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“The Idol,” one of the buzziest shows of the summer, hits Max this Sunday, June 4, at 6 p.m. PT.
The HBO series from “Euphoria” creator Sam Levinson and Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye, which premiered the first two of its five episodes at the Cannes Film Festival in May, follows a shady manipulator (Tesfaye) as he preys on an unsuspecting young pop singer, played by Lily-Rose Depp.
The series begins with Depp’s Jocelyn as she’s coming off a psychotic break after the death of her mother, as her pack of bloodsucking handlers (portrayed by Jane Adams, Hank Azaria and Eli Roth) are desperate to get a new album and tour off the ground. She then meets Tesfaye’s Tedros, a modern-day cult leader, who soon reveals large ambitions for her career and his bottom line. The supporting cast includes Suzanna Son, Troye Sivan, Dan Levy, Rachel Sennott and more.
The series became one of the most talked-about titles at Cannes this year, inspiring thousands of hot takes about the show’s explicit nudity and sexually graphic content.
The buzz surrounding the show started before it even made its way to the Croisette, though, when a report from Rolling Stone detailed on-set turmoil, including allegations of a toxic work environment, last-minute script rewrites and budgets gone wild.
At a Cannes press conference the day after the premiere, where it received a five-minute standing ovation, Levinson responded directly to the allegations and denied any behind-the-scenes drama. “When my wife read me the article,” he recalled, “I looked at her and I said, ‘I think we’re about to have the biggest show of the summer.’”
“The Idol” is, as Variety critic Peter DeBruge wrote in his review, “a skintastic, dark-side-of-showbiz fable that perpetuates the myth that pop stars are corporate puppets with no say in their own image-making, even as it allows hit-maker the Weeknd to call the shots.”
If you don’t have a Max account, you can also stream the series by signing up for a seven-day free trial on Prime Video.
Stream “The Idol” on Max starting June 4.