Eddy Chen/HBO
Sam Levinson’s The Idol—at least on the basis of its first two episodes, which bewilderingly premiered at the Cannes Film Festival—is bad. But you knew that already. It was always kind of a given that Rape Culture: The Show would be a severely compromised thing, particularly after firing director Amy Seimetz (The Girlfriend Experience) and replacing her with Levinson (The Nepotism Experience).
If you were following closely you would have heard that hugely expensive reshoots followed Seimetz’s departure, reconfiguring the series entirely. That much is visible on the screen, in a story that is painfully shorn of any substance. Instead, we are given an increasingly dreary and pointless succession of music-video style shots, slow-motion sequences, and porny overheads, depicting Lily-Rose Depp in various states of undress, as her character Jocelyn struggles through her life and career.
There is nothing here. Of the series original concept—a shady mogul takes the career of a pop starlet in hand—only the bare bones remain. In the first two episodes you can just about make out that skeleton, as we see Jocelyn, who is clearly based on Britney Spears and Miley Cyrus struggle to get over the recent death of her mother and launch her new single.