The Idol (TV series)

The Idol is an American drama television series created by Sam Levinson, Abel "The Weeknd" Tesfaye, and Reza Fahim. The series focuses on female pop idol Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp) and her complex relationship with Tedros (Tesfaye), a sleazy nightclub owner, self-help guru, and cult leader. Appearing in supporting roles are Suzanna Son, Troye Sivan, Jane Adams, Jennie Ruby Jane, Rachel Sennott, Hari Nef, Moses Sumney, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Eli Roth, Ramsey, and Hank Azaria.

The Idol underwent significant creative changes, with Levinson taking over directing duties and reshaping the series to align with a new vision. There was a shift away from the initial storyline towards a focus on a "degrading" love story with heavier sexual content. Production was paused and resumed several times, with scenes filmed during Tesfaye's tour. The series was shot using improvisation and featured scenes filmed at Tesfaye's mansion.

It premiered its first two episodes at the 76th Cannes Film Festival in May 2023. The series aired on HBO and Max from June 4 to July 2, 2023. The series was widely panned upon release and was canceled after one season in August 2023.

Synopsis
Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp) is a pop idol who resolves to reclaim her title as the sexiest pop star in the United States after her last tour was canceled following a nervous breakdown. She begins a complex relationship with Tedros (Abel Tesfaye), a self-help guru and the head of a contemporary cult.

Main

 * Lily-Rose Depp as Jocelyn, an up-and-coming young pop star reeling from the death of her mother
 * Abel Tesfaye as Tedros, a sinister nightclub owner and talent scout leading a cult-like group of aspiring musicians
 * Suzanna Son as Chloe, a young aspiring musician loyal to Tedros
 * Troye Sivan as Xander, Jocelyn's creative director and childhood friend
 * Jane Adams as Nikki Katz, a cynical record label executive

Recurring

 * Jennie Ruby Jane as Dyanne, a backup dancer and close friend of Jocelyn
 * Rachel Sennott as Leia, Jocelyn's best friend and assistant
 * Hari Nef as Talia Hirsch, a Vanity Fair writer looking to write an article on Jocelyn's mental state
 * Moses Sumney as Izaak, a follower of Tedros
 * Da'Vine Joy Randolph as Destiny, Jocelyn's co-manager
 * Ramsey as herself, a follower of Tedros
 * Hank Azaria as Chaim, Jocelyn's other co-manager

Guest

 * Dan Levy as Benjamin, Jocelyn's publicist
 * Eli Roth as Andrew Finkelstein, a Live Nation representative
 * Alexa Demie (uncredited cameo)
 * Melanie Liburd as Jenna, a follower of Tedros
 * Mike Dean as himself, hired by Tedros to produce Jocelyn's new album
 * Karl Glusman as Rob Turner, an actor and Jocelyn's ex-boyfriend

Development
On June 29, 2021, Tesfaye announced that he would be creating, executive producing, and co-writing a drama series for HBO alongside Reza Fahim and Sam Levinson. On the same day, Ashley Levinson and Joseph Epstein were announced as executive producers for the series, with Epstein also serving as a writer and the series' showrunner. Mary Laws was also announced as a writer and a co-executive producer, alongside Tesfaye's co-manager Wassim Slaiby and his creative director La Mar Taylor. Amy Seimetz was signed on as the director and as an executive producer.

On November 22, 2021, HBO gave the production a series order for a first season consisting of six episodes. Following a creative overhaul in the spring of 2022, the season was condensed to five episodes. On January 14, 2022, Deadline Hollywood reported that Nick Hall had joined the production as an executive producer, following his move to A24 to oversee creative for the company's television slate. On August 28, 2023, HBO announced that The Idol was canceled after one season.

Casting
In the initial announcement, Tesfaye revealed that he would be starring in the series. On September 29, 2021, it was reported that Lily-Rose Depp had signed on to play the female lead opposite Tesfaye. On November 22, Suzanna Son, Steve Zissis, and Troye Sivan joined the main cast, while Melanie Liburd, Tunde Adebimpe, Elizabeth Berkley, Nico Hiraga, and Anne Heche were announced as recurring characters. On December 2, Juliebeth Gonzalez joined the cast as a series regular, while Maya Eshet, Tyson Ritter, Kate Lyn Sheil, Liz Caribel Sierra, and Finley Rose Slater were cast in recurring roles.

On April 25, 2022, Variety reported that the show was set to undergo a major overhaul, with "drastic" changes in the cast and creative directions. On April 27, Deadline Hollywood reported that Son, Zissis, and Gonzalez were not expected to return. In July, actors Rachel Sennott and Hari Nef, along with Jennie Ruby Jane, joined the cast;  Moses Sumney, Jane Adams, Dan Levy, Eli Roth, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Mike Dean, Ramsey, and Hank Azaria were confirmed as cast members on August 21 in the second teaser trailer. On March 1, 2023, Rolling Stone reported that Son and Sivan remained in the cast despite the overhaul. It was later announced that Heche (in what would have been her final television role) and Berkley were no longer in the cast as HBO took the series in "a new creative direction".

Filming
Principal photography began in November 2021 in and around Los Angeles, California. Production was temporarily paused in April 2022 due to Tesfaye co-headlining the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival with Swedish House Mafia on short notice. On April 25, Variety reported that Seimetz had left the project amid its creative overhaul, with roughly 80% of the series already filmed. HBO released a statement following Seimetz's exit, saying: "The Idol's creative team continues to build, refine, and evolve their vision for the show and they have aligned on a new creative direction. The production will be adjusting its cast and crew accordingly to best serve this new approach to the series."

Levinson reportedly took over Seimetz's directing duties sometime in April 2022. According to IndieWire and other sources, Tesfaye wanted to tone down the "cult" aspect of the story, and felt concerned that Seimetz's initial work on the show "lean[ed] too much into a female perspective." Reporting by Rolling Stone noted the marked differences between Seimetz's initial work and Levinson's reshooting and rewriting of the series, which scrapped Seimetz's initial approach—a troubled starlet falling victim to a predatory industry figure and fighting to reclaim her own agency. Crew members described the Levinson rework's focus on a "degrading" love story, with a heavier emphasis on sexual content and nudity, as amounting to "sexual torture porn" and "like [a] rape fantasy".

Production resumed in late May 2022 and was paused again in early July, just as Tesfaye began embarking on his After Hours til Dawn Tour. Scenes from The Idol were filmed in September at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, during Tesfaye's tour. Audience members were notified of the filming before the concert commenced.

The series was shot using two to three cameras, with the cast improvising, leaving the editors with long first cuts. The series used Tesfaye's Bel Air mansion as Jocelyn's home.

Music
The series' soundtrack, The Idol, Vol. 1, was originally set to be released on June 30. The soundtrack was set to include songs created by the Weeknd himself and supporting cast member Mike Dean, among others. "Double Fantasy", featuring Future, was released as the lead single from the soundtrack on April 21, 2023. "Popular", a collaboration with Playboi Carti and Madonna, was released as the second single from the soundtrack on June 2, 2023. On June 8, 2023, it was announced that new music was set to be released following or preceding the premiere of each episode in an EP format, abandoning the soundtrack format altogether.

Release
The Idol premiered out-of-competition at the 76th Cannes Film Festival on May 22, 2023, where the series received a five-minute standing ovation following the screening of its first two episodes, which is considered a normal to lukewarm audience reaction at the festival. This is also where Sam Levinson announced that the show was taking place in the same universe as his other HBO series, Euphoria. It marks the fifth television series to be screened at the festival after Carlos, Too Old to Die Young, Twin Peaks, and Irma Vep. The series began airing on HBO and Max on June 4, 2023.

Critical response
The Idol received negative reviews from critics, with some deeming it "boring". Critics that attended the series' premiere at the Cannes Film Festival disapproved of its script, direction, and sexual content. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds a rating of 19% based on 106 critic reviews, with an average rating of 4.30/10. The site's consensus reads: "Every bit as florid and sleazy as the industry it seeks to satirize, The Idol places itself on a pedestal with unbridled style but wilts under the spotlight." On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average, the series holds a score of 27 out of 100, based on 23 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".

Leila Latif of The Guardian and Ed Power of The Daily Telegraph respectively described The Idol as "one of the worst programs ever made" and "the worst TV show of the year". David Fear of Rolling Stone slammed the first two episodes as "nasty, brutish, much longer than it is, and way, way worse than you'd have anticipated", lamenting that the series "has mistaken misery for profundity, stock perversity for envelope-pushing, crude caricatures for sharp satire, toxicity for complexity, nipple shots for screen presence". Levinson's screenwriting was criticized by The Daily Beast's Fletcher Peters as "cliché."

In his review of the first two episodes for Vanity Fair, Richard Lawson described The Idol as "a tawdry tale of sex gone scary, dressed up in the visual vernacular of TV's wunderkind du jour" that "offers up enough regular old entertainment to balance out his aggressive flourish and the bluster of [Levinson's] thematic ambitions". Remarking that "in trying so hard to be transgressive, the show ultimately becomes regressive", Lovia Gyarke of The Hollywood Reporter observed that the series "shows glimmers of potential when it stops trying so hard to be shocking". Writing for Vogue, Douglas Greenwood deemed it "a gorgeous-looking horror show" and "buzzy, brazen television that will do exactly what it set out to do: get people talking". A review from Alex Barasch in The New Yorker considered the series to be "a stylishly shot, faintly sordid project".

On Tesfaye's performance, Jason Gorber of RogerEbert.com panned his acting as "turgid" and "terrible", while Stephen Rodrick of Variety considered him lacking in the charisma described by the series's publicity materials, "trying to play louche but just [coming] off, as one character describes him, 'rapey.'"  Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times criticized his "painful line readings and his laughable facial expressions." The New York Times's James Poniewozik wrote that Tesfaye's performance was "flat, except when he overcorrects into outbursts" and called Depp "a watchable screen presence" while criticizing her singing ability.