The lineup of The idol series cannot be described as anything other than stellar. The singer The Weeknd, who could be defined as the Michael Jackson of the 21st century, joined forces with Sam Levinson, the author of Euphoria, to create a television series set in the world of music. Reza Fahim, a Los Angeles entrepreneur turned screenwriter, rounded out the creative team. But is HBO, which produces the series, facing its next critically revered cult series or a financial and image flop?
The Weeknd himself, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye, reserved one of the leading roles for himself: that of the leader of a cult who tries to ‘help’ a pop star in crisis after suffering a nervous breakdown. The role of the vulnerable artist fell to Lily Rose Depp, another well-positioned person in the entertainment industry, being the daughter of actor Johnny Depp and model and singer Vanessa Paradis.
To round off the cast, more prominent names in pop culture such as Troye Sivan and Jennie Ruby Jane, a member of Blackpink, the trendy Korean girl band. And, while these names remain linked to the project, Rolling Stone magazine points out that members of the production question the creative direction of the series, which they label as “rape fantasy” for its representation and trivialization of sexual violence.
The idol’s problems, for the record, began in April 2022 when, in the middle of filming the first season, the creative course was changed. “The production will adjust its cast and crew to better serve this new focus,” an HBO spokeswoman said. The idol had been in production for months with showrunner Joe Epstein and Amy Seimetz (The girlfriend experience) directing, who had shot footage for five episodes.
As reported by the Deadline portal, the singer considered that his series had focused excessively on the “female perspective” and on Depp’s character instead of focusing on his own. And, among the adjustments, there were two significant layoffs: that of actress Suzanna Son (Red Rocket), who had to have a fixed character, and that of Amy Seimetz as director. Sam Levinson, who in principle should be listed as creator and executive producer, took over as director and threw away all the material recorded by his predecessor.
The changes had two consequences. On the one hand, the budget was increased significantly by starting over and retaining the team for twice as long. On the other, the production began to have a much more masculine look, contrary to the work shot by Seimetz, who had tried to make the scripts delivered (late) by Epstein his own. “It was a show about a woman who found herself sexually reconverted into a show about a man who can abuse this woman and she loves it,” a crew member revealed to Rolling Stone.
The magazine’s sources denounced that The idol had gone from being “a satire” to becoming “that which satirized”, and that the scripts delivered by Levinson were full of “disturbing and physically violent sex scenes”. The terms in which production is now described? “Rape fantasy” or “torture porn” although scenes of sexual humiliation had to be ruled out due to the difficulties in filming them.
Upon reading the leaks, The Weeknd himself counterattacked from his social networks with the publication of a scene from The idol in which Depp’s character receives an offer to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone? Aren’t they a bit…irrelevant?” says his character while Depp’s character finishes off that the post is “past its prime”. It is even ironic that “Rolling Stone has six million followers on Instagram, half of them probably bots.”
The public will not be able to know, however, if the Rolling Stone information is true until HBO premieres the series, which will happen in the coming months. But the anticipated controversy has interesting readings. How can a television series be judged before its premiere by decontextualized details of its content? It is not as if the American channel, in fact, is characterized by its sexual puritanism or by advertising itself as a catalog of good sexual practices.
It is also striking that, while the rights of authors over their creations are usually claimed, The idol receives criticism because Levinson and Tesfaye, two of its three authors, decided to take the reins of production when they saw that the work deviated from their vision. Be that as it may, in the United States there are media sharpening the knives for the launch of the series.
