Things keep going from bad to worse with The Idol, not that things were going particularly great for the contentious HBO series to begin with, seeing as Sam Levinson’s latest had been riding a wave of bad buzz months before it even premiered.
Generating the wrong sorts of headlines for its off-camera tales of discontent, the lengthy standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival proved to be every bit as meaningless as everyone expected when the show took a critical pounding, was trashed by social media users and general audiences alike, while viewership could generously be described as underwhelming at best.
Despite being warned not to hate-watch The Idol, though, people ended up doing it anyway – only to be left disappointed by the saucy scenes that caused the firestorm in the first place to disappoint. In fact, GQ went so far as to publish an entire article blasting the second episode’s sex scene as the single worst in the history of the moving image, which is quite the takedown given that the intimacy and debauchery was one of the major selling points.
To be fair, the outlet isn’t entirely incorrect. with The Weeknd’s “gratuitously sexual dirty talk anyone who had access to an incognito window at age 14 will be familiar with” hitting the nail right on the head. It might intentionally be aiming for uncomfortable, but it’s gone about it – and by extension achieved it – in entirely the wrong way.
It’s nothing but pure, unadulterated cringe of the highest order, not some deep and meaningful deconstructive dive into psychosexual relationships. Describing the actor and musician’s pillow talk as having “the enthusiasm of someone who just found out they have to work a double shift” is right on the money, too, because he’s proving beyond doubt that being a thespian isn’t among his many strengths.