- If you watched my video a few weeks ago, you know
that I wasn't a huge fan of Abel Tesfaye,
AKA The Weeknd,
and Sam Levinson's trash heap of a show, "The Idol."
HBO apparently wanted what they called
Hollywood's sleaziest love story,
and Sam Levinson
was the perfect person to deliver just that.
In the April of 2022, there were reports that came out
that said that The Weeknd felt
that the original script had too much of a female focus,
and frankly, he wanted to be more involved in the project.
He wanted for his character
to be a little bit more centered.
And so he was pretty happy with a lot
of the changes that Sam Levinson made.
From the Weeknd's brazen misogyny in his statements
about the original incarnation of this show directed
by Amy Simons to Sam Levinson's obsession it seems
with basically making torture porn,
I wasn't a huge fan of the first two episodes of this show.
I found it to be all bark, no bite, all shock, no substance.
When I see stuff like that happening in shows,
I just think like, why is it there?
What is it really trying to add to the story?
And frankly, it's not really adding anything,
and I don't think it's meant to add anything.
I think it's just there to be shocking.
But like a driver rubbernecking a car wreck
on the freeway, I could not look away
and I was kind of curious where this show was gonna go.
After all, there were only four more episodes.
How much worse could it possibly get?
So I watched the rest of the show as requested,
and it turns out that there was one less episode
than I was expecting.
If you watched my original review, you know that I mentioned
that there were six episodes, and when Amy Simons
was still on the project, the finale was not written
and they were tasked with coming up with one.
But it seems like Sam Livingston decided not to do that,
and to instead just go with the five episodes.
Now the first thing I wanna get out of the way
is, based on how many of you were talking
about episode three,
I was expecting it to be a lot more shocking.
I mean, maybe it's because I've been to a lot
of BDSM dungeons and I've seen some things,
but frankly, it just wasn't nearly as shocking
as I was expecting it to be, and I actually found the rest
of the show to be pretty underwhelming
and frankly quite boring.
Now I'm gonna give y'all a quick summary of what happens.
So Tedros moves into the mansion
with Joss and moves in all of his proteges.
- I know it might be hard for you
to to digest this right now,
but I'm running the show.
- Okay, um.
- Some of the music executives
visit the mansion and discover
that the proteges are quite talented.
At the same time, Troye Sivan's character, whose name
I didn't care to remember, reveals that years ago
Joss's mom made him sign a contract
that, for whatever reason, forbade him from singing again.
I guess it suggested that he's just so good
at singing that you know, Joss's mom didn't want him
to sing anymore.
It doesn't really make sense.
I'm inclined to think that they have a different demographic
of people who would listen to them,
but whatever.
- Is there a part of you that wonders
if the reason you're stuck
is because your mother's not around?
- It's established that Joss's mom was apparently
quite abusive, and that Joss
in some way misses how abusive she was
because it was motivating to her.
It's heavily suggested that even
though Joss is clearly traumatized by this abuse,
that for her, the abuse,
at the very least, helped her with her creative process.
During episode three,
Joss shows Tedros a hairbrush that apparently
her mom used to use to abuse her.
And Tedros takes the hairbrush and uses it to Spank,
and I believe he also inserts it inside of her,
I'm not exactly sure,
and I guess that's what got y'all so bothered.
I guess that was the thing that got y'all so upset.
Like I said, I've done scenes and things,
so I guess maybe we just have different sensibilities,
but to me that was not very shocking, just kind of like,
I don't know, what they do, I guess.
Anyway, Troye Sivan's character's revelation
is supposed to shed light
on the fact that maybe Joss is a little manipulative.
- Joss, guys, wake up.
All right, my entire team is coming over at 1:00 PM.
- The proteges slowly start to favor Joss over Tedros,
and Tedros has this music producer come in and help her
with her newest single.
And Tedros is essentially pushed
to the wayside by the time the song is finished.
By the end of the entire thing, Tedros is a complete mess,
and he is escorted out of the mansion and even offered a lot
of money to completely leave Joss's life entirely.
- Pay him whatever the fuck he wants
to get outta my life forever.
- Joss goes on tour with the proteges
and it is apparently very successful,
everybody loves her new song.
The tour is partially successful because Joss decided
to come out and acknowledge that her mom was abusive.
Tedros comes to visit her on the opening of her tour,
and he puts it together that Joss essentially used him
for creative inspiration, and it becomes clear
to him that any sort of submissive dynamic they had
wasn't the result of his manipulation, but her choice,
which is of course very disappointing to him.
Even though the music executives really don't like Tedros,
for whatever reason, Josh decides to bring Tedros on stage,
and she introduces him as I believe one
of her biggest sources of inspiration.
And the show ends with her whispering.
- You're mine, forever.
Now go stand over there.
- And this is supposed to be, you know,
a big sort of role reversal that establishes her
as the main bitch in charge.
When I first saw this,
there was a very small part of me that thought
in the back of my mind that this was kind of cool, you know.
For me personally,
as a submissive, submission is something that I give
to somebody by choice.
It is something that for me,
it a break away from the status quo that I live in.
Where because of who I am, I am very heavily
encouraged to be in control of myself at all times.
It is very cathartic to allow somebody else to have control
over me, and that's why I practiced BDSM, right?
So there was a part
of me that liked this for a second, and then
I remembered basically everything else about the show.
In reality, we're supposed to watch this entire show
and feel sorry for The Weeknd's character.
Tedros looks completely disheveled
by the end of the show,
and you are supposed to feel sorry for him to some degree.
That is what this is kind of all about.
And for me, it became very apparent
that this character is kind of just
The Weeknd's self insert, right?
The whole thing is basically a story
of basically the weekend meeting a young singer
who used him and discarded him.
Like, this is just a story of a version of him, right?
In the end, Josh knew that Tedros was trying
to manipulate her and we're supposed to cheer her
on for having this girl boss moment,
but then she invites him onto stage,
and it just becomes very nonsensical at the end of it all.
I think that this whole project really suffered
because The Weeknd just really needed to be in this.
And I think that if the weekend was not
in it as much as he was, it would've been a better show.
To my understanding,
he is not taking the criticism very well and frankly,
I really don't care.
Now be real.
I was kind of off when this ended,
because if this was the overall story
that they were trying to tell,
this could have just been a music video.
It really could have been,
it really could have just been a Weeknd music video.
You could have told this entire story,
and it would've had the same amount of weight.
And that is the frustrating part
to me about this a little bit.
If this was just a three-minute music video
it would quite literally
for me have the same amount of weight.
And this was a show that cost, get this, $75 million,
$75 million to produce.
Now, if this wasn't my job
and I couldn't like deduct my HBO Max off my taxes,
I would be really pissed,
I'd be really pissed,
because for me, it really was a waste of time.
It didn't get anywhere near
what I was at least hoping it might maybe one day be.
You know what I mean?
Like, it just never got there.
And here's also one
of my biggest points of contention.
As a blank,
I am pretty upset that this was Jennie Kim's debut
as an actor, because the material that she had to work
with did not do her any justice.
- So you left the other day, Nikki asked me to step in
and perform world class center, and I just signed
with Magistrate and she wants me to have World Class Center.
- And if I'm being really honest,
she also wasn't particularly good in this role.
Her acting is very forgettable.
And you know what?
She's doesn't need to be a great actress.
She's a good performer and I think
that she is great at what she does,
but I also think to some degree she had very little to work
with to begin with.
So in a way,
I almost think it's not fair to judge her for this.
I just wish that she had a better project.
This was just such a bad way to use her.
And like I said in my previous video,
this is just in general, very poorly acted.
There were only really three actors
in the entire show that I thought were really, really good
who kept my attention,
who I thought were doing their job really well.
Everyone else is either playing themselves
or some version of themselves.
And this all costs, again, $75 million.
And I think that's probably the part
of me that makes this feel so gross.
It is such a grotesque display of wealth, right?
You didn't even make it good.
You spent all of this money
and you didn't even make it good.
Like what was the $75 million going towards exactly?
It definitely didn't go
to the Writing Department or the wig budget.
Where the hell did $75 million go?
Now, the only real thing that I have to say
that I quite genuinely have positive feelings
about is I actually really enjoyed the performances
of the proteges.
I think at least some of them are actual performers.
I thought that everything they did was pretty impressive
and it made me really curious about their music.
But everything else I could have done without frankly.
Release the Simons cut.
What frustrates me about this is I loved the concept
behind the show and I really felt
like it could have been done really well.
And I have a feeling,
I have a sneaky suspicion that what Amy Simons was working
on was probably gonna kill it, right?
I don't know if I'm putting too much confidence in it,
but I feel like what she had absolutely had to be better
than this, absolutely had to be better than this.
I'm not trying to jump on a bandwagon or try to say
that I hate this show 'cause everyone hates it.
It was just genuinely one
of the most underwhelming shows that I sat through.
And I'm kind of disappointed
that it didn't get even more intense
after the second episode.
At least to me, to me personally, like I said,
my measurement might be off, but to me,
I guess I was expecting it to be worse, especially based
on a lot of what people were saying about the show.
It just frankly didn't really do that for me.
It was honestly just boring.
The next three episodes were just so boring
in my opinion.
Once again, I really wish that BDSM could be presented
in a way that's not just for this hetero male gaze,
because in my opinion, what frustrates me
about all the depictions here is that there's nuggets
of some really great shit, right?
There's nuggets
of what I think are really interesting commentaries
about trauma and kink, and the way that it comes up
and the way that it materializes,
and the choice to give your submission to someone.
Like, all of these things I think are really great
and should be touched on more,
and I'm frustrated by the fact
that we really only seem to be interested
in the shocking aspects of BDSM.
this really could have been a music video.
And it frustrates me
because there's a lot of people out there who definitely need a budget
for their shows and it went to this bullshit.
Like, the longer I think about it, it pisses me off, so I'm going to go.
Those are my thoughts about the idol.
I'm curious what your guys thoughts are.
If you did end up seeing the entire show, please give me your thoughts in the court
box below.
Y'all know I love reading your comments,
so I'm looking forward to seeing what you guys have to say.
And I want you to always remember and to never forget that you are beautiful
and you are loved unless you're Sam Levinson and Abel Tesfaye
and basically everyone who is involved in making this a trash heap of a show by.