‘The Idol’ Round 3: More Disturbing Trauma and Public Oral Sex

This week’s chapter of The Idol begins with one of the best eyerolls in recent memory, partially because it comes from the wildly talented Rachel Sennott (who plays personal assistant Leia), but because it echoes my exact sentiment towards this dreadful new episode. With lazy parallels to the cult-like Manson Family, torture scenes, and jokes about Jeffrey Epstein, “Daybreak,” which marks the halfway point of Season 1, The Idol has become completely unsalvageable.

The eyeroll comes as Leia drives pop-star Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp) and her new BF/manager/cult leader Tedros (The Weeknd) around Beverly Hills. With the roof of the convertible down, in broad daylight, Tedros performs oral sex on Jocelyn. Now, while folks were calling the sex scenes in The Idol some of “the worst” of all time, these scenes have actually become some of my favorite parts of the show—but not because they’re particularly good. In fact, they’re terrible. But the cheesiness actually allows me to feel some sort of emotion (in this case, second-hand embarrassment), whereas the show makes me bored. Other than Tedros being creepy and Jocelyn struggling to emotionally recover from her mother’s death, has anything actually happened in this show?

In the first 15 minutes of this episode, once again, nothing happens. Tedros takes Jocelyn to get some new fits at Valentino, and in the cruelest twist of the season, we don’t get to actually see any of the actual clothes. Let me see the cute pop starlet in dazzling cherry red outfits! What’s the point of a shopping montage if I’m going to be forced to watch Tedros battle security guards (he fears they’re stealing his girl) instead of Lily-Rose Depp trying on looks?

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