'The Idol' Creates the Year's Most Ridiculous Scene

By Dustin Rowles | TV | June 26, 2023 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | June 26, 2023 |

There’s a scene in this week’s episode of The Idol, “Stars Belong to the World,” where Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp) is playing her new song for Destiny (Da’Vine Joy Randolph). Destiny tells her that it’s “dope” but it’s anticlimactic. She needs to “go all the way” with it. Tedros (Abel Tesfaye) has the perfect solution. He blindfolds Jocelyn, and while she’s singing — in front of a roomful of people looking on uncomfortably — Tedros fingers Jocelyn until she cums. Apparently, what the track really needed was moaning, heavy breathing, and porny sounds.

This week’s episode — the fourth and penultimate episode of the season — is nonsensical. Destiny pays a visit to Jocelyn’s house, where Tedros and his followers have taken residence. She’s learned that in Tedros’ past, he spent time in prison for kidnapping his ex-girlfriend and torturing her for three days. She wants to see what’s going on in the house on a day when producer Mike Dean (the real-life producer of The Weeknd) is visiting. In addition to watching Tedros assist Jocelyn while she records her new track, she also visits with several of the other members of the cult. She discovers that they “are wildly talented,” and she seems vaguely interested in continuing to develop that talent.

Meanwhile, Tedros persuades Jocelyn to orchestrate a sensational, performative public confession over social media about the abuse she endured from her mother, all in a strategic move to boost ticket sales for her tour. Tedros (and to some extent, Jocelyn) also appears to blame creative director, Xander (Troye Sivan), for allowing Jocelyn’s mother to abuse her. Tedros has Xander’s hands tied behind his back, puts a shock collar around his neck, and electrocutes him every time he lies in a sequence that looks like something out of Boogie Nights if Paul Thomas Anderson had suffered a brain injury. During the course of this torture session, Xander reveals that Jocelyn actually manipulates and controls everyone around her — “You’re more f**king disgusting, f**ked up, and depraved than your lying c**t of a mother.” Tedros seems shaken by this revelation, but Jocelyn insists he continue to shock Xander until Xander retracts the statement.

However, in what I suspect Sam Levinson intends as a pivot, Jocelyn turns the tables on Tedros after she learns that Dyanna, one of his group members, has not only signed a record contract but has been given as her first single Jocelyn’s “World Class Sinner,” which has so far proven to be the only vaguely redeeming thing about the series (at least it’s catchy). Jocelyn is hurt because she realizes that Tedros is also helping to develop Dyanna’s career, so she invites her ex-boyfriend Rob (Karl Glusman, ex-husband of Zoe Kravits) to the party.

Jocelyn’s motivation is not entirely clear, but after Rob “wins” a shot-drinking competition with an increasingly goofy Tedros, Jocelyn sleeps with Rob while Tedros listens to her porn sounds in the next room. Tedros cries. When Rob leaves, Xander — who is maybe on the side of the group now? — stages a photo between Rob and a scantily clad woman sitting in his lap. The implication is that the photo will be used to blackmail Rob, although it’s not a particularly salacious photo. Will Tedros release it to the public to embarrass Rob? Or does he plan to show it to Jocelyn to make Rob appear unfaithful? Or — and this is the most likely scenario — the photo will never be mentioned again.

As The Idol heads toward its season finale, the narrative is not clear. What is clear is that The Idol is dull, unwatchable television periodically punctuated by the suggestive moans and squeals of Lily-Rose Depp. Both the show’s tone and the story shift back and forth without any real rhyme or reason, and it’s hard to tell if The Idol is earnest and bad, or it’s a really bad satire. Based on the interview with Levinson and Tesfaye after the credits, it’s clear that they think the series is more high-minded than it is.

We also learn more from Levinson after the show than from the show itself: Jocelyn is aware that Tedros is exploiting and conning her, but she’s playing along because she draws inspiration from their arrangement. In other words, she’s subjecting herself to assault (as Leia rightfully calls it) and other forms of trauma because it provides her with inspiration to write better songs, none of which are actually evident in the series.

Indeed, Levinson seems to think that bringing in Mike Dean and a number of musicians gives a show where a woman is assisted in achieving a climactic moment while recording a song “an authenticity to it.” It’s unclear, however, whether any of the people involved with the show have actually seen the show because the words they use to describe the show do not align with the show that is airing on television.