The Idol recap: This show is just plain boring to watch
But at least we got that rager that looked like a parody of sex- and drug-fueled L.A. parties?
TV Reviews The Idol
We have turned a corner. The Idol has gone from a tantalizing proposition (a provocative sendup of the industry driven by a salacious interest in equating pop music with porn, and maybe also investigating the cult-like tendencies of those who flirt with and crave fame) that struggled to straddle the tonal fine line required to pull its ambitious ideas off to … well, an almost unwatchable weekly dip into soft-core erotic scenes set in between a series of talky industry navel-gazing bits.
Namely, even as it tries to shock us (hey! there’s a dildo in this week’s episode!) The Idol is just plain boring to watch. And so bear with me as I grit my teeth and try to tease out what creators Sam Levinson and Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye are trying to do in this latest episode. Which, yes, begins with a survey of Jocelyn’s house now truly under Tedros’ hands; it all looks more like a commune now than the glittering mansion of a world class sinner, I mean pop star. He’s even got Leia (Rachel Sennott) reporting to him even as it’s becoming increasingly ludicrous to imagine why this most obvious of audience surrogates isn’t trying to make a bigger deal out of Tedros’ micromanaging. But therein lies our much needed suspension of disbelief. (Don’t even get me started on Jocelyn’s absurd gullibility.)
Enter Destiny (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), who’s decided to infiltrate Jocelyn’s house to see what Tedros is up to. For, as she’s found out, he’s even more trouble than she thought before: He’s been in jail and has a paper trail that clearly suggests he’s abusive and a grifter. But maybe he’s getting good music out of Jocelyn? What better way to find out than to constantly be on the ground seeing how Tedros has turned Jocelyn’s home into his own little compound where mild to wild sexual torture is a daily occurrence deployed in the name of “honest” and therefore good art? Sure, there’s some slapping and some bondage but even she has to admit it’s resulting in some promising tracks. She’s even loath to add how good he is at spotting talent, taken as she is with Chloe (Suzanna Son), whose voice and lyrics, she says, can take any of us to church.
As we’ve heard before, all this abuse (or, as Leia flat out puts it, assault) is in the service of meaningful art making. Trauma, even self-inflicted trauma, is nothing more than fodder for, in this case, great songwriting and music recording. And, good scout of talent that he is, Tedros finds himself now turning his attention toward Xander (Troye Sivan) whom he creepily stalks as they sing in the shower (“you’re such a little bitch!”) and harasses into reigniting what was clearly a sore subject between Xander and Jocelyn. There’s a reason, it turns out, he’s no longer a singer, having taken a back seat to Jocelyn’s career following a traumatic outing (at the hands of Jocelyn’s mom) and some vocal-cord drama. Tedros, though, wants him to push through this, be truthful with who he is, and get in line with the rest of his … what to call them? Wards? Protégés? Prisoners?
And thus follows easily one of the show’s most insane scenes wherein Xander is tied up, armed with an electroshock choker and called to, in front of everyone else, share the “truth” of what happened between he and Jocelyn. It’s all hard to watch, a torture scene designed to drive the two former friends apart all while destroying whatever agency Xander felt he had while under Tedros’ control. By the end, after he’s cursed Jocelyn’s mom and voiced, perhaps, the central thesis of the show (it is Jocelyn who uses people; she’s using everyone around her, Tedros included), he’s left a meek shell of a person now devoted to Tedros. The latest member of this erstwhile cult.
But the scene also helps Tedros nudge Jocelyn into one other bit of self-annihilation. The only way to rid herself of the trauma she’s been harboring about her mother (and also, oh right, sell tickets to her upcoming tour) is to go on social media and tell the world about it. It’s all very performative and exploitative and all it reminded me was how The Other Two’s third season is doing an infinitely better and more trenchant critique of such celebrity moments than The Idol’s self-seriousness ever could.
It’s amidst all of this chaos that we enter the final set piece of the episode, a full-blown rager that looks like a parody of what we all imagine sex- and drug-fueled L.A. parties are all like. Leia gets doused in tequila (courtesy of Tedros’ alcohol/water gun). Destiny learns how Tedros has distorted his own prison backstory in the eyes of Jocelyn. And Diane, fresh off a great meeting with Nikki at the record company, tells Jocelyn how she’s now gonna take over “World Class Singer,” which is fine by Joss except for the fact that Diane’s arrival leads Chloe to spill the fact that Diane, long a Tedros admirer, had initially balked at getting Jocelyn to his club. Namely, she finally (maybe!) sees how she was played and opts to retaliate by doing the thing we’d all do: Call up her very sexy actor ex (hi Karl Glusman!) and fuck him loudly so that your dirtbag manager slash boyfriend slash music producer hears and thus gets a sense of who may still be in charge.
As the final moments of the episode, where Xander snaps some racy pics of Glusman’s Rob, suggest, that may backfire for all involved. And I only wish I cared. Still, we’ll have to wait to see what new S&M scenarios Levinson & Tesfaye have cooked up for us next week.
Stray observations
- Don’t mind me, I’m just dream casting either a buddy comedy between Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Rachel Sennott or a dry-witted dramedy with Randolph and Suzann Son; such talented and charismatic actors deserve all the high profile projects in the world. (Related: Destiny rolling her eyes at how easily she ingratiates herself with Chloe? GIF-ready perfection.)
- Love that the show, in giving us a glimpse of how the outside world sees Jocelyn’s house under Tedros (via the two Spanish speaking housekeepers), opts to make “finding dildo in shower” its most scandalous find when … truly out of everything that’s going on that has to be the tamest thing around.
- Will The Weeknd/Tedros creepily smiling while fondling Lily Rose Depp/Jocelyn as she records an orgasm-fueled take of her latest single forever haunt me? I truly hope not. But yeah, much scarier than the “don’t worry I wasn’t gonna butt fuck” horror villain moment he had with Xander.
- Speaking of, do we think the endless homophobia spouted by Tedros serves a purpose other than make him squarely an out-of-date asshole?
- Did The Idol finally (inadvertently, perhaps) gift us steamy moments that weren’t solely meant to make us cringe? (I’m talking about Troye Sivan in the shower and Moses Sumney doing yoga … but sure, throw in Karl Glusman’s every moment on screen; god he is as delectable an actor as you can find. Do yourself a favor and watch Please Baby Please and, ahem, Love if you want something a lot more explicit).
- Best supporting prop this week goes to: Jocelyn’s cigarettes. Depp has clearly committed to making them Jocelyn’s entire personality and given how rare they’ve become in U.S. programs, we have to applaud such a superficial way of reminding us Jocelyn’s a bad girl (who maybe should take better care of her vocal cords?).
- Given how firmly The Idol leans into its own lurid horridness I wanted to shout out the work of costume designer Natasha Newman-Thomas, who’s bringing her experience in music videos (Childish Gambino’s “This Is America,” Sam Smith’s “To Die For,” The Weeknd’s “Mania”) to the whirlwind world of the show. Particularly I have to single out Tedros’ dirtbag aesthetic which is as ridiculous as it is off-putting.
- The score and music featured in the show still slaps, though. And yes, there’s a Spotify playlist for that.
52 Comments
Still nobody gonna really talk about Silo, just this trash, huh?
It’s thanks to your comments, I became aware of Silo and started watching it. Liking it so far. Aside from a poorly written and researched preview article, they’re completely ignoring it. Given how low this site has become, I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that they’d constantly rather cover this trashy show than all of the quality stuff out there.
Great I’m glad you’re liking it! Still one more twist to come in the last episode this week and it’s a doozy!I got interested in this site specifically because it would cover stuff like Silo, god it’s come so far downhill since then.
Get out now . A few years ago this place was fantastic, nowadays they just cover whatever corporate tell them to with no complaints, and most contest is based on whatever gets most ‘ engagement ‘…what we’re doing right now , complaining about this runny turd of a show taking up space here…The ‘enshitifcation’ of AV club is near complete. And the world is a slightly shittier place for us all. ( except the money bros who make the decisions to run things into the ground…things will just keep getting better for them)
Pretty soon I’m gonna have to pay for a sub to fark.com, it’ll be the only non shittified place on the internet.
Ohhhh myyy goooood can everyone who can’t come here without bitching about wHaT tHiS pLaCe hAs bEcOmE just shut uuuup. You’re so so boring like mind numbingly so, really at the level of this dumb fucking show! We get it, things were different in 2011 when everyone was commenting “FIRSTIES” and “I got a Community notification for THIS??” and it was so amazeballs and awesomesauce and whatever the fuck it is you’re accusing this site of not being these days! LET IT GO, find another site and let the poor writers of the AV Club pursue this gig in peace! Damn 😫
Silo has been an interesting ride. I will say that I hadn’t been finding the villains that compelling. But that might be changing a bit now that the gloves are off with Tim Robbins’ character, and now that we have met Common’s character’s wife.
Look at them less as villains and more as antagonists.
The Silo baddies are pretty murderous though. And it is very timely how they are consciously trying to control everyone by destroying their knowledge of history
Oh yeah murder happens but I still wouldn’t call them villains exactly. Season 2 will expound on the pressure they’re under a bit more if it follows the books as close as the first season.
Okay, that should be interesting. I haven’t read the books.
Ah good, don’t read the books until after the first season at least.
Oh shit, they finally adapted “Wool!?”
They did indeed! The last episode of the first season comes out Friday, it’s already picked up for season 2. Season 1 is doing a good job of covering the first book, a few changes here and there but nothing like what they did with, say, Foundation.
Silo is fantastic. They review only garbage.
Also watching Silo, and while by every conceivable metric (except music?) it clears this trash, it’s just a less buzzy show. It’s one of those premise-heavy sci-fi thingies with good production design and seems to be revolving around a twist that we don’t know about yet. I can see why it hasn’t been setting the world on fire. Whereas there’s a conversation to be had about The Idol…mostly the conversation is about how massively the show is failing to be satire, and instead winding up like the very same softcore exploitative shit it was meant to be satirizing. But it’s a conversation nonetheless.
Look, if your check clears, you get an article.
Well silly them then, giving me all these comments for free!
Silo is so fun. And it’s reminding me of Babylon 5 in a lot of good ways.
I really hate to admit this, but I’m actually a little interested now. Is Tedros the manipulator, or is it Jocelyn? Looks like Tedros might lose his shit next week, that’ll be fun to watch, maybe.
Im w u melissa. Up until this episode I was bored but now want to see if she can rid of this dirtbag.
I’ve never seen an episode of this show, but “By the end, after he’s cursed Jocelyn’s mom and voiced, perhaps, the central thesis of the show (it is Jocelyn who uses people; she’s using everyone around her, Tedros included), he’s left a meek shell of a person now devoted to Tedros. The latest member of this erstwhile cult.” sounds so nuts that I’m almost tempted. Fortunately the consistent D grades and comment section warnings have kept me from wasting that time.
I wouldn’t recommend it; it’s really terrible.
I don’t plan to. I already don’t have time to catch up with all the good programming out there.
I don’t find it terrible. I find it hard to watch at points, but not terrible.
I’ve actually liked it (perhaps not on any level that the showrunners intended, but so what?). It’s confronting, bold, the characters are hypnotic and it was never clear where it was going. But in 2023 nobody with a woke bone on display could be seen to be drawn to this in any way. Hence the outcry.
I’m far from opposed to salaciousness, and the myriad ways people use one another to get ahead in a cutthroat and superficial industry like entertainment is an interesting subject to investigate (especially in the social media age). It just sounds like this show is very bad at it.
I’m notoriously short-attentioned with what I watch (with so much content available nowadays, who isn’t?), and I’ve looked forward to the weekly drops of this. My reasons are myriad and don’t need to be explored here, but I’d encourage you to make your own mind up on The Idol. At the very least it is memorable, which is not so easily achieved any more.
I actually think this would be better/feel more energetic if they cast someone more magnetic then the Weekend, but I think Lily Rose is selling her character.
From the start Joss gave hints that she was ultimately in control. Little flicks in his face that he was careful not to rail against fully. She felt that he could be good for her artistically (and he still might be), and she ran with that up to a point, but as soon as the full layers of his manipulation came into focus she groin-kicked him (with her ex sex) without hesitation.The big question for me is will his reinvention of her – the new image and music he has been pushing with his brutal process – will that translate into commercial and/or artistic success? If so, could that ultimately leave him on top?
So its just like the Lord of the Rings show on Amazon and that Cleopatra flick on netflix. Yawn.
Silo the show that revealed his big secret in ep. 2 and spent the rest of the season spinning in circle? Fucking D- The Idol al least is asolid F
No that’s its small secret in ep. 2.
If is a small secret why the main waisted 7 episodes? Silo is worse than trash. It’s dull and predictable with cliffangers that reeks of desperation to keep the audience hooked.
IMO The show gets a C+ to a B+ Your review gets an F-
If it’s so bad (and I absolutely believe that it is), why are you doing recaps?
This is going to be slightly… controversial. I shouldn’t be repeating it but you asked.But I think he gets paid. Rumor is, all of them do :/ makes you sick
You know those forcedly ironic fucks who mostly died out, thank christ, in late-2000s/early 2010s, who genuinely believed that doing something bad is OK if you know it’s bad and thus that negates its badness and actually makes it good because you’re succeeding at doing something you set out to do? Yeah. They live on at the AV Club.
I don’t understand why it’s thought this kind of shit could be shocking at this point? We have legit celebrity porn vids. We have completely oversaturated coverage of every level of “celebrity” out there. We know stars better than any audience has ever known stars. There is no mystery left.We all know the entertainment biz is fucked up. This isn’t entertaining, eye-opening, or scandalous by any measure.And Law Roach should sue, cuz that’s who they got The Weeknd lookin’ like for some reason.Edgy? No. I don’t think that’s even possible now-a-days.But I still hate read the reviews, so I’m a part of the problem.
Not so. For example, a young woman being sexually stimulated (without having given much consent) by a leering creep in front of uncomfortable onlookers in a recording studio just to help her hit a certain note is going to ruffle plenty of feathers in the year 2o23.
Yeah, but, but- THIS show does all that BUT ALSO says “THIS IS BAD!!!”There ya go. Social commentary such as you’d have to elsewise go on twitter to find, and you can’t do that now.
While 90% of this series so far has been extremely dull, this was by far the most interesting episode (save for the music video sequence in the second episode). It shows the potential of a central idea of the series. Needed more focus on the psychological manipulation and cult stuff, and way less of the awkward erotica. And finding anybody other than The Weeknd to play Tedros would have been an extreme upgrade.
Apparently the next episode is the finale? Seems like the nicest way to put this out to pasture without losing their relationship with Levinson.
I’m generally not a fan of the whole nepo-baby discourse because I personally think its reasonable that if you grow up around actors, you’re probably going to want to act and may well be predisposed to be good at it, and it’s dumb to be mad that rich people are born with connections others don’t have.That said – Lily-Rose Depp is not exactly helping to prove the “predisposed to be good at it” part. I’ve yet to see her anything where I feel like she’s bringing a lot to the table.
I think she’s actually very good when the storyline is focused on her, the breakdown on stage in episode two felt legit. I just am sad the show is starting to make the Weeknd so central.
Is there any particular reason why it seems like HBO shows are the only ones getting weekly reviews here anymore? Maybe the writers who write articles about inane celebrity “news” can handle watching some shows and review it once a week?
The ‘writing staff’ is now a group of unpaid interns.
Depp’s nipples should have negotiated “and” acting credits, if not also E.P. credits. The viewership can sketch them from memory by now at every angle.
as i watch this show all i could think is, damn I would’ve LOVED this show when I was 14, probably would’ve gotten to great lengths to get a VHS copy of this
The featured music in the score by The Weeknd absolutely sucks and makes it all that much worse to sit through. Shockingly, even hilariously bad.
I dont finfd this show boring.
It’s cringe worthy at points, and hard to watch, but I loved everythign with Destiny this week. Also I like CHloe, she’s so sweet, and I hope Destiny can help her.They way chloe went running up to her “YOUR NAME IS DESTINY???”
<3
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is having a “return to form” type of season right now and yet you guys don’t do recaps/reviews for that show anymore…instead, this trash that most people are sick of hearing about.