Wow! The word out of Cannes was pretty strong about the show that’s supposed to be HBO‘s next big thing. What we heard was mostly about how graphic and sexually explicit it was — but apparently that’s nothing compared to how BAD it is??
The first wave of reviews are out for The Idol, creator Sam Levinson‘s followup to Euphoria. The show stars Lily-Rose Depp and The Weeknd and follows the life of a fictional pop star. But apparently the hits aren’t being made by the show’s protagonist — they’re being taken by the series itself!
As of this writing the series has a 27% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 26 on Metacritic. These are bad scores for movies but absolutely ABYSMAL in the world of TV! Critics tend to give a lot more leeway when the story doesn’t have to tie up neatly, there’s a self-selecting sample bc fewer critics take the time to watch all the episodes… Suffice to say, TV scores are usually a LOT better. These aren’t just bad. They’re the worst in HBO history!
Related: The Weeknd & Lily Clap Back At Rolling Stone For Calling Show ‘Torture Porn’
The brand birthed by The Sopranos has become synonymous with prestige TV, so these scores are shocking! The lowest rated drama we could find before this was The Time Traveler’s Wife with a 45 Metascore. Other unusually low-rated HBO dramas include Here and Now (46) and John From Cincinnati (50). That’s at least half the critics won over. The lowest rated comedy is Ja’mie: Private School Girl (40). Even the seemingly universally maligned Velma ended up with a Metascore of 54. Twice what The Idol is at now! Wild…
What’s wrong with it?
Collider called it “sex-obsessed, shallow, and oftentimes painfully predictable.” The Playlist called it “a misguided, gross, unaware, and untenable vanity project” — and said Lily “deserves better.” Variety wrote that it “seems calculated to fool audiences into thinking they’re observing how Hollywood operates, when so much of it amounts to tawdry clichés lifted from Sidney Sheldon novels and softcore porn.” Rolling Stone stuck with their guns, rating the show INCREDIBLY low, arguing:
“While it’s tempting to say that everything you’ve heard about it is true, that may be soft-selling how skin-crawling the experience of actually watching this satire (?) on the seven circles of showbiz hell is. The double-dose the festival screened felt nasty, brutish, much longer than it is, and way, way worse than you’d have anticipated.”
But who knows how audiences will feel, right? It wouldn’t be the first time they differed from critics. Will YOU be giving the show a shot??
[Image via HBO/YouTube.]
