Sex and drugs, a pop star on the verge of a nervous breakdown in the new series “Idol”

Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp), a pop star on the verge of a nervous breakdown, is besieged by collaborators and the press. Everyone lays claim to her as she prepares a new record and faces the indiscretions of social media with equanimity. One night on the dance floor, she meets Tedros (The Weeknd), a ponytailed guru who flirts with her, has extreme sex and scorched earth around her. From their dark romance, a musical project is born and a desire to lose control…

The Idol, the new series by Euphoria creator Sam Levinson, promises (and keeps) sex, drugs and pop music. But Levinson is not Verhoeven, who disgustingly filmed the nudity of Las Vegas dancers to denounce the violence and cynicism of show business, greedy for fresh meat (Showgirl). In Idol, available on Sky Atlantic, criticism of the music industry loses its relevance due to punchy clichés and insular sexual ghosts. However, the series kind of enchants the elastic body of the main character, a surrogate copy of Britney Spears in a micro bikini. Hanging from the thread that holds her mini dresses together, Jocelyn will take the reins of her life, bursting into all the incarnations a man expects of her: doll, Santa, playmate, lolita.

The hypersexualization that the character recklessly succumbs to becomes the armor he chooses to wear in order to regain power and survive in a hostile world. Her body seduces us not as a sexual object, but as a materialization of the work of self-control. An exercise known to represent the series by staging Jocelyn’s monstrous state, from strict image management to choreographed rehearsals such as military training.