have to credit the quality control. The Idol has maintained a consistent awfulness throughout. It began with Lily-Rose Depp’s Britney Spears-esque pop star Jocelyn insisting it was her prerogative as a strong woman to whip off her top for a photo shoot. Five weeks later, it ended with Jocelyn snogging her abusive mentor Tedros – aka the Weeknd – in front of a packed stadium in Los Angeles.

The audience was actually there for a concert by The Weeknd, who begged the indulgence of his fans last November to film footage for his vanity project. This was before a devastating Rolling Stone exposé claimed original show-runner Amy Seimetz had been squeezed out because, according to reports, she had brought too much of “a female perspective”.

It’s fair to say The Weeknd (real name Abel Tesfaye) and Levinson have corrected course. As Jocelyn, Lily-Rose Depp has spent most of her screen time in various stages of undress. In the finale, she performed yet another risqué dance routine, this time for the entertainment of a sleazy Live Nation executive (Eli Roth).

The Idol hasn’t helped The Weeknd’s image

Credit: Sky Atlantic

She was doing so to convince Live Nation to support her forthcoming tour and the album she’d been working on with Tedros. He was the sordid DJ gradually revealed to be a Charles Manson-esque cult leader on a mission to take over Jocelyn’s life.

HBO has not explained its decision to cut The Idol from six hours to five. But the move has left cracks in an already undercooked story. Episode five ended with Jocelyn discovering her seemingly random encounter with Tedros in a club back in part one had been engineered by the would-be Svengali.

But this twist didn’t explain the shift in the balance of power between the duo as the finale began. Suddenly, the previously submissive Jocelyn was calling the shots. Tedros was defenestrated and about to be booted out of her entourage (only to be mystifyingly welcomed back with that final kiss on stage). Along with boring and cringe, that missing episode had now rendered The Idol illogical.

There’s been a lot of talk about The Idol becoming a “hate-watch” classic along the lines of Paul Verhoeven’s Showgirls, which posterity has declared to be an irresistible inferno of kitsch. For now, though, it resembles nothing so much as a soft-porn tribute to Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut.

Levinson mimics Kubrick’s chilliness: the director’s creepy distance between the camera and his subjects. But Levinson erred in amping up the camp factor to the point where you could almost see it seeping through the walls. The other difference was that Kubrick had Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman rehearsing the break-up of their marriage in real time. All Levinson had to work with was the vacant Depp and atrociously stilted The Weeknd.

It’s unclear if it’s curtains for the Idol. The Weeknd has indicated he only wanted to tell this story; HBO has yet to formally announce whether the show has been cancelled. Whatever happens, it may have already tainted everyone involved. In the case of Levinson, it has deepened the suspicion that, as far back as teen drama Euphoria, he was a voyeur without a soul.

The Idol has also crystallised the Weeknd’s image as an over-sexed weirdo. Nor has it helped the acting aspirations of the pop stars filling the cast. These have included Troye Sivan, as Jocelyn’s best friend, Blackpink’s Jennie Kim, as one of Jocelyn’s dancers and Moses Sumney, as a member of The Weeknd’s cult.

The most extensive damage of all, though, might be to HBO. Long considered the gold standard of prestige TV studios, the network behind Succession has dropped a clunker for the ages. One bad Weeknd could ruin its reputation for years. 

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