Premiere Provides No Cause to Proceed Watching

[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for The Idol, Season 1 Episode 1, “Pop Tarts & Rat Tails.”]

Take into consideration the worst pop track you’ve ever heard: Maybe there was a lyric that felt misplaced, or a riff that didn’t sit proper. Possibly the track was reductive, uninspired, pressured, or out of contact. Extra probably, although, for a track to go from inconsequential to outright detestable, it needs to be grating. It needs to be repetitive. It needs to be boring.

To be boring is the worst sin a pop track can commit. Alongside related traces, sadly, HBO‘s The Idol, proves to be a sorry alternative for the Sunday night lineups many viewers have grown to like — and received’t be caught in your head anytime quickly.

Helmed by Sam Levinson, a creator finest recognized for HBO’s Euphoria and being dismissive of conversations round consent and onscreen nudity, the premise is straightforward sufficient to comply with: The primary episode introduces us to Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp), a pop star on the top of her youth and sweetness however struggling to get well from a extremely publicized “psychotic break.”

We’re within the lead-up to a brand new single from Jocelyn, a comeback of kinds, and her anxious assistant and finest good friend Leia (Rachel Sennott), longtime supervisor Chaim (Hank Azaria), and publicist (Dan Levy, who appears to be performing in a extra whimsical and hopefully higher present) flit round her nervously, making an attempt to appease her and hold her days on observe. Her innermost circle is rounded out by different notable figures with much less outlined roles, performed by Troye Sivan, Da’Vine Pleasure Randolph, and Jane Adams.

The Idol has been making headlines for a while now, and principally for lower than savory causes: An in depth and well-sourced piece from Rolling Stone described a present that started as an attention-grabbing commentary on stardom and descended into self-parody and one thing extra akin to “torture porn.” Whereas refuting the outline, Sam Levinson responded at Cannes by saying, “I believe we’re about to have the largest present of the summer season.”