HBO’s The Idol, the new drama series from Euphoria creator Sam Levinson and R&B star Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye, has been provocative from the very start, with some critics dismissing the show as “torture porn” and a “rape fantasy.”
With two episodes of the show now out, the audience is starting to judge for itself whether The Idol, which depicts the relationship between pop star Jocelyn (Lily Rose Depp) and svengali Tedros (Tesfaye), is exploitation, titillation, or mere shock value. And one sex scene in particular has led some viewers to deem the whole thing, well, a bit cringe.
Around 40 minutes into Episode 2, titled “Double Fantasy,” Jocelyn and Tedros head into her bedroom, where he blindfolds her and positions her on the bed, and issues a series of increasingly lewd instructions from a seat across the room.
“Imagine my tongue on your pussy. My fat tongue,” he begins. “I wanna grab you by the ass while I suffocate you with my cock. I want you to choke on it. Turn around, baby. You’re gonna make me come over there, baby. You’re gonna make me act a fool. Yeah. Bend down for me. Yeah. Jesus Christ, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. Just like that, baby.”
“Yeah, ride it. Ride it slowly,” he continues. “Put that finger down your throat, make it wet for me… Turn around, baby. Turn around for me. Open your legs. Yes, yes. Oh yeah, choke on it. Fuckin’ stretch that tiny little pussy. I want you to suck my cock. Oh yeah, just like that, yeah.”
From there, in a creative choice which deepens the viewer’s own sense of voyeurism, the camera pans away from Jocelyn performing oral sex on Tedros to focus on Chloe (Suzanna Son), another young woman in Tedros’ posse who is furtively watching them from the next room.
But was Tedros’ fat-tongued dirty talk actually hot, or just the kind of sexually explicit fare that a juvenile writer might come up with if they were trying way too hard to be edgy? The internet is veering towards the latter—and poor Tesfaye’s acting in the scene is getting eaten up in the comments.
Philip Ellis is a freelance writer and journalist from the United Kingdom covering pop culture, relationships and LGBTQ+ issues. His work has appeared in GQ, Teen Vogue, Man Repeller and MTV.
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