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Abel Tesfaye aka The Weeknd in »The Idol«
Photo: Warner / HBO
After a season of "The Idol", the series with the main actors Lily-Rose Depp (24) and pop singer The Weeknd (33) is now coming to an end. The US broadcaster HBO announced that there would be no second season after "careful consideration". The Idol was one of the "most provocative" productions and the creators and actors were thanked for their "incredible" work, the Hollywood Reporter quoted from the statement.
Depp, the daughter of singer Vanessa Paradis and Hollywood star Johnny Depp, portrayed in the series pop singer Jocelyn, who begins a complicated relationship with shady club owner and self-help guru Tedros (Abel Tesfaye aka The Weeknd) after a nervous breakdown.
It was directed by Sam Levinson, who is known for the series »Euphoria« about a group of teenagers. In both productions there are explicit scenes, there is a lot about sex, drugs and abuse of power.
The critics did not leave a good hair on the five-parter, calling the series "boring and unsexy" (»The Guardian») and »sleazy« (»Financial Times»). SPIEGEL critic Hannah Pilarczyk wrote that Tesfaye is surprisingly stiff at the hip.
The number of spectators also left much to be desired. "The Idol" was an expensive production for HBO because, at the instigation of Tesfaye, who also co-produced the series, episodes that had already been shot were scrapped and reshot. For this, the original director Amy Seimetz was fired and Levinson was hired.
kae/dpa