A five-star cast with Lily-Rose Depp and The Weeknd, but two unconvincing first episodes. The underside of show bizz by Sam Levinson is at the heart of this series in five episodes, which speaks above all of the toxicity of a manager on a pop idol à la Britney Spears, embodied by Lily-Rose Depp.
The American Series The Idol, was eagerly awaited with a star of pop music, The Weeknd and Lily-Rose Depp, the daughter of Vanessa Paradis and Johnny Depp. But it is a series that drew a blank at the Cannes Film Festival, where the first two episodes were screened. And which has garnered a dump of bad reviews.
The Idol is intended to be a dark look at the show business industry. Its heroine, Jocelyn, played by Lily-Rose Depp, is a young Britney Spears-like pop star who is emerging from a year of depression, after the loss of her mother to cancer, and a breakup. His entire staff surrounds him in his Hollywood villa, all clinging to their smartphones: two managers, a record label manager, a manager for his next tour, and an advertising agent. Around the swimming pool, we rehearse the sexy choreography of her next clip, while the young girl, all in tulle and light veil, has her photo taken, and tries to show more and more.
The series is thought to take a hard look behind the scenes at the stars, but it takes a turn, when one night at a nightclub, a truly unexplained crush takes place between this young star in hot-pants, and the disreputable boss and manager, Abel Tesfaye, better known as The Weeknd. This time the sex scenes shift gears and the series drifts, showing how a little masochism can aid creativity…
For a series that wants to denounce the underside of show business, it lingers a little lasciviously on the scenes of masturbation, eroticism and sex, in any case, in the first two episodes. Lily-Rose Depp has a lot of merit: she gives a lot of herself.
As always with director Sam Levinson, also author of the provocative teen series Euphoria, it’s well filmed, audacious, lively, but frankly complacent this time. We have the impression, in view of these first episodes, that the series is above all an ode to The Weeknd in his very first real role on screen. It must be said that the filming of TheIdol, as the magazine reveals Rolling Stones, experienced many setbacks, between change of author and director.
The Idolthe idol, five episodes, on Mondays, on Prime Video’s Warner pass.