The HBO series The Idol starring Lily-Rose Depp (The King) and The Weeknd created by Euphoria’s Sam Levinson (Euphoria) has been set to end week early than expected. According to RadarOnline.com, the show described to be “torture porn” was intended to have six episodes however the streaming service has decided to end the series a week early according to its schedule.
The show has received a lot of criticism regarding the content and creative choices, resulting in a lot of negative feedback from the viewers. It is also to be noted that Sam Levinson was not the original director, but instead was originally Amy Seimetz (She Dies Tomorrow). Her reason for leaving the project had to do with the creative tension and disagreements she had with Abel Tesfaye, also known as The Weeknd. When she did depart from the project, Sam Levinson was added onto the production however viewers have been giving backlash to the director in regards to his controversial work in the past, labelling his past work as “torture porn.”
The way in which Seimetz described the direction in which The Weeknd and Sam Levinson were taking the show has arisen boycotts by viewers before the show even dropped. Due to this, the show has been seeing very little viewers. The latest episode, episode four out of six, only garnered around 133,000 viewers. Many viewers who have seen the show have noted things akin to Levinson’s supposed interest in exploiting the actors. Nudity and excessive sadistic scenes have been a large part of his works and The Idol has also showed very similar traits. One of these instances includes Troye Sivan’s (Three Months) character, Xander, being tortured with a shock collar by The Weeknd’s character, Tedros, in a twisted sexual act. The scene shocked and disturbed viewers, hardly leaving them entertained and instead with a disturbing scene to recollect.