The Idol (TV Series) Daybreak (2023) User Reviews

The Weeknd acting is so bad

[ivelindimov · 3/10 · 19 June 2023]

Previous episodes were 5/10, but this episode is really terrible.. the weeknd acting is so bad.. he ruined this episode. It's so annoying that you start watching some scenes and you're like "oh wow maybe this show has potential" and then they add another sex scene of lily rose depp.. Why so many sex scenes? They aren't necessary, they do not contribute anything to the plot. Joss and Rat Tail just don't have enough chemistry to justify the huge number of those scenes.

The problem with this series is that it feels like it's not moving forward, it's monotonous, there's never a rise in pace, it stays the same or sometimes even slows down.

my view 3 eps in: Levinson is the real Jocelyn

[rtcpndxw · 1/10 · 19 June 2023]

On the surface the The Idol is about a beautiful young pop star who falls so hard for the Weeknd that she eagerly turns her creative life over to him.

But the real drama we're watching is about Sam Levinson himself- the Hollywood figure who *really* fell into such a creative infatuation with the Weeknd that he pushed out his original directing partner, Amy Seimetz, in order invite in HIS new 'idol' to take total control of their work. Exactly as Jocelyn cedes all decisions about her album in the fictional version, the real-life Levinson let Tesfaye take their almost-completed show and entirely remake it in his own grandiose self-image.

I don't know whether there were any hair brushes involved, or whether the Weeknd told Levinson he was moving in quite that fast, but by all appearances the dynamics of submission and dominance between the two of them (in the show running realm, I mean...), was no less total that the dime store 50 shades relationship we witness between the two main characters on screen.

Down side: unfortunately, just as the Tedros character is no musician, Tesfaye is no creator, writer, or - least of all - actor. So the end result, as we've seen all too painfully, turns out to be absolutely awful. I guess that's what happens to artists and their work when they join a cult. Hopefully it's a lesson learned.

So in the end, I guess it's true that the Idol is meta- just not in the way that it thought it was going to be: it's really the tragic, unintentionally autobiographical tale of what happens when a 38 year old creator/director falls under the sway of a cult of personality he just doesn't have the strength to resist.

Come to think of it, maybe Sam should have played the part of Jocelyn himself. He and the Weeknd could've made their acting debuts together and instead of being all cringey and awkward and amateurish at every moment, the whole thing would've felt super "real," just like they wanted.

should be titled "The Weeknd thinks he is inspiring"

[storeymason · 1/10 · 20 June 2023]

I literally have no words, how could a show be this bad.

Not even the stacked cast, hbo sunday slot and jennie kim can save this shambly mess anymore. I'm pretty sure it's clear to everyone now that this show is an exploitative disaster and the aesthetics of its predecessor, euphoria, that the idol has tried to match have been missed by a long shot.

Knowing that most of the dialogue has been written by the weeknd makes this so much worse to watch; he has written everyone to look up to him like a god and the 20 minute dinner scene of him 'inspiring' jocelyn to make better music then eventually deciding to abuse her with a hairbrush was the worst written piece of television i've ever seen. "i wanna be taken seriously" "why" "because i do" "why."

i think another reason this show has missed its mark is bc it has not explained why jocelyn was so willing to instead tedros in her life and take over her emotions. Idk if the weeknd thought it would just be assumed because of his perception of his looks but spoiler alert abel, it definitely isn't. I think it's finally time the weeknd is humbled.

Unwatchable acting, lack of story

[rswhd-14243 · 1/10 · 20 June 2023]

You can't tell me Jocelyn would go for Tedros. Cant pay me enough money to buy it. What I do know is this is The Weekend living out a fantasy of being an actor, fully taking advantage of his costars body. It makes my skin crawl. There is not a redeemable quality to this show, the music is awful, the story is nowhere to be seen, there is ZERO chemistry between the leads.

Then there is the clear and ever present abuse of women at any cost to the male actor, director and producers of this series.

It is a sleezy display of industry nepotism from top to bottom, directo/producer to star.

Levinson better lose some work from this, the weekend is tanking himself online.

I die more inside with each horrible episode

[mlambertvaus · 1/10 · 22 June 2023]

Ok, I'm officially sickened.. So much so that I don't even want to hear any more music ever by The Weekend, because I will forever associate his voice with this absolute trash of a tv show that I pray young people aren't getting any extremely unhealthy pointers from.

If MAX (formerly the better HBO) actually screened this beforehand and still decided it was the type of original material they wanted to show and promote then it's probably time to drop them as a subscription as well.

I'll have to make it a point to personally warn everyone to stay away from anything the writers and director of this series does from now on if this is what they consider good programming. It's just bad on every single level.

Dude, no.....

[linomatthew · 2/10 · 19 June 2023]

So this episode represents both the best and the worst of this show so far, but unfortunately severely oversteps in its final scene to become what it has been accused of being all along: torture porn. The first chunks of the episode spend time Establishing the dominance of Tedros over Jocelyn, and developing his control mechanisms over her. That aspect of the episode feels shallow and isn't convincing, largely due to Tesfaye's continually underwhelming performance. The show then gets kinda philosophical through a couple scenes, one focused around Moses sumney and his little friend group, the other at a dinner table scene with most the crew, the best scene of the show yet. The show wisely comments on the state of society and humanity with a fairly cynical lilt to it, but never gets too heavy handed. It's all been said before, but that shouldn't take away from this show doing it well. The second to last scene, the aforementioned dinner table scene, really is tremendous. It's the first time The Weeknd almost acts well, and it's observations about power dynamics in unhealthy relationships are very solid. The writing here is good, and the situation is very provocative. It explores trauma very thoroughly and quite well, though under some tense circumstances.

Then, when the show could opt for a somewhat interesting spanking scene or the like given the hairbrush trauma revelations, instead they opt for raping her with the brush? Nah man. It's stupid. It's gross, and it's unnecessary and it's a clear overstep. Could the show pull it off? I'd be shocked. But as for now, it's a debauched and poorly measured decision. So unnecessary. Edgelord garbage.

Starting to go somewhere

[aboalhyjaa · 6/10 · 20 June 2023]

This couldve been way better but also couldve been way worst for a mid-season finale. We see how the plot thickens as the story goes deeper into the motivations driving our side characters. Without any spoilers, this episode brings the light to the sad dynamics and relationships between Jos and her team, everyone wants to make her a product to sell. Meanwhile, Tedros influence over her grows, which we saw the effects of it in the last scene as well as the questionable intentions of Tedros which to this day I really can't understand if he actually wants to push her to her max or push himself to fame by using her.

What become a fact here is the struggle to balance art life of what the artist wants and the real success of what the fans want.

Series version of "The Room"

[miesvanderrohc · 1/10 · 19 June 2023]

This is so bad but people love to hate watch it. Reminds me of The Room. So bad that its actually entertaining. Bad writing, bad direction, even worse acting.

Lily Rose Depp lacks charisma and acting skills. Don't even get me started on the weekend. I wish he would just stick to making music. I feel nothing for these characters.

This episode is by war the worst because now its trying to tell the audience what to think through its silly dialogue. More unnecessary sex scenes and objectifying poor Lily Rose.

Sam Lavinson should have just focused on making season 3 of Euphoria instead of putting it on hold to make this.

The Bigger Picture getting a little clearer

[derschwart · 8/10 · 19 June 2023]

I don't fault anyone for not liking this. It's okay to not like things, but to say this show is definitively bad at this point isn't right either. It isn't. What became clear to me in this episode is that Jos' handlers simple want to make a product out of her. Something that sells, something that's new... that "bad girl pop" icon.... And Tedros just wants to turn her into whatever he wants her to be, catapulting himself into the music industry and positioning himself at the tip-top of Jos' future success... even after his meeting with the handlers, who just want to make her a product, they were completely content with leaving her in his care, cuz it seems like they're gonna make something that'll push them in the direction they've been pining for... but at what cost? Tedros is clearly an abusive cult of personality with loyalists to boot.

This is a good show. It's an interesting piece of art that has been unraveling more and more with each episode.

Tedros control

[AvionPrince16 · 7/10 · 28 September 2023]

So the way it started let me pretty indifferent: more sex, more Tedros who try to get the control of Jocelyne and her life but its kind of complex; yes i said complex in that kind of superficial industry because we dont really know what the real intention of Tedros: he seem to help her with the new album but is it not a way to take control of what Jocelyne will produce in the future? I dont really know. So like i said its complex. So i was kind of disappointed mostly by the beginning of the episode but something happen at the dinner table: the whole talk about the album of Jocelyn and the psychological part with her mom really made things interesting; i dont know i really felt an honest way to tell some problems of a singer: what people think about you? What image you reflect? What about the young girl who followed you? As a woman they must think that you are their model or something like this. I really like that part and really felt that the episode go deeper in the psychological part. The previous part tell that psychological part but in a clumsy way to be honest. But here i really feel like the Weekend talk about his experience as a real musician. This was really interesting. But except that part, his performance was a little bit too much when he is in the shops (maybe he imitated some other people that he knew: im pretty sure but its not that explicit). So yeah a really great surprise even if the episode was kind of superficial and get long for nothing (some jokes and stuff). But it was ok.

It got worse

[adamjamescrowley · 1/10 · 19 June 2023]

So we're glorifying abuse now? This just keeps getting worse and it's making me question what Sam and Abel were thinking when writing this show. I understand it's meant to be a depiction of stardom and how messed up it is behind the scenes, but so far nothing has justified the amount of unnecessary abuse and manipulation that the main character is subject to. Even if you can stand seeing exploitation on screen, it's just miserable to watch and not thrilling at all. Rolling Stone were right when they referred to it as torture porn.

I'm not sure I'll continue to watch for the rest of the season after this, but for anyone that does hopefully there is a moment of relief.

Completely inexplicable power handed to the weeknd's character

[DymSym · 1/10 · 25 June 2023]

Episode 3 is a weird time jump from episode 2 where all of a sudden, they've make the Weeknd's character a cult leader that everyone follows without taking the time to establish any meaningful pipeline to why a superstar would hand over the reins to a rando club owner. They just allow Jocelyn to tell her story of abuse from her mother, and assume we will add 1+1=11 where she will allow any man to do that as well. An extreme lack of understanding of how abusive relationships start, progress and decline into manipulation and control, especially with the added dynamic of the victim having more money and social power. I tried to give it a chance, but this whole plotline seems like Weeknd & Sam Levinson's fantasy of how you can tame and control a woman by have degrading sex (because they really made her his disciple just through several gratuitous sex scenes and not a single shred of romantic chemistry). It has also really changed the Weeknd's image in my eyes, and I will probably interpret the next season of Euphoria from the lens of what I now know of Sam Levinson's thought process.

A continuation of the formula that feels samey

[Tedblasoms015 · 2/10 · 19 June 2023]

(s1,03ep) Daybreak is a very unique episode. While the downward spiral of Jocelyn, due to Tedros' influence is a unique trainwreck that while you don't want to watch you can't help but keep watching. The problematic parts of this episode come from Tedros' himself, while the Weeknd is a talented musician, parts of his role he plays feels flat, almost lifeless at time while also being a bit too try hard. One strong example of that is the scene in the story roughly 7 minutes in where he threatens one of Jocelyn's friends. This scene was by my guess supposed to be a reveal to his "intimidating" side, but comes off as more weak and comedic rather than dangerous. The strongest moment of the episode comes from Tedros forcing Jocelyn to relieve her abuse. The problem again with this scene being the "Strongest" moment is that you can tell it was written by someone who wanted to insert their sadomasochistic desires and express it to a general audience under the guise of telling a "story" This episode and show in general does feel like it's just the writers way of showcasing abuse in a more sexual light, almost glorifying it. I do feel like my review of 2 stars is generous to be honest, the "saving graces" if you could call it that would be the soundtrack and a small handful of the characters.

Ep3 - so Jocelyn's mom is now Joe Jackson?

[branko-maksimovic-max · 1/10 · 29 June 2023]

We know that Abel is Michael Jackson fanboy but being so unoriginal with the story here is just absurd. Apart from Lily Rose's fine acting (others are good too) this show has no redeeming qualities. Just so so bad. I can't believe that Levinson gave this a go after such a great show that is Euphoria. It's really pathetic.

Okay, yes. It was shot nicely, pacing is good. But the dialogue. Abel's acting... jeez. I mean he did say he is not mad: "The Weekend wants his fans to know he's totally not mad about negative reviews his new HBO series The Idol has attracted.

In an interview with Variety published Tuesday, Abel Tesfaye - better known as The Weeknd - claimed that it was 'very much expected' that the show would be slammed by both critics and viewers." Crazy right...

Just an average TV show

[funnycommentor · 6/10 · 19 June 2023]

First of all, the plot of episode 3 was kinda interesting (just like the previous episodes). The storyline wasn't very well written, because there are too many sex scenes and it's focused on the sexual part of the TV show. However, the characters are still very interesting and well-developed. The acting on episode 3 was really good, especially Lily's acting and she portrayed really well her character's emotions. It was a very emotionally intense episode and there were too many shocking and disturbing scenes (especially, the last 20 minutes). Gladly, the soundtrack of episode 3 was as good as the previous episode's soundtrack and I really liked most of the songs. The ending scene was definitely unexpected and it was really intense and chaotic. Overall, episode 3 was kinda good and I kinda enjoyed it. Last but not least, I have to admit it's definitely not one of the best TV shows I have ever watched, however I'm still watching it because it's kinda enjoyable (lol).

Creativity comes out of chaos

[rainyraiin · 9/10 · 27 June 2023]

This episode is the climax of the season. I always liked those shows that cross taboos to talk about sensitive matters, because beyond every taboo lies an important shade of human being, sex and human sexual behaviors in this case. I think Joslin chose the BDSM style relationship with Tedross because she needed to be relieved through this. The famous mathematician Godel said that you can't be creative in a stable environment because perfection comes from chaos.

I think she needs this kind of relationship to bring out her though and hidden inner creativity. I also suggest to read about Wilhelm Reich opinions on sex and well-being.

Best episode of a TV series I've watched in years

[rudi-engel · 10/10 · 23 July 2023]

I wanted to watch 10 minutes of this and the rest later because of an appointment. Cancelled my plans because I was just mesmerized by every line and shot. One of those rare cases where everything clicks together and sucks the air out of the room to the point you hardly dare to breathe.

The Weeknd plays the role of the controlling alpha male to perfection, while Rose-Depp's performance is so moving that it almost surpasses the point of acting; she's really living this role. The cinematography did the rest in creating an atmosphere that sticks with you for every second.

This is just so brilliant. The critics not understanding it only makes it better.