The Idol

I was in on the first 30 mins of Episode 1 but then this idiot with a rat tail appeared and disbelief was unsuspended. What a buzz kill. I know this is a vanity project and I hope he reads this.

Sam Levinson is a great director and every shot looks great, but he cannot write for women. The female characters are avatars for male fantasy and their dialogue is cringe worthy. But how can he be exploiting women if he is making a show about men in power exploiting women, lol.

Also did we really need a scene where an intimacy coordinator was locked in a bathroom. Is this a drama or a satire?

Free Lily! Free Sidney!

This gives me high school play vibes with lots of nudity, sex and shock value with absolutely no content. I think they thought they will just add a lot of famous last names to the mix and that will do it, but this is really bad. The plot is incredibly not interesting, the actors have very little to work with so no wonder that they come out as doing a bad job. But I don't know if any actor would save it. I was tired after 10 minutes, but I thought I would give it a benefit of a doubt. At 20 minutes something inside of me was breaking. It's clear now that Sam Levinson cares only about aesthetics which is not my kind of tea anyway and not much about content. The dialogs are like an AI idea of what a human dialog should be. This is really embarrassing for everyone involved.

This only gets 3 stars from me because it's clear that Lily-Rose is doing the best she can with what she was given. But my goodness, this was a painful watch. Abel Tesfaye was severely misscast which makes this awkward, since the entire thing was his idea. Levinson's vision feels contrived, lacking every bit of that magic he created with Season 1 of Euphoria. The show just misses the mark, relying on nothing but nudity and shock value. The dialogue is vapid, the story is misguided. Points for lighting and camera work but that's about it. There are better shows to watch out there. This one isn't worth your time.

What an embarrassment.

This series got into hot water because director Amy Seimetz, who was supposed to direct this series, and tell this story from a feminist point of view of a girl being exploited by men and the music industry, left because of intense hostility from the cast and crew. Then Sam Levinson took over and turned into an exploitative torture porn fest. At least that's what the Rolling Stone magazine article said.

And boy were they correct on this one.

There appears to be a good, interesting story about the sleaziness of the music/movie industry and how it mistreats and exploits pop singers, reaching out to get heard. But it never gets the upper hand, and is more interested in showing its very young-looking female lead nude and performing gratuitous, pointless long sex scenes that add nothing to the story.

I don't think I can listen to the Weeknd's music anymore, as Tesfaye not only plays a horrifically sleazy nasty character in this (his acting is low-par and this is his first acting role) but he's also the producer on this show. And the series also uses his songs during the most extreme sex/sadomasochistic scenes. Like WTF?

Almost nothing is from Joslyn (Lily Rose Depp)'s point of view. Her inner thoughts and feelings and past are mostly told by other characters. The cringy, offensive dialogue is just there to shock, and therefore, it's tedious and vomit-inducing.

I'm sick to death of men in Hollywood doing this to female characters on screen. It was bad enough with Blonde and how they disrespected Marilyn Monroe. Now this?

Enough. You are not special, you are not edgy. You are just wrong and untalented.

I'm shocked at the number of reviewers claiming this show reflects real life. This was like watching a large budget porno. It was so unnecessarily saturated in sex, I found a coherent story hard to tease out of the sleaze. I simply couldn't keep watching it. In retrospect, my final impression of the show reminded me of a line from the old movie, Butterflies Are Free, when Mrs. Baker declaims degeneracy, obscenity and nudity as a part of life, "I know [it's real life], Mr. Santori. So is diarrhea, but I wouldn't classify it as entertainment." If this show is like real life, you can keep it. I need some fresh air.