HBO series ‘The Idol’ slammed for ‘graphic’ sex scenes, too much ‘breast and ass’
This show’s first viewers didn’t find it to be worth idolizing.
The upcoming HBO show “The Idol” — starring Lily-Rose Depp and Abel Tesfaye, aka “The Weeknd,” who is also a co-creator — is not getting glowing reviews from its debut at Cannes, where it screened its first two episodes on Monday.
“The Idol,” or 50 SHADES OF TESFAYE: A Pornhub-homepage odyssey starring Lily-Rose Depp’s areolas and The Weeknd’s greasy rat tail,” one critic derided after viewing it.
“Love that this will help launch the HBO Max rebrand, should slot nicely next to House Hunters!”
Co-created by Sam Levinson of “Euphoria” fame, “The Idol” is about an up-and-coming pop star Jocelyn — played by Depp, who is the 23-year-old daughter of Johnny Depp — as she gets entangled with a sinister self-help guru, Tedros, played by Tesfaye.
The production has already been besieged by scandal, including an April report from Rolling Stone in which sources on the production described a chaotic environment behind the scenes and called it “torture porn” and “rape fantasy.”
At the time, Tesfaye, 33, replied by posting a taunting message: “Did we upset you?”
Another viewer who caught it at the film festival commented, “Ep 2 is straight-up pornographic there’s an entire 10-minute scene of The Weeknd talking dirty to Lily while she fingers herself for him, then he tells her to suck his c – – k and she gives him head. The worst part is that Sam Levinson originally wanted that scene to be longer, too.”
She also added that Depp’s character is nude or having sex in every episode. “The show heavily exploits Lily … I hope she’s okay with it all because it comes off very exploitative.”
The show was a rare TV project to screen at the French film festival.
“Rarely does a scene go by without the camera showing flashes of her breasts or ass,” the Hollywood Reporter commented about Depp.
“There’s a strenuousness to the sex scenes between Depp and Tesfaye that kills any sense of eroticism.”
The outlet also scoffed that “The Idol” seems largely plotless.
“You start to wonder if this is building to anything, and by episode two it seems likely that it’s probably not.”
Variety reported that the first two episodes are full of “revenge porn photos of bodily fluids on Depp’s face, masturbation with ice cubes, nightclub-owning scam artists and vile Hollywood sycophants.”
The Los Angeles Times slammed the show as “ridiculous,” writing, “The term “porn is not inaccurate, though it’s tough to imagine anyone would consider any of the action erotic when it is so ham-fisted.”
“The Idol” premieres Sunday, June 4 at 9 p.m. on HBO.
