The less said about that hairbrush scene the better, but what it did show was that the people behind Jocelyn were willing to turn a blind eye to her mother's abuse because she was essentially printing money. While Tedros is positioned as the villain, this ensemble circling Jocelyn is doing a version of what he is and milking her for all they can. We learn that Jocelyn has made a lot of money for her entourage of publicists and music execs and they want her to jump back on the hamster wheel with the bankable earworm 'World Class Sinner/I'm A Freak'. This is not to say there aren't uncomfortable moments on this side of the show too – a conversation over the necessity of intimacy coordinators and a Jeffrey Epstein joke in the latest episode both feel intentionally incendiary.īut before the whole thing descends into a badly written sexual bacchanal, it's worth acknowledging what the show gets right and what it could have done with these characters. These scenes and subsequent glimmers after them, like when Leia uncomfortably tries to explain to Chaim who on earth enigma Tedros really is, have the rhythms of a show that could have been a darker Entourage or even a popstar version of Veep. Jane Adams' outrageous record label executive is explaining why mental health is sexy, Rachel Sennott's long-suffering personal assistant/best friend Leia is trying to hide Jocelyn's phone and Hank Azaria's manager Chaim is locking an intimacy coordinator in one of the toilets of Jocelyn's Bel Air mansion – which is The Weeknd's actual lavish nine bedroom pad. Because not only are these two elements of the show wildly different in quality, they feel like wholly different genres of television.įrom the opening scenes of the first episode, the writing seems to be going for satire, even if it doesn't all land. Whatever Edward Scissorhands efforts went on behind the scenes to stitch Seimetz's and Levinson's work together could in part have created the forked feel of The Idol, as well as its occasionally jarring tonal shifts.
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