Early Rotten Tomatoes scores give raunchy ‘The Idol’ a freezing cold shower

Director Sam Levinson might be of the mind that any publicity — even the bad kind that accuses his show of being off-the-rails torture porn — is good publicity, but an early Rotten Tomatoes score for HBO’s upcoming raunchy drama The Idol tells an entirely different story. 

After premiering the first two episodes at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, The Idol debuted with a 20 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, which has since dropped to a whimpering 14 percent as of this writing. This completely flies in the face of Levinson’s claims that the six-episode not-a-torture-porn series will be the “biggest show of the summer.” 

The hype machine for The Idol began chugging along back in November 2021 when HBO greenlit the series. Since then, Amy Seimetz was replaced by Levinson as director, the show underwent a series of reshoots, the cast was completely overhauled, and the release date was pushed back so many times it is a wonder it’s coming out at all. Then there is the question of Levinson’s ethically foggy vision (not to mention the torture porn he supposedly subjected his cast and crew to), which has caused concern for the health of the show, both behind the camera and in front of it. All that to say, the unpaved road has been steeply uphill, and now Rotten Tomatoes’ early score begs the question of whether the hassle was even worth the end result. 

If you ask Abel Tesfaye — aka The Weekend — the answer is yes. The singer-turned-actor welled up with emotion at the Cannes Film Festival after a 5-minute standing ovation from the audience (which in Cannes land is basically three claps and you’re done). Watching him speak about the moment leads me, personally, to wonder whether his tears were the result of pride or pure exhaustion; years of tumultuous work coming to a head. He sure looks exhausted. Perhaps it’s both. 

Either way, the abysmal score is anything but surprising to those on Twitter. After all the twists and turns the show has experienced before it even arrived, a negative Rotten Tomatoes score might as well be a personal grade for Levinson and Tesfaye — who serve as co-creators and executive producers — for the poor workflow practices behind the scenes. 

Even those who attended the Cannes Film Festival and watched the first two episodes were not keen on Levinson’s shock-value lines in the script. (Can you call it shock value if it’s actually just garbage? Asking for a friend.)

It goes without saying that The Idol will be a device work of art, regardless of its quality. At this point, it has courted enough controversy that a 14 percent on Rotten Tomatoes might actually lead to people wanting to see what the fuss is about. Should you wish to get in on the conversation, you can catch the HBO drama on the freshly-coined streaming service Max on June 4.