After premiering to mixed reviews at Cannes Film Festival in May, controversial TV show The Idol has now been released in both the US and UK – and people are not impressed with the way it treats women.
The HBO show stars Lily-Rose Depp and The Weeknd (Abel Tesfaye), who also serves as co-creator, and it was directed by non-other than Euphoria director Sam Levinson.
The show takes place in Hollywood where The Weeknd plays the role of a self-help guru and leader of a modern-day cult – jheeez – and develops a complicated relationship with an up-and-coming pop idol played by Lily-Rose.
We've been waiting on tenterhooks for months for the controversial new drama to hit our screens, with the series following a young pop star (Lily-Rose) and a guru-cum-cult leader (Abel).
Available to watch now in the UK, we've pulled together everything you need to know about The Idol.
What are people saying about The Idol?Many have criticised The Idol, calling it “horrible” and taking issue with the way the show sexualises women's bodies, querying the excessive nudity that Lily-Rose Depp partakes in, that perhaps isn't necessary for the plot of the show and feels gratuitous.
“Why is Jocelyn always butt a** naked” one watcher tweeted, while another urged audiences not to watch, posting: "Don't support this crap that objectifies and sexualizes women".
“I'm not watching women get torn down and abused,” another tweeted.
Others followed suit, encouraging people not to support the show: “the idol is just another show that is going to exploit women and be used by the directors/producers to act out/direct their sick fantasies”
Another added: “It's not even a TV show, basically just a revenge porn who glorifies r*pe and oversexualizes women.”
Others have even criticised The Weeknd's acting, calling it “terrible” – with others commenting on how “creepy” he comes across.
One tweeted: “The Weeknd’s character is f**king creepy as f**k and makes me hate the actual Weeknd”, while another posted: "the minute the weeknd stepped on the scene, s**t hit the fan. not in a good way #THEIDOL".
Another argument is that we don't need another male-led show to tell these kind of toxic stories, with one critic posting: “Tbh my biggest gripe with #THEIDOL is that I don’t need a tv show written and produced by men to tell me how sexist Hollywood is while using a bunch of hot people to tell the narrative".
The accusations of misogyny within The Idol have also come from inside the show itself. An unnamed member of the production team for the show described Sam Levinson's vision for The Idol as "like any rape fantasy that any toxic man would have in the show".
What did we learn from The Idol's trailer?As you'd expect from Sam Levinson, the trailer is definitely gritty, with an opening voiced over by Abel as Tedros describing the young Jocyln (Lily-Rose) as “The American dream” with a “rags to riches story”, which gives way to glimpses of a controversial relationship between the two, punctuated by moments of unnerving closeness as they embark on an adventure together.
Though like in Euphoria, we also see some moments of wry humour and electrifying performances from Lily and a crew of dancers.
Despite receiving a five-minute standing ovation at Cannes Film Festival, the series initially received mixed reviews from critics. The Hollywood Reporter called it “more regressive than transgressive”, while Variety said it comes across like a “sordid male fantasy”. Deadline, however, said Lily-Rose was “riveting” in her role as Jocelyn.
The reactions from Cannes and critics come after a shocking investigative report from Rolling Stone magazine, which stated that the show had gone “gone wildly, disgustingly off the rails”.
The production is said to have faced “delays, reshoots, and rewrites”, with one source describing it as a “sh*tshow”. “What I signed up for was a dark satire of fame and the fame model in the 21st century,” a production member told the publication. “The things that we subject our talent and stars to, the forces that put people in the spotlight and how that can be manipulated in the post-Trump world.” However, they add, “It went from satire to the thing it was satirising.”
Depp came to the show's defence during an interview at Cannes, saying, “I just want to say that […] it's a little sad and disheartening to see mean, false things said about somebody that you really care about – that you know is not like that.”
“It wasn't reflective at all of my experience shooting the show,” she continued.
We were already aware that the series, described as “the sleaziest love story”, has already faced a few speed bumps. In April 2022, Variety reported that Amy Seimetz had left her role as director of the project. Production had already filmed multiple episodes at the time of Seimetz’s departure, and sources indicated that the show would be reworked to fit a new creative direction.
“When the multi-talented Abel ‘The Weeknd’ Tesfaye, Reza Fahim, and Sam Levinson brought us The Idol, it was clear their subversive, revelatory take on the cult of the music industry was unlike anything HBO had ever done before. Shortly after, the brilliant duo of Joe Epstein and Amy Seimetz joined forces with the rest of the team, and this dream became a reality,” said Francesca Orsi, Executive Vice President, HBO Programming, at the time the series was first announced.
And The Weeknd has also confirmed that the show is actually a semi-biographical look at his meteoric rise to success in the music industry. There are some elements based on true stories, but the characters and scenarios are fictional.
Who stars in The Idol?Initially, The Weeknd was cast alongside Lily-Rose Depp in two lead roles, but they're not the only famous faves on the roster. Other notable names include Troye Sivan (famous YouTuber turned singer), Debby Ryan (American actor), Rachel Sennot (comedian), Steve Zissis (Together) and Harrie Nef (from Amazon's original series, Transparent).
It was then announced last October that Schitt's Creek star Dan Levy (who featured in the most recent clip shared by The Weeknd this week) would be joining the cast.
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