Anyone who has even a slight connection with social media will have heard in some way or another about the controversy surrounding The Idol, a joint venture between Abel Tesfaye (known as The Weeknd), Sam Levinson (who also produced Euphoria), and Reza Fahim.
★★✰✰✰
Caution Warning: Sexual violence allegiances are discussed in relation to The Idol.
Warning: There will be spoilers for The Idol ahead.
Excitement was rife for The Idol‘s debut. The content made a change from Levinson’s emphasis on romanticising the drug and sex-obsessed teenagers of Euphoria. Rather, The Idol promised a show about the dramatic life of an adult popstar, accompanied with a star studded cast including Lily-Rose Depp, Abel Tesfaye, K-Pop star Jennie Kim, pop-star Troye Sivan, and Dan Levy.
But there aren’t enough words to describe the disappointing final product of this $75 million-budget show. From the unnecessary over-sexualisation of characters, to plot points that are go underdeveloped, Levinson has taken a superb idea of exploring the highs and lows of stardom and executed it haphazardly.
Women are Either Weak or Sexual Objects
Levinson portrays the women in The Idol as one of two things: either the passive female or as sexual objects. As a result, The Idol fails at enabling the viewer to build a single relationship with any of the female characters.
From strutting around every scene in extravagant lingerie and heels, to sleeping naked with a silk sheet draped artistically to show off her posterior, Jocelyn’s portrayal (Lily-Rose Depp) is the biggest victim to Levinson’s male gaze. It fails to nail the iconic and unserious take on the eccentric fashionista out-of-touch with normality that dominates Sex in the City—namely, the character of Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica-Parker). And, unlike Harley Quinn in Birds of Prey, where the women are dressed in a way to cater for themselves and their feminine power, The Idol‘s Jocelyn misses the mark, by portraying a character that is impossible to relate and sympathise with.
The only character with likeable qualities is Leia (Rachel Sennott), Jocelyn’s best friend and assistant. But regardless of the likeability, Sam portrays her as a one-dimensional character that is simply too underdeveloped for us to connect with. She’s given the typical Ron Weasley treatment, who, in the Harry Potter franchise, is portrayed as snivelling and complaining, which simplified his character. Leia is the perfect candidate for a character arc, where she could demonstrate the importance of standing up for yourself—even against your friends. Rather, she takes the abuse and ends the show by writing Jocelyn a note (which we don’t even get to read), and leaves—anticlimactic to say the least. We are left frustrated and let down that she remains a passive character right to the end, her one-dimensional character portrayal holding no real value to the viewer.
Poor Character and Plot Development
Plot and character tropes are picked up and dropped down faster than you can say ‘The Weeknd’. Tesfaye’s character, Tedros, is slimy and manipulative, and Tesfaye does an incredibly mild job at playing the villainous role of abusive boyfriend and a cult leader. But, all the groundwork that is set up crumbles in the final two episodes, where the final plot-twist is revealed (a trope that lacks success for the nonchalant reveal), and we find out Jocelyn is the real manipulator and has been playing Tedros the whole time.
All of a sudden, Tedros, the man who has been in jail for kidnap, abuse, fraud, is an actual cult leader and has spent years taking control of people around him, is now portrayed as a vulnerable shell of himself. All because his girlfriend cheated (which we are hinted that he had also been doing up until this point). The effort to set up his unshakeable manipulative character in the first three and a half episodes is gone. What was the point?
Another example is Jennie Kim’s character Diane being portrayed as a competitor of Jocelyn, which is suggested rather heavily then dropped within an episode. Though this plot held potential if delved into further. Sam Levinson fails at meshing characterisation and narrative, and plot points are never fully explored, meaning the viewer is left to endure a half hearted and one-dimensional story with no character to align with.
The Harm of Fake Sexual Abuse Allegations
The harm of Levinson’s portrayal of women goes deeper as the series goes on, which I found hard to justify. Jocelyn sleeps with her ex boyfriend Rob (Karl Glusman) and Xander (Troye Sivan) goes on to frame Rob for sexual assault at the request of Tedros—occurring all in the space of 40 minutes after we are first introduced to Rob. Then, we never see him again. The introduction of Rob does nothing for the plot, and if anything just adds to the poor representation of women we have been subjected to so far.
Adding in a fake rape allegation in this way inadvertently reinforces the trope of women falsely accusing men of rape for their own gain, something which has become prevalent in recent media, as allegations against many of Hollywood’s power players have come to light. Though the trope is twisted on its head, as Xander and Tedros initiates the framing rather than a woman, its a problematic narrative device that seems to be rooted in creating shock, and contributes to the poorly developed plot and characters.
Excessive Sex Scenes
Before release, The Idol received a TV-MA rating for a whole host of things including sex and nudity. But nothing could have prepared me for what British GQ has described as “the worst sex scene in history.” Every sexual encounter in The Idol focuses on the male perspective of sex, and it doesn’t take much to imagine Levinson and Tesfaye huddled together writing the scenes.
Women are strangled, slapped, tied-up, spanked, and seen writhing around the bed in heels and excessively sexy outfits turned on by the simple existence of the strange men around them. It’s like every stereotypical porn trope compiled into one compilation, where the woman performs for the men around her, showing no female agency. It’s masochistic and disturbing, adding nothing to the plot and characters and instead leaving an unnecessarily uncomfortable portrayal of women in sexual relationships.
As the show aired, more has been revealed about the show’s production drama. The initial director was in fact Amy Seimetz, who had over 80% of the show filmed before her dramatic exit. There has been speculation over why, but the general consensus seems to be that Tesfaye wanted “to make a more misogynist vision for the show [by] scrapping Seimetz’s woman-led story arc”—according to Dextero. And he has done just that. The entire show is focused on the exploitation and overt sexual presentation of women, covered by an incredibly weak plot twist where you discover that the main female protagonist had the control the entire time.
Artful Cinematography
The Idol’s one positive remains its cinematography. Any film or TV fan will agree that Levinson’s artistic vision is beautiful. He has a way of making even the most mundane shots intriguing, through his style of emotional realism. The Idol is no exception, with its visually pleasing and engaging aesthetic that is able to emphasise the emotions that are being depicted in the scene. But sadly this was not enough to redeem itself.
The show had so much potential, which makes its failure even more of a shame. We could have been invited into a world where we learn about the inner politics and struggles of life in the limelight, produced by a world-class superstar, The Weeknd, who could not be more qualified to tell this story. And had The Idol moved away from the dated application of the male gaze, the series would have been incredibly different. Instead, we saw a strange jumble of poorly developed characters, terrible presentations of women, and too many plot points that don’t get given enough care or time.
The Idol is available to stream, if you dare, on Sky in the UK and HBO in the US.
Words by Panayiota Demosthenous
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Excellent review. I am yet to watch this program due to trepidation following the online backlash. I will dodge like the plague!