HBO
The Idol opens with a scene that feels ripped straight from the controversial production of The Idol itself. The intimacy coordinator on pop star Jocelyn’s (Lily-Rose Depp) album cover photo shoot is kicked off set for following the rules of her rider. We’re not even five minutes into the pilot, “Pop Tarts & Rat Tales,” before the show’s notoriously provocative creator, Sam Levinson, has turned the monitor meant to make sure that celebrities are safe and protected when asked to do nudity or perform sex scenes into the villain.
“Give me that laugh again,” the photographer tells Jocelyn, who squeaks, sounding more like a sorority girl in that Bama Rush doc than a superstar. Then she’s told to give “innocence.” Then “pure sex.” Then “vulnerable.” A tear rolls down her cheek after she’s asked to be “emotional,” a shallow portrayal of Jocelyn’s precarious mental health state: Is she so good at acting that she can whip out a single teardrop on command? Or is she actually hurting? So deep.
More on that later—because duh, it’s Euphoria mastermind Levinson who is behind this show, after all. But Jocelyn (who has the boring nickname “Joss,” which reminds me of Joss Whedon and the Voss product placement sprinkled throughout this episode) is too busy flashing the photographer to care about her emotions. She says she wants to show her full areola. The photographer obliges, but the intimacy coordinator says nudity to this extent is not in her original rider. (Various areas of her breasts and cleavage were agreed on, but no nipple area.) The fix, the coordinator says, would be simple: renegotiate, wait 48 hours, then shoot with full nip in the frame without any legal worry.