|
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
|
Positive:
1
Mixed:
7
Negative:
16
|
Watch Now
| Stream On |
|
Critic Reviews
May 22, 2023
Season 1 Review:
It is certainly trying hard to shock and titillate us. But there’s something oddly prosaic about what I’ve seen so far. There’s a slight awkwardness, too, as if Levinson and his actors are talking dirty for the very first time. Depp commits to all the lustiness, but she’s far more interesting when the show is focused on Jocelyn’s career.
Read full review
IndieWireJun 5, 2023
Season 1 Review:
“The Idol” works well enough in its first half-hour, mainly because of the blunt satiric comedy delivered by Azaria’s Chaim, Jane Adams’ record executive, Nikki, and Da’Vine Joy Randolph’s Destiny, who’s another one of Jocelyn’s managers. .... Despite their comically over-the-top dialogue, it’s only when Tesfaye’s club owner named Tedros shows up that “The Idol” loses its tether to reality.
Read full review
May 23, 2023
Season 1 Review:
It wants to shock, yes, to relish in the spectacle and traumas of a perilous, punishing, but always bewitching industry. But it also wants desperately to be liked, to be considered current, cutting, and empathetic. It’s not that Episodes 1 and 2 are outright failures, but they are always transparent.
Read full review
May 22, 2023
Season 1 Review:
You start to wonder if this is building to anything, and by episode two it seems likely that it’s probably not. .... The Idol shows glimmers of potential when it stops trying so hard to be shocking. There’s a strenuousness to the sex scenes between Depp and Tesfaye that kills any sense of eroticism.
Read full review
Jun 6, 2023
Jun 5, 2023
Season 1 Review:
The expression “From the sublime to the ridiculous” has seldom felt more fitting than in watching “The Idol,” HBO’s new wannabe-sexy drama, a week after the “Succession” and “Barry” finales. Although the series premiere isn’t as bad, or offensive, as reports of production issues and early reviews out of the Cannes Film Festival might have led people to believe, it’s guilty of another sin – namely, being just plain boring.
Read full review
The PlaylistMay 23, 2023
Season 1 Review:
Lily-Rose is fully committed. She gives everything: body, soul, and heart. And yet, you can’t help but wonder why she must answer for this much while receiving only morsels of a character. She deserves better. Unless “The Idol” changes drastically in the next few episodes, she will be nothing more than the window dressing of a concept in service of a misguided, gross, unaware, and untenable vanity project.
Read full review
The Observer (UK)Sep 10, 2024
Season 1 Review:
On one level, The Idol is yet another risible, cliche-riddled take on the music biz in which no cast member (Hank Azaria, Jane Adams) is permitted to speak normally. On another, it’s a post-#MeToo melodrama with a lead character whose heavily semaphored empowerment puts viewers squarely at fault if they dare to question the sleaze and cynicism on display.
Read full review
May 23, 2023
Season 1 Review:
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. “Showgirls” at least was a thinly veiled “All About Eve” remake, whereas “The Idol” plays like a sordid male fantasy.
Read full review
May 25, 2023
Season 1 Review:
The Idol flails at enough satirical targets that it hits a few of them, such as when Nikki provides a rapaciously amoral explanation of why “mental illness is sexy,” because Jocelyn’s psychotic break makes people who couldn’t get within a hundred yards of her feel like they might still have a shot. But mostly the show just walks into the furniture, trying to scandalize the audience with tepid provocations while losing sight of the difference between satire and exploitation. It might get people to sing along, but it doesn’t have anything to say.
Read full review
The Daily BeastMay 23, 2023
Season 1 Review:
The show’s unwillingness or inability to frame Tesfaye, to seize his character and objectify him by the same token as Jocelyn, totally hampers the series, and shows how disingenuous Levinson’s intentions are. The Idol is a big, expensive mess—a glitchy collection of lazy “moments” that is sleazy in its intent. The shame here is that a veritable host of performers are wasted on this grim disaster.
Read full review
May 23, 2023
Season 1 Review:
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.
Read full review
Jun 9, 2023
Season 1 Review:
The only thing shocking about this vanity production from The Weeknd, whose acting runs the gamut from A to B, is how shockingly bad it is. From its leering male gaze to its juvenile eroticism and cringy dialogue, the premiere episode hits a new low in creative ineptitude.
Read full review
Current TV Shows
By MetascoreBy User Score