With Succession set to end later this week, The Idol is primed to take over the coveted Sunday night slot on HBO where it will apparently need all the help it can get. The controversial new show from The Weeknd and Euphoria creator Sam Levinson has already racked up some scathing reviews, which has given The Idol the lowest rating for any HBO series on Rotten Tomatoes.
As of this writing, The Idol is sitting at only 17%, which is obviously not great. So far, critics have only seen the first two episodes at Cannes, and what was shown has been described as basically “softcore porn.”
“The double-dose the festival screened felt nasty, brutish, much longer than it is, and way, way worse than you’d have anticipated,” Rolling Stone‘s David Fear wrote.
Peter Debruge at Variety was unimpressed as well:
The script (overhauled by Levinson, Reza Fahim and The Weeknd after an earlier, Amy Seimetz-helmed version was scrapped) 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.
The Idol isn’t faring too well at Metacritic either. The series is sitting at a low 27%, which is slightly higher than Rotten Tomatoes, but again, still not great. However, audiences might feel differently when the controversial new series arrives next month, so it will be interesting to see how the general public reacts to Johnny Depp’s daughter doing all kinds of, uh, stuff.
The Idol premieres June 4 on HBO.
(Via Rotten Tomatoes)
