There is no level on which ‘The Idol’ isn’t awful, but The Weeknd’s horrendous ‘acting’ deserves special shame

At long last, The Idol is here, and it’s every bit as terrible as you’ve been led to believe. Sometimes the internet proves to be entirely correct, and Euphoria creator Sam Levinson’s latest taking an absolute pounding has proven to be an entirely accurate response to what’s destined to be one of the most polarizing releases of the year.

While it might be poorly-written, tastefully executed, and generally sleazy in all the wrong ways, there is one element of The Idol that sticks out above all others as its worst element; The Weeknd’s performance. He might be a talented and hugely successful dude in the world of music, but it would be fair to say that the acting gene was not something he was born with.

The weirdest thing about his turn as Tedros is that you get the impression that he really believes he’s doing some weapons-grade performative work, only for it to come across as somebody really bad at acting trying to overcompensate for the fact they’re bad at acting by trying really hard to act. Suffice to say, it doesn’t work.

It’s hardly an objective take, either, when you don’t have to travel too far to find somebody trashing the man born Abel Tesfaye – and his wig in particular – for making a bad series even worse.

Maybe things will improve across the remaining episodes, but being the shining light in a shower of sh*t is hardly a glowing endorsement of what The Weeknd brings to the table.