The Idol (HBO)
- Thread starter popzone
- Start date
I'm shocked at the reactions here dd, I thought this was terrible, and not even in an entertaining way. The dialogue was awful, and I'm a huge fan of The Weeknd but... Abel can't act. He was bad. Even the cheesy (but iconic) 80s villain score that played when he entered wasn't enough to convince me that he was someone to be afraid of. It failed on virtually every level that a pilot can fail for me.
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I wasn’t aware of this previously, but apparently Abel said during the Cannes panel that Tedros is quite pathetic and awkward and not actually scary so it kind of makes sense now why he’s being played like this and why everyone around Jocelyn finds the whole thing weird. He’s not supposed to be an obvious villain, or even one at all by the sounds of it. He’s just a hanger on.
When the gates opened and he looked as cheesy as count dracula with that black cape, I guffawed. This is completely terrible and misguided trash, but I find it wholly entertaining. The little blurb on metacritic is that this is the worst HBO series ever.
As to @mindtrappa's point, I fully agree. I don't think Tedros (lol) is supposed to be this magnetic mastermind genius. He's just a leech who was at the right place at the right time and said the right thing that targeted her insecurities. Joselyn was clearly looking for something. All her friends are her employees and her inner circle looks at her purely as an asset to be managed and milked. She needed to shake up things with someone outside of that circle and it just happened to be him, as lecherous and creepy as he is. Someone upthread mentioned Sam Lufti and the comparison is obvious. Sam clearly wasn't some charismatic, brilliant manipulator, Britney just needed anyone outside of the circle of people she felt had been exploiting and mistreating her and it just happened to be him, with horrific results. Abel is nothing if not a pop culture student, apparently.
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Yeah, she's attracted to him because he's the total opposite of everything she is surrounded by currently. He's skeezy with a greasy rattail and a time bomb for those around her. He's "dangerous" in the same sense that someone like Kevin Federline was when Britney met him. The danger is what men like this do to the brand/image of the women they leech off of and not necessarily if they will actually harm their person. I've seen a lot of talk about the show being unrealistic, but we've seen this exact situation play out with so many of our faves, so it's definitely predictable in that aspect, but I think what they're attempting to do is give it a different ending. So I'm excited to see that play out. Also knowing that it's most certainly paying tribute to 80s and 90s erotic thrillers helps make the acting choices go down a bit easier. I think it might be confusing for some who see the show taking itself too seriously when it's actually not (at least so far)
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I don’t know. I fully get Abel’s intended to be a leech (the mirror scene tells it all) but there lies a very blurred line if iťs that or he’s just a bad actor dd because he is stiff. I can’t imagine the GP caring that much about this “meta” reasoning. Am giving him benefit of doubt for now until the more meaty stuff comes out in later episodes as I suspect.
The show is… fine. I’m interested by pure virtue of it being about a pop diva but I can’t imagine somebody like my sister to be invested in this? I have never watched “Euphoria” (sue me) so I was expecting glossy hyperreal Hype Williams-esque cuts so was surprised how different (and gorgeous) it looks. I think it was shot on actual fim and it really shows.
Lily’s been great in this and Troye was surprisingly good too.
Oh and the go-hard choreo for such a mid-tempo song made me scream! That was a hit.gif
The show is… fine. I’m interested by pure virtue of it being about a pop diva but I can’t imagine somebody like my sister to be invested in this? I have never watched “Euphoria” (sue me) so I was expecting glossy hyperreal Hype Williams-esque cuts so was surprised how different (and gorgeous) it looks. I think it was shot on actual fim and it really shows.
Lily’s been great in this and Troye was surprisingly good too.
Oh and the go-hard choreo for such a mid-tempo song made me scream! That was a hit.gif
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Someone clearly hasn't listened to already iconic bop "World Class Sinner".
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Oh yeah, the general audience isn’t going to give a shit whether or not Abel’s acting is intended this way. I do think it’s conscious, but maybe it lacks a sort of winking element. Hard to say with only one episode where anything in the show truly stands.
I think she’s supposed to be a Selena Gomez type, as in maybe not a great pop star, but she has a big audience from being on TV and making the occasional bop.
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Based on the way that she's presented, I feel like she's meant to be like Britney pre-Blackout and "World Class Sinner" is meant to be her "Gimme More."
I think she was conceptualized as a mix of Miley and Britney, like the good Disney girl gone bad. She's clearly massively successful judging by her mansion and the machine working for her but yeah, she's not exactly an electric performer.
“He’s so rape-y”
“Yeah I kind of like that”
The way Sam writes is just so unbelievably bizarre sometimes, it’s like he’s never met an actual woman in the flesh.
“Yeah I kind of like that”
The way Sam writes is just so unbelievably bizarre sometimes, it’s like he’s never met an actual woman in the flesh.
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To be fair, we've yet to see her actually perform. We've only seen her practice choreography once.
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I think they’re kind of setting it up that she’s not like… great, though. The way she compliments Jennie’s character after she eats her up during the rehearsal scene is like Jocelyn hasn’t hit that level just yet.
