The Weeknd’s scandalous drama The Idol receives shocking low audience score after Cannes debut-Stella Akinwumi-Entertainment – Metro

The boundary pushing series The Idol has been flooded by a stream of negative reviews on Rotten Tomatoes – despite receiving a standing ovation at Cannes Film Festival.

Due to start streaming next month on HBO Max, the music industry drama – which Euphoria director Sam Levinson co-wrote with singer Abel ‘The Weeknd’ Tesfaye – has teased raunchy material via its trailers.

However, many eyebrows were also raised courtesy of scandalous scenes involving instances of masturbation, choking and a subplot involving a photo of Lily Rose Depp’s character Jocelyn with bodily fluids on her face.

Following the premiere at Monday’s festival, the controversial programme has only drawn a dismal 9% audience score on the review site based on 11 reviews.

‘Nasty, brutish, [feels] much longer than it is, and way, way worse than you’d have anticipated,’ the Rolling Stone stated.

While we believe The Idol ‘treads a fine line carefully between empowerment and exploitation.’

Responding to a question about the sexual material being called both ‘revolutionary’ and facing accusations of going ‘too far’, director Sam told Metro.co.uk and other titles at the show’s press conference on Tuesday: ‘I think that sometimes things that might be revolutionary are taken too far.

‘We live in a very sexualised world, especially in the States, where the influence of pornography is really strong in terms of the psyche of young people. And we see this in pop music and how it reflects the underbelly of the internet in some way.’

The Idol came under scrutiny in March after Rolling Stone said the project was in ‘turmoil’, after multiple script changes, the exit of director Amy Seimetz after most of the series was already finished, and then Levinson taking over and scrapping the ‘nearly-finished’ $54-75 (£45-62) million project to rewrite and reshoot the entire thing.

Sources also told the magazine that when Levinson took over, he ‘dialled’up the disturbing sexual content and nudity’.

The cast denied the previous allegations made (Picture: WireImage)

However, The Weeknd was also under the spotlight for decisions he allegedly made on set, which were said to have him wanting to drop the ‘feminist lens’ of the show.

The Blinding Lights hitmaker later told Vanity Fair: ‘I thought the article was ridiculous.

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‘I wanted to give a ridiculous response to it.’

Talking about the plot of the show, which sees the young singer pay the price for surrounding herself with dangerous people, The Weeknd added: ‘I mean, this isn’t a secret.

‘Hollywood is a dark place. Which makes for great art.’

The Idol available from June 5 on Sky Atlantic and NOW in the UK.

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