'The Idol', A New Erotic Series From The Creator of 'Euphoria' Is Getting ROASTED in Early Reviews
After a nervous breakdown derailed Jocelyn's last tour, she's determined to claim her rightful status as the greatest and sexiest pop star in America. Her passions are reignited by Tedros, a nightclub impresario with a sordid past. Will her romantic awakening take her to glorious new heights or the deepest, darkest, depths of her soul?
This series made some waves during productions for a few reasons. Sam Levinson, the creator of Euphoria, signed on to be the producer of this series along with The Weeknd in 2021. In 2022, the director of the series left with over 80% of the entire thing already filmed. Levinson took over and they ended up scrapping what they had and burning Millions more to fit his version of the show. Rolling Stone did a really interesting deep dive on it.
At various points, Levinson’s scripts contained disturbing sexual and physically violent scenes between Depp and Tesfaye’s characters, three sources familiar with the matter claim. In one draft episode, there allegedly was a scene where Tesfaye bashes in Depp’s face, and her character smiles and asks to be beaten more, giving Tesfaye an erection. (This scene was never shot, the source says.) Another proposed scenario was for Depp to carry an egg in her vagina and if she dropped or cracked the egg, Tesfaye’s character would refuse to “rape” her — which sent Depp’s character into a spiral, begging him to “rape” her because she believed he was the key to her success. (This scene also was not filmed because production couldn’t find a way to realistically shoot the scene without having Depp physically insert the egg, another source explains.)
“It was like, ‘What is this? What am I reading here?’” one of the sources says. “It was like sexual torture porn.”
Yea. Not great. And the Weeknd's response?
Weirdo shit. Anyway, they showed the first two episodes of the show at Cannes and it is getting demolished.
THR: It makes you wonder if in trying so hard to be transgressive, the show ultimately becomes regressive.
Rolling Stone: And while it’s tempting to say that everything you’ve heard about it is true, that may be soft-selling how skin-crawling the experience of actually watching this satire (?) on the seven circles of showbiz hell is. The double-dose the festival screened felt nasty, brutish, much longer than it is, and way, way worse than you’d have anticipated.
Daily Beast: There was a satirical industry framework to begin with, which might have proven effective at revealing the sleazy underbelly of entertainment. But Levinson (and you know this!) tries to have his cake and eat it, by simultaneously subverting and being the dirt that his series calls out.
God damn. Hearing that it is trying really hard to be edgy through eroticism and sex sounds right on par for the creator of 'Euphoria', but at least they had a strong backbone of a story. All of that said, the nudity will have me watching this from day one.