I think the hairbrush was the key to the dreaded Idol series. In the closing scenes, aspiring pop star Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp) bought a new one to cheer up her iconic sex dominator Tedros (Abel Tesfaye) as a token of her love for Big Brother.
It reminded me of a hairbrush , which Lord Sebastian Flyte bought in Brideshead Revisited to threaten to spank his teddy bear Aloysius when he pouted. “He must have had very stiff bristles,” the hairdresser told the narrator in the book. Brideshead is unequivocal about “the epic beauty of Sebastian, who in deep youth sings loudly about love,” but I don't know anyone who has read Evelyn Waugh's novel, because it excites.
However, there is excitement. a word often used by Idol critics, though not always with admiration. “A more lascivious version of The Phantom of the Opera,” he was described as such. But lust distracts from communication.
The idol, on the other hand, seems to welcome viewers who are ready to tickle their nerves a bit. In one episode, a Rolling Stone writer said that Lily-Rose Depp committed an act of onanism. From a technical standpoint, I think this is wrong, as Onan, the eponymous masturbator, spilled his semen on the ground, and Depp's character had nothing to spill. But this was only an approximation, and the gates of the park were open to visiting spectators.
Not that anything special happened in the sex scenes – no swelling, no ejaculation – and anyone who paid in anticipation could claim their money back. But Evelyn Waugh Oberon's son, a longtime columnist for The Telegraph, often characterized tabloid readers with page three topless photos of women as masturbators. He did it to mock them. In those days, much worse porn was sold in shiny magazines; today the internet is awash with hardcore porn, and no one in search of naughty videos needs to subscribe to HBO's five-episode drama.
performed by The Weeknd Credit: HBO
So what was Abel Tesfaye, who plays the show's bad dad, thinking when he created the show and directed it alongside Sam Levinson? I'll admit I'm a little wary of Tesfaye because as a singer he adopted the name The Weeknd and I don't feel like admiring people who can't write their own name. Perhaps Edge really meant to call himself the Hedge.
There is more than one explanation for The Weeknd's name. When I was younger, barbers trying to sell rubber underpants, as they were called then, would ask the customer, “Anything for the weekend?” But I don't think it can be.
In any case, whatever he meant, I realized pretty soon that Idol was telling the same story as Trilby. This 1894 novel about Parisian bohemia was written by Georges du Maurier, grandfather of Daphne “Jamaica's Inn” du Maurier.
George du Maurier's trilby also has a Svengali figurine. Photo: Shutterstock
The central figure in the popular novel gave her name to a man's felt hat, but she was a woman. No doubt about it. I don't know how old she was, but young, probably less than the character Chloe in Idol, who is 17.
Trilby is an artist's model who can only sing under the literal hypnotic influence of Svengali. , a dirty bearded man in his thirties. Even among most who haven't read the book, the Svengali figure has become synonymous with the man in control, like Rob in The Archers, and look what happened to him.
Du Maurier knew what people were doing in bohemian Paris, where he lived at the same time as Whistler. They did to their genitals the same thing as in Idol, and maybe more. There was no television then, and they made their own entertainment.
I need the people closest to Sam Levinson to organize an intervention in which they explain that narrative fiction requires a premise, an incipient action, a climax, a descending action, and a conclusion. This man can't write a story, and it's a little scary
— Kat Tenbarge (@kattenbarge), June 26, 2023
Trilby first appears in the book wearing a petticoat with a coat over it. She “would make an extraordinarily beautiful boy,” the writer says approvingly, but he cannot step over her legs: “beautiful slender legs.” She never wore leather boots or shoes. I think The Weeknd could do a lot of that. Probably too much.
Beware, spoiler. When Svengali is stabbed to death, he fails to hypnotize Trilby for a concert and she is booed. Svengali is dying. Trilby is dying. Her main lover is dying. There is no second series.
Perhaps Tesfaye and his staff were trying to paint a satirically truthful picture of the Hollywood music business. If so, then more means less. The Greek tragedy is no less cathartic in that the bloody murders take place behind the scenes. If the Idol team were filming Oedipus Tyrannus, we would see him in bed with his mom, and at the end of the first episode, they would see their happy cohabitation in a Hollywood mansion.
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