The series “The Idol” was to become HBO’s new, daring venture. The topic was sex, fame and exploitation in the entertainment industry. Hot names were on the payroll: The artist The Weeknd and actress and star daughter Lily-Rose Depp in front of the camera. Sam Levinson, the creator of the hit series “Euphoria”, was behind the levers. A glitzy premiere took place during the Cannes Film Festival. But even before the first episode had aired, anonymous employees spoke to the magazine “Rolling Stone” and called the series “torture porn”. Now, with the first episode available, social media is overflowing with gifs poking fun at the series, and the critical slaughter has been unanimous and bloody. At the same time, the series is a buzzing topic of conversation all over the internet. What happened? IN CANNES: Depp and Tesfaye presented “The Idol” to the world press during the Cannes Film Festival. Photo: AP Ok, here is an attempt at an explanation. Imagine the following: You live in a sex-fixated society. Where young, beautiful and naked bodies are sought after, and can generate huge incomes. Where the people who own these bodies can easily be taken advantage of, especially if they have problems from before, if they live in battle with something in their own life, or something in their own head. There is a large audience ready, who are often both excited and horrified to see how these young people step over sexual boundaries. You want to make a story about this, a satire of this cold and cynical society. Maybe a TV series. What is the problem? You quickly end up becoming exactly the same as what you wanted to parody. You raise the moral index finger with one hand and tease with the other. What is the advantage? Exactly the same. You can sit and watch your bank account get fatter and shinier while you complain and complain about how ugly the world is. LOVED AND CONTROVERSIAL: Sam Levinson, here on the red carpet with Lily-Rose Depp, is also behind the hit series “Euphoria”. Levinson, who has had drug problems himself, tells about drug-addicted teenagers with great credibility, but has also garnered criticism. Photo: AFP This is called speculation, and it is not something Sam Levinson is a stranger to. Levinson is the man behind one of perhaps the most influential American series of recent years, “Euphoria”. The series goes into the lives of teenagers on the brink of adulthood, who struggle with drugs and depression and identity crises. They are testing and desperate and constantly end up in sexually dangerous or degrading situations. Levinson himself had a drug problem when he was young, and was for many a credible narrator of these stories. The series made actors such as Zendaya, Hunter Schafer and Sydney Sweeney world stars. Troubled teenagers could watch the series to see more extreme versions of what they themselves were troubled by, anger or grief or self-loathing. THE HIT SERIES: Zendaya stars in “Euphoria” and has become a global star after the series’ breakthrough. Photo: HBO Nordic Adults could watch the series and become even more concerned about the youth of today. At the same time, everyone got a good dose of gross sexuality, which was carefully crafted to be both fascinating and repulsive. It wasn’t exactly shocking when it eventually emerged that several of the young actors had felt pressured into more nude scenes and sex scenes than they were comfortable with. “The Idol” has several similarities with “Euphoria”. Lily-Rose Depp, daughter of Vanessa Paradis and Johnny Depp, stars as pop star Jocelyn. She has gone on a rampage after her mother’s death and is trying to make a comeback, even though the sadness hangs over her like a storm cloud. Managers, assistants and concert organizers scurry around her, all of whom are primarily concerned with Jocelyn staying popular and able to stand on stage. Jocelyn herself is slowly starting to rebel, including by using her body and sexuality a little more aggressively than her team wants. NIGHTCLUB OWNER: Abel Tesfaye, better known as The Weeknd, plays the “rapey” Tedros in “The Idol”. Photo: HBO / Warner Then she meets the mysterious club owner Tedros, played by The Weeknd, who is listed on the credits with his own name — Abel Tesfaye. Soon she has ended up in a slavish sexual relationship with him. When the best friend points out that Tedros seems “rapey”, that he seems like an abuser, Jocelyn says, mostly to shock: “That’s kind of what I like about him.” It was Tesfaye himself who came up with the idea for “The Idol”, after building up a huge fan base in just a few years. This created mixed feelings in him. “If I had wanted to start a cult, I would have been able to,” he told Levinson. This could have been the starting point for a captivating story about fan culture and psychology. But the recording must have been characterized by drama and arguments. According to a scathing article in Rolling Stone, Tesfaye complained that the plot deviated too much from his character and that the story had too much of a female perspective. Director Amy Seimetz was fired, Levinson stepped in to direct, almost the entire series was reshot. According to employees who spoke to Rolling Stone, it became less satire and more rough sex. Tesfaye himself said that they had to start over because the relationship between Tedros and Jocelyn had not become as complex as they wanted. But “The Idol” is, to the highest degree, speculative. It depends on appealing to the same sides of the culture, of the public, that it criticizes. But those who now complain that the series has double standards and that Levinson is so-called problematic are forgetting one thing. Speculative films and TV series are not necessarily bad. It is quite possible to try to tickle the audience’s most shameful or sleazy sides, to make the viewer in them look, and at the same time say something interesting. STAR DAUGHTER: Lily-Rose Depp plays pop star Jocelyn in ‘The Idol’. As the daughter of Vanessa Paradis and Johnny Depp, she has seen fame up close throughout her life. Photo: HBO / Warner Many criticize “The Idol” for being immoral. But the problem is perhaps primarily that it is not very good. Or, that’s not quite right. In the beginning it’s fun. Seasoned comedy actors like Hank Azaria, Dan Levy and Eli Roth go around delivering mean one-liners with world-weary poker faces, and it’s really entertaining. But it’s almost striking how boring “The Idol” becomes as soon as people start having sex. Here it is impossible to get away from the fact that Tesfaye himself is not a particularly good actor, and is strangely flat in what is a staging of his own vision. It is perhaps reprehensible to be speculative. But it is worse to be speculative without making it happen. It’s just embarrassing.
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The TV series is called “torture porn”. The critics have butchered it. And everyone is talking about it. – Speech
