The Idol, the Weeknd and Sam Levinson’s embattled, controversial, woefully received erotic thriller, wrapped up after five weeks last night – not with a bang, nor a whimper, but a profound: huh? What was this show about, if anything? Nothing happened: the plot points covered in this show could make about two tight hours’ worth of television – or one probably-quite-watchable film – and instead were stretched to five, each episode padded out with extended musical numbers, montages of a sun-drenched Los Angeles, and some mightily cringe-inducing sex scenes.
In its final hour, the show was nothing if not consistent. By my count, about half the episode’s run-time was taken up with an extended showcase in which five characters – Moses Sumney’s Izaak; Troye Sivan’s Xander; Suzanna Son’s Chloe; Ramsey, playing herself; and, of course, Lily-Rose Depp’s Jocelyn – all performed entire solo musical numbers. (It was, at the very least, funny to watch Sumney and Depp grind on a bunch of bewildered label reps in what I have to assume was one of the show’s many improvised scenes.) The show’s main mystery – who, exactly, is Tedros, the mysterious would-be svengali played by the Weeknd? – is wrapped up in a single scene, in which music execs played by Hank Azaria, Jane Adams and Eli Roth laugh cartoonishly as they recount his history as a pimp, a sordid past dredged up by Vanity Fair reporter Talia (Hari Nef) in, apparently, less than a week.
