I mentioned in my last article about The Idol that I felt this sick curiosity as a writer to watch the show. If you didn’t gather from my review of episodes 1-3, Sam Levinson and The Weeknd’s Max original is something of a car wreck, episodes 4 and 5 are much worse, for different reasons.
Over-the-top locations and characters bathed in red light recall an all but dead genre that was once a staple of late-night cable: the erotic thriller.
A track like “Heart on My Sleeve,” which went viral before being taken down by streaming services this week, may be a novelty for now. But the legal and creative questions it raises are here to stay.