Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Idol’ On HBO, A Stylish But Empty Show About A Fragile Pop Star Who Swaps One Kind Of Control For Another

HBO held back screeners for The Idol after it showed the first episode at Cannes, which generated a lot of press for the show’s sexual content. Something was amiss; HBO almost ever holds back screeners from critics unless there’s a huge spoiler. So we all watched the first episode of the high-profile series with everyone else. After watching it, we understood the network’s reticence to release it to critics ahead of time.

THE IDOL: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A closeup of a woman’s face as she makes different expressions when a photographer asks for them.

The Gist: Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp) is a massive pop star, and as we can see from this photo shoot for her album cover, she can be effectively expressive on demand. As we pull back we see the usual chaos from the shoot, and an intimacy coordinator is telling one of her entourage that her nudity agreement only stipulates sideboob and underboob, not frontal toplessness, even though she’s the one who decided to open her robe.

Around her is also a buzz of people whose careers are dependent on Joss’ health and wellbeing, something that has been sketchy of late; the death of her mother and a breakdown led to the cancellation of her last tour, and this new album and tour are critical to keeping her from going down the path of Britney Spears.

We’re not exactly sure what everyone’s role is, but the main things that Chaim (Hank Azaria), Nikki (Jane Adams), Benjamin (Dan Levy) and Destiny (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) are concerned about is the visit by Talia (Hari Nef), a reporter for Vanity Fair and a leaked photo of Joss with seamen all over her face. When Destiny shows Chaim the picture, they both question Joss’ assistant/best friend Leia (Rachel Sennott) on who might have taken the picture and leaked it to the press. She has no idea but will find out. In the meantime, Daniel Finklestein (Eli Roth), the Live Nation promoter for the tour, is angrily heading to Joss’ house to demand answers regarding the cum-on-the-face photo.

As Joss switches from the photo shoot to a dance rehearsal for her tour, she seems uninspired. But one of the dancers, Dyanne (Jennie Kim), has her back, shows her how to do it, and tells her they should go to a club she knows later that night.

The club’s owner and DJ, Tedros (Abel Tesfaye aka The Weeknd) spots her on the dance floor and the two hit it off immediately. The sexual energy between the two is off the charts, as they come close to doing it in a back stairway before Leia came through looking for her boss/buddy. When Joss goes home that night, she masturbates while choking herself.

The next day, Talia brings up the photo during an interview, and Joss seems to be nonplussed about it; she even shuts Talia down when she tries to steer Joss to a public response. Later that night, Joss tells Leia she wants to invite Tedros to the house; Leia hates the idea, thinking he has a “rapey” vibe, to which Joss replies that “I kind of like that about him.”

But he does come over, and tries to get his swag on, realizing that he has an opening to influence a genuine pop superstar. Joss plays him her new song, saying she doesn’t like it; she doesn’t like any of the music that she feels she’s forced to do to keep her handlers and fans happy. He jumps in and tells her she’s not singing with enough sexual passion, and he proceeds to show her just how to achieve that voice, using an ice cube to the inner thigh and Joss’ robe, pulled tight over her head and tied around her neck.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Fifty Shades Of Grey crossed with Entourage crossed with Euphoria and Framing Britney Spears.

Our Take: It feels like Sam Levinson, who created The Idol with Tesfaye and Reza Fahim (he also directed the first episode), set out to create Euphoria with adults, showing just how lost and alone Jocelyn is, which is why she so readily gives up control of her life. He also decided to direct the pilot in the manner of early ’70s Scorsese or Coppola, with lingering wide shots, sudden push-ins and odd framing of dialogue scenes.

What it all adds up to in the first episode, though, is… not much. As much as the first episode got a lot of press for the “revenge porn” angle, Depp’s chain smoking, and her constant toplessness, the biggest sin of the first episode is that it’s crushingly dull.

In essence, this is what happens: Jocelyn meets Tedros, sparks fly, and he takes the opportunity to start exerting control, using sex as his main tool. Everything else that happens in the episode, from the photo shoot to the scandalous photo to her interactions with Leia, don’t really push the story forward. In fact, they go pretty much nowhere.

The idea of the show isn’t that hard to sus out. Jocelyn is relatively fragile and has spent her entire life as an entertainer, sheltered from reality. So she seeks people who control her, from her mother to the group of middle-aged schmucks who fake caring about her to Tedros. As Tedros becomes more influential in her life, she’s going to come in conflict with Nikki, Chaim, Destiny, Benjamin, etc. The big question will be if she can ever get control of her own life.

Because there isn’t a ton of plot, the first episode spends a lot of time being stylish and a lot of time establishing that Joss has this buzz of activity around her that doesn’t seem to much involve her input. It gets repetitive to the point of annoyance.

Given the impressive supporting cast (though Azaria sporting what sounds like an Israeli accent is an eyeroll of a move), Depp and Tesfaye hold their own, but the chemistry they’re supposed to have with each other feels more like smoking kindling than a brush fire. Maybe that will improve, making the kinky stuff that goes on between them feel more authentic. Depp has a flatness about her performance that can be explained by Joss’ general depressiveness, but that makes Joss’ sexual mode less convincing.

Sex and Skin: Uh, yes to both.

Parting Shot: As Joss struggles to breathe with the robe pulled over her head, Tedros takes a knife, sticks it in her mouth and cuts open a hole in the cloth. Then he tells her to sing the song again.

Sleeper Star: We like Rachel Sennott as Leia, because we know she has her friend’s best interests at heart, but is powerless to keep Joss on track because she also depends on her friend for a living and a roof over her head.

Most Pilot-y Line: Joss masturbating while choking herself made us throw up our hands in exasperation. We get it; she likes it dangerous and just wants to feel something. But the scene felt gratuitous.

Our Call: SKIP IT. The Idol‘s first episode achieves the near-impossible: Despite the stylish directing and abundance of sex, it’s slow-moving, dull and hard to watch.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.