Twitter TRASHES The Idol & The Weeknd’s ‘Comically Bad’ Performance — Yikes!!

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Well, the first episode of The Idol has finally premiered, and viewers have a lot to say.

If you’ve been keeping up with early reviews of the HBO original, which is created by Euphoria creator Sam Levinson, you’ll know they haven’t exactly been stellar. Back in March, Rolling Stone dropped a bombshell early review, calling the production a “rape fantasy” and “twisted torture porn,” something stars Lily-Rose Depp and The Weeknd quickly tried to strike down.

Related: Lily-Rose Depp Would ‘Steer Clear’ Of The Weeknd On Set Of The Idol — Here’s Why!

More recently, the controversial show debuted at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, where it was met with abysmal critiques, followed by the lowest critical scores for any HBO project in history.

Now, the general public has finally gotten a chance to see the first episode for themselves, and let’s just say saving this show is seeming more and more far fetched.

The setup for the episode was that Jocelyn (played by Depp), a pop star who is looking for a career comeback after a public breakdown was triggered by her mother’s death, has an intimate photo leaked. Soon after, she meets Tedros (played by The Weeknd, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye), a mysterious nightclub owner, who inputs on her comeback single in a controversial way… No spoilers, but we’ll just say Rolling Stone wasn’t too far off.

One TikTok user broke it down, detailing Levinson’s “hollow” direction. Watch (below):

@nicholasjanzen

Some thoughts on the pilot episode of HBO’s The Idol #theidol #hbo

♬ original sound – Nicholas Janzen

Over on Twitter, users weren’t exactly sold on the plot, either — and DEFINITELY not on The Weeknd’s acting abilities: 

“Just watched #TheIdol and Jesus Christ it’s like a student film with a big budget. Sam Levinson is trying to be deep but his writing is just f**king weird. Also The Weeknd’s character is f**king creepy as f**k and makes me hate the actual Weeknd”

“Let me save y’all from watching the first episode of the idol. The dialogue was bad. It was boring as hell. The best thing about it was Jocelyn’s song. And abel… baby… stick to singing, boo”

“the idol first ep was kinda boring with the weeknds performance being even worse than i thought it would be…the dialogue is cringey and the ending of that first ep is so scary i didn’t really like anything except a few of the shots…i’m not feeling this show”

Ouch!

Related: Why Johnny Depp Doesn’t Feel ‘Boycotted By Hollywood’ Anymore

A few fans took issue with the abrupt nosedive in Sunday night streaming quality on the prestige network following months of The Last of Us and Succession, writing things like:

The only real positives folks had for the episode were praise for BLACKPINK‘s Jennie Kim, who had a small role:

See more reactions (below):

Not exactly a great outlook for the five episodes that remain! However, if there’s one person that’s going to celebrate The Weeknd’s performance, it’s his co-star. In a breakdown of the episode that premiered directly after, the 24-year-old shared: 

“I love Abel so much. He was able to melt into this role in a way that is really difficult for anybody to do.”

Well, we can’t blame her for trying to hype up a show she’s the face of!

Did YOU watch The Idol, Perezcious readers? Let us know your thoughts on in the comments down below!

[Image via HBO/YouTube]

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