I WON'T EVER LISTEN TO THE WEEKND AGAIN

(Contains spoilers) 

It's been a little over a year since 'The Idol' came out and I was reluctant to watch it because of the reviews I’d read, but in the end, out of curiosity and to see what all the fuss was about, I decided to watch it.

The only thing I knew about the series before watching it was: that it is from HBO (which usually makes very good series), that it starred Lily-Rose Melody Depp and The Weeknd, that it is directed by Sam Levinson (creator of Euphoria), that before all the episodes aired, it had already been canceled (there will never be a second season) and that it was surrounded by controversy.

What I heard at first was that the show was very empty and that The Weeknd (who is co-producer and co-creator of the series) was a terrible actor and only wanted to shoot sex scenes and take advantage of the situation. I'm not going to dig into this, because I don't think it's in my hands to gossip about something like this, I'll only say what I think of the show as an audiovisual product and for its message.

Digging into it a little more, it turns out that, according to what I've read in different sources, the director would be Amy Seimetz, but when they had 80% of the production done (having already filmed practically the entire show), the Weeknd and Sam Levinson thought that they didn’t like the point of view (some people say that they thought it was too feminine, but again, I'm not going to go there) and they decided to re-shoot the entire show, and that's why they had to reduce it from six chapters to five. This is proven, since you can find online images that members of the team shared on social media from the first shooting where you can see characters, costumes and entire sets that didn't make it to the final version. After watching the show, the truth is that I am very curious to see what they had filmed, but I guess we never will.

Promotional picture from 'The Idol'

There is one thing that is indisputable and that is that, whether you like the show or not, the photography, the colours and the art direction are top notch. The show is visually beautiful, really a waste since, I'm going to say it, I didn't like the show at all. What's more, it even made me very angry at the end. Leaving aside the controversies, if the point of view was “too feminine” or if they only wanted to record sex scenes or blah blah blah, I'm going to tell you why I though this show was awful.

The show revolves around Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Melody Depp), a well-known artist who is fed up with her image and wants to make a change. From what I've read, in the original series, she was a child star and wanted to get rid of this image and be more adult (kind of like what happened to Britney Spears and Miley Cyrus). However, in the final cut that we can see on HBO there is nothing left from this past, and they do not give us any kind of context, we do not know who Jocelyn was before the show, we only know that she wants to change but we don't have any background of the character, we only know that she's traumatised because her mother died, and that's literally the only thing we know about her. I think this is the first failure and it may be what makes the show feel empty, since they do not give any context or history on any of the characters, which makes it quite difficult for me to empathise with them.

Anyway, Jocelyn's life changes when she meets Tedros (The Weeknd), a totally repulsive character who honestly seems like a very poorly constructed villain to me. For me, a well-made villain is one with whom you can empathise in certain things, for example, Cersei in 'Game of Thrones'. She is a bad bitch, but deep down she is a protective mother who had to marry a disgusting man while being in love with another man (who happens to be her brother, oops). I'm not saying that these backgrounds justify what she does, but they make you see that neither the good guys are all good, nor the bad guys all bad. The thing about Tedros is that everything about him is disgusting. The rat tail they gave him is too distracting, the way he speaks, how he behaves and how he treats people, everything about him is incredibly disgusting (not to mention his acting). The final twist of the show, which is what really pissed me off, is that you spend the entire show thinking that Tedros manipulates Jocelyn and in the end... Surprise, surprise! She is the manipulator and the worst of them all and she takes advantage of everyone... What?!

My face every time Tedros was on screen

This fatal twist in the middle of 2024 bores me and pisses me off a lot. And if that wasn't enough, there is a second twist, and in the last 5 minutes of the show, they forgive each other and live happily ever after.. These two shitty people without any background or justification or context or past life, NOTHING!

Honestly, I will never watch this show again and although there are things I like, especially on a visual level, I don't think it's worth wasting your time watching it. Also, what they've done with the soundtrack is horrible, because they put Tedros as a disgusting manager of a cult that draws out people's talents by basically torturing them, but almost the entire soundtrack is by The Weeknd, so it seems super anticlimactic to me, and Tedros has made me feel so much rejection that I won’t ever listen to The Weeknd again. Also, being a show that revolves around Jocelyn's music and the new songs she makes to create a new image, honestly, the songs she makes and are supposed to be the best thing ever and blow your mind, I don't remember any of them and I think that is a very bad sign.

Another thing I didn't like about the show are the sex scenes, supposedly Tedros and his sex free Jocelyn and help her record new music through these scenes, but they seem so out of context, so unnecessary and so uncomfortable to watch that, again, they make me feel nothing but rejection. I understand that they justify it by saying 2284208429 times in the show "sex sells", but in my case, they didn’t manage to sell me anything.