Can HBO's Troubled The Idol Fill The Gap Left By The End Of Succession And Barry?

HBO has long been considered the leader in prestige television programming, and, over the last five months, the 51-year-old cable network has fully reinforced this belief with the critically acclaimed first season of "The Last of Us" and the perfectly pitched conclusions of "Succession" and "Barry." But while we're still buzzing over the finales of those last two shows, you can't help but look ahead and wonder how the King of Peak TV rides this wave of hosannas to the next must-watch triumphs.

The jury is out as to whether Sam Levinson's "The Idol" will draw as many eyeballs as his wildly popular teen melodrama "Euphoria," but, judging from the critical reaction thus far (and the behind-the-scenes controversy), the series promises to be a supercharged hot-take generator. The show stars Lily-Rose Depp as an out-of-control pop star whose instability and sexual desirability is wantonly exploited to launch her to diva immortality.

We've seen this story many times before, but, according to the majority of critics who viewed the first two episodes at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, Levinson's series is a leering, misogynistic debacle. While critics vilified Paul Verhoeven's "Showgirls" for evincing the same lurid qualities, time and good common sense have reclassified the Dutch madman's bacchanalian spectacle as a one-of-a-kind trashterpiece. Perhaps, when the shock wears off, Levinson's series will inspire the same kind of reconsideration. In the meantime, the most important question for HBO is whether or not this sex-and-drugs romp will torch social media as the last seasons of "Succession" and "Barry" just did.

According to Time Magazine critic Stephanie Zacharek, "Not since early 1980s cable TV has there been such a parade of decorous yet sleazy debauchery...," which, if you grew up watching Cinemax et al in the early 1980s at far too young an age, is a roaring endorsement. But she cautions that Levinson cuts the debauchery with a "shockeroo enlightened knowingness," which the great erotic maestros of that era — namely Verhoeven, Brian De Palma, and Adrian Lyne — wholly eschewed. They titillated with gleeful abandon and left you to reckon with your conscience as you deconstructed their meticulously crafted work.

From what I've seen of Levinson's work, he lacks the formal control and devilish wit to get within yodeling distance of these geniuses. His last two features, "Assassination Nation" and "Malcolm & Marie," mean to provoke, but they've got the breadth and depth of a juice box. All I remember is that I logged them on Letterboxd. (For the record: not everyone at /Film shares that sentiment.)

It's also worth noting that Levinson received co-writing credit for Lyne's comeback film, "Deep Water," an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel that entangles former real-life lovers Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas in a thicket of psychosexual gamesmanship. The script lacks the sinful pleasures of Highsmith's work, but Lyne cranks up the heat and leaves us good and soaked.

Can the 38-year-old Levinson rise to the libidinous occasion?

He's got a dollop of good mojo on his side via the casting of "Showgirls" star Elizabeth Berkley in an as-yet-unspecified role. We worship Nomi Malone in this dojo. But if he couldn't generate a solitary spark between the plenty fetching duo of Zendaya and John David Washington in "Malcolm & Marie," what hope is there for Depp and Abel Tesfaye (aka The Weeknd, who plays the cult leader hot to get in on Depp's rise to stardom)?

As for HBO, sex does sell, but not when it's all you're selling — at least, not anymore. "Fifty Shades of Grey" is a notable exception, but that had the power of a bestselling IP behind it. Also, compared to "Basic Instinct" (which was built around a deliriously fun whodunnit), it was chaste as "Diary of a Country Priest." "Showgirls" was a flop. De Palma's last two erotic thrillers, "Body Double" and "Femme Fatale," fell flat with audiences (despite being masterpieces). "Deep Water" came and went. I mean, there's a reason erotic screenwriter Joe Eszterhas moved back to Cleveland.

When I watch "The Idol" this Sunday, I will do so pulling for Levinson to locate his inner Russ Meyer. I would love to see a high-budget, episodic "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls." I don't know if that would move the needle sufficiently for HBO following the acclaim for "Succession" and "Barry," but hitting the gutter after you've courted prestige ain't the worst idea.