THE IDOL is Awful (But it Had Potential) | Video Essay



I truly think that the show did have enormous potential. They should have let Amy Seimetz cook or just finished the scripts before starting filming. The end result is a haphazard mess with nothing to say. I wish it wasn’t because this could have been very interesting.

Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
3:37 The Creators
11:41 “A Critique Of The Industry”
18:38 Tedros
24:31 Mike Dean
27:27 8D Chess
32:24 Conclusions

💡 Videos/Sources that were used for this essay 💡
Cannes Panel with Levinson and Tesfaye (From OnePress TV channel):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjhEmMOkL2k

Subscribe animations by @green_juice

All music for this video provided by @CMT8 (lofi_hour)
“Sleepy Cat” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItajjHcAqbQ
“Empty Mind” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tY_3bDHdiiA
“Untitled” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yasK2tnvIoQ
“Wish You Were Here” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yj49Pg4DSCA

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📌TAGS📌
#theidolhbo #samlevinson #abeltesfaye

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41 thoughts on “THE IDOL is Awful (But it Had Potential) | Video Essay”

  1. Great video, just one little thing from a fellow non-native English speaker who totally gets how similar idioms can be confusing: "off the cuff" means impromptu, something not prepared in advance. "Flying off the handle" means losing one's temper. Anyway, kinda nuts that even HBO called it a sleazy love story!

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  2. I haven't seen any of this show but your video was fantastic nonetheless and I was glued to it. So well done! I wish we could have had the show you described here

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  3. I actually feel like they could have done a "goofy" "loser" cult leader thing a long with a terrifying one but, it couldn't be at the same time. Like if at first he was scary but, once her team like exposed him, he became goofy because that power was taken away. You can also make "loser" characters seem scary in a Jake Gyllenhaal from Nightcrawler kind of way. Or a bad guy that has a chip on their shoulder and is insecure and violently overreacts like Joe Pesci in Goodfellas. But this all goes back to acting ability and direction. Both the writing and acting wasn't good in The Idol for Tedros.

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  4. Abel has been arguing in twitter saying Tedro is supposed to be a bad character, Tedro is supposed to be hated by mass but in the finale it was portrayed as if he is some kind of victim that we should empathize. Dafuq are you trying to tell us Weeknd?

    Also how come Jocelyn sabotaged Jennie's career when Jennie took her song? It doesn't make sense

    And if Jocelyn wanted to keep Tedros to her then why she made the execs pay him to keep him away?

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  5. It was all visual and NO GIDDAM SUBSTANCE. It was a weekend 5 hour long video clip. The dialogue was terrible, the way lily rose would constantly cry one single pretty tear while her face had no expression bleggh what a pathetic attempylt at conveying feminine emotion.

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  6. the idol was gooooddd asfff all yall hopping on the bandwagon cant think for yourselfs each episode was so fire and had me clinging to my seat

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  7. Did everyone forget that Euphoria is an adaptation of an Israeli teen drama? Levinson has no good original ideas. Look at Season 2 – which has no material to adapt – as well as Malcom and Marie. They are both missed opportunities. He got lucky ONE time.

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  8. The idol was extremely disappointing. He is a great storyteller but in his music. All of his albums and mixtapes tell a story, especially in his newer albums. I’ve been listening to his music his whole career so when I heard about this show I was stoked even more so when I found out he was starring in it. But I can’t defend this show. The writing, acting and presentation all fell flat and literally everything that happened led no where. No character arcs. No setting up the finales “twist”. No pay offs. Nothing, it’s crazy. I wanted to like this show, truly. But it was a boring cringfest that ultimately said nothing.

    Oh and the bandages weren’t because he was “beat up”. It was him healing from “plastic surgery” which was a part of the theme from that album. Your interpretations of his music and their respective videos aren’t exactly right however it’s all up to interpretation at the end of the day.

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  9. I am a massive The Weeknd fan, but I think he was the wrong choice. He is a great cinephile and possibly jumped at the chance.However He. Did come across as creepy and cringy which in part is ok, but he is just not a shouty person. The soundtrack is awesome, sell out tours so think his fans will not desert him 😊

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  10. This show would have been better with an actual actor in the role of Tedros, TBQH. We as the viewers shouldn't want to sleep with Tedros or have him wreck our lives in a surreal, erotic kind of way. But I wish to God I could figure out why Jocelyn wanted him to.

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  11. I really enjoyed the approach of this video, you actually gave it a fair shot and explained why the show sucks instead of giving a boring recap and laughing and saying 'that was cringe' like most you-tubers who made a video on this show. Nothing against those You-tubers, but I enjoy a much more analytical or thoughtful approach such as this one. I want to learn why something is bad on a much deeper level. And the context you added for the author and the industry and the Weekend himself just made the video even better.

    Really great video overall, ill have to binge your stuff now.

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  12. show seems like it would’ve been better if Abel was the center role character instead of a cult leader. it would’ve helped his acting since he’s basically lived the live for the past decade.

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  13. The intimacy coordinator was there to make sure she felt safe and that the execs weren’t making her do things she didn’t want to—the role of the intimacy coordinator is to make sure stars aren’t exploited. To see that character be shoved in the closet to make some weak ass commentary about Jocelyn wanting to show her boobs is so annoying—because it’s actually less feminist to try to make fun of a parameter that is there to protect young stars, not the opposite 😒 especially in a post me-too world

    Also, the plot twist doesn’t even work. Multiple characters like Xander and others in her team talk about how awful her mother was to her, which means they saw her be abused. It makes no sense that they’re trying to make her seem like she’s the villain and The Weeknd is the victim when most of the show is spent showing him abuse others lol

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  14. I’m sorry but Abel should stick to singing because that’s what he’s good at. Doing a wide variety of things is great and all ,but when it’s ruining other experienced actors, or people that are experiencing in that certain field, that’s when it gets to be too much.

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  15. I guess if there is a 3th season of euphoria then I guess HBO is gonna be from now on watching the writing and production of it really closely and seeing how far Sam will try and take it and they might even put there on ghost writer as an overseer of the script for the season just to check on it every day to see what changes Sam made and approve it or not each day as well as babysit the man going forward.😒

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  16. Fantastic video! There's been a lot of essays on how bad the show was but I haven't really heard much about the specific points you mentioned, which were really valid critique!

    I dislike using the word cringe too but I couldn't stop thinking that about tedros 😅 scenes without him were deffo much more comfortable and entertaining

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  17. Direction is bad. There is no cult they were bragging about. A few wannabe dancers and karaoke singers look like an audition at hs not a cult. Show is boring vulgar and… boring. No story was told. Nada. None. Rien

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  18. It was an interesting premise poorly executed. I did think it had a lot of potential as well but I think with just having a minimum 5 episode season and lack of female prospective, it just blew up to be this….thing

    Reply

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