TheIdol Review: HBO's Sleaze Pop Manifesto Is Equally Thrilling & Boring
It's difficult to tell what Sam Levinson wants. Is a show like Euphoria an earnest attempt at dissecting the life of the modern teen? Is Assassination Nation a worthwhile examination of cancel culture and social media? Is his most recent project, HBO's The Idol, co-produced with A24 and shepherded by pop superstar the Weeknd, a genuine look at the plight of the modern popstar? The answer is complicated.
The first half of The Idol episode 1 tracks Jocelyn and her team as they deal with the crisis surrounding the leaked photo. Jocelyn's team is perhaps The Idol's greatest strength: Jane Adams, Hank Azaria, Rachel Sennott, Troye Sivan, Eli Roth, Dan Levy, and Da'Vine Joy Randolph are equally hysterical and terrifying as they hold Jocelyn's life in the palm of their greedy hands.
The first half of The Idol episode 1 has echoes of Seimetz's work, namely in its concerns with Jocelyn's autonomy in an industry that is desperate to strip it from her. It's a bitterly riotous riff on the industry with solid performances from its cast, including Depp, whose portrayal of Jocelyn is both melancholic and laser-focused.
Like Jocelyn, though, The Idol episode 1 reveals a series searching for an identity. That Jocelyn doesn't seem to know what she wants is fine, but the show itself not having a clear, underlying ethos is a little worrying, even if that's kind of Levinson's whole thing. Right now, it's all flash, no substance. It's pretty to look at, but vanity for vanity's sake cannot sustain a six-episode HBO show.
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