The Idol, was at the centre of several controversies even before its first two episodes premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Production was delayed when director Amy Seimetz walked out, and Euphoria’s Sam Levinson took over to rewrite, reshoot and completely change the narrative. And if the show’s first episode is anything to go by, the result is a superficial and overly-sexualized mess.
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Where can you watch The Idol in the UAE?
The Idol is now streaming on OSN+ in the UAE. There are six episodes of the series. The first one premiered on Sunday, the 4th June and the following episodes are set to come out weekly.
Subscribing to OSN+ is AED 35 per month, but keep looking for yearly deals that drop the pricing considerably. There is also a free seven-day trial to decide if you’d like to be a paying subscriber.
The Idol review
- Good soundtrack
- Sleazy and decadent
- No real plot
- Mediocre performances
What is the premise of The Idol?
Lily-Rose Depp stars as Jocelyn, a famous pop star working on making a comeback one year after her mother’s passing. We first meet her in the middle of a big photo shoot. While Jocelyn is busy fighting with her intimacy coordinator on whether exposing her breasts is allowed or not, the rest of her team is frantically trying to keep her in the dark about the recent leak of a very intimate photo of her.
From the first few scenes, the show makes it fairly obvious that Jocelyn is not in charge of her life or her career. Like Britney Spears before her (yes, they mention Britney), she answers to people like her creative director, the record label executive, the Live Nation rep, and her two managers. Her personal life is intertwined with her professional career, as her only friend and assistant, Leia, is also on the payroll.
On a night out clubbing, Jocelyn meets the real star of the show– The mysterious club owner, Tedros (played by Abel Tesfaye aka. The Weeknd). The pair bond while dancing under the club’s fluorescent lights.
Too little story, too much sleaze
As a character, Jocelyn is an empty shell with little to no personality. While she is the series’ titular idol, we don’t get any scenes from her perspective. But we do get to see a lot of Depp. When it comes to nudity, The Idol’s first episode leaves almost nothing to the imagination. The producers were so focused on objectifying this character that she’s not even allowed to sleep in comfortable undergarments.
The Idol claims to satirize the music industry, but the final product is a non-stop show of nudity and drugs. There’s no real story here, just an endless supply of fluorescent lights and nonsensical dialogue. Even the episode’s big story about the revenge porn leak is little more than an excuse to show a photo of Depp mimicking that particular sexual act.
While there are a few moments where it feels like something intriguing is about to happen, they don’t amount to anything. Like last year’s Blonde, The Idol is the very definition of style over substance.
There’s nothing wrong with using nudity to tell an on-screen story. But The Idol doesn’t have a plot. None of the characters have any depth aside from parroting tired buzz phrases like “sex sells” and “romanticizing mental health.”
Overall, there wasn’t enough in the first episode to continue watching this mess of a show. It looks good, but there’s too much sleaze and far too little in terms of plot.
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