It’s been dubbed the worst show of the year, but some viewers are still convinced that somewhere, within the dark, grubby crevices of The Idol, there was, at one point, a decent series in there.
The collapsing point can be traced back to April 2022, when, despite a reported 80 per cent of the series having been shot, the director and The Girlfriend Experience co-creator Amy Seimetz left the show, and Sam Levinson, co-creator of the series with Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye, took over the director’s chair. According to a Rolling Stone article, the series was then re-written and re-shot, in an attempt to reduce the “female perspective” of the story, which featured a troubled young female pop star, Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp) and how she had been exploited by the music industry.
So, how did that work out, lads? Yeah: we saw. Seimetz has never commented on the production since her departure, but as one Twitter user has unearthed pictures from Seimetz’ initial shoot, viewers are now demanding a release of her version.
The Twitter account @thisisnotahmad posted three pictures of Depp on set in a Jocelyn-themed girl’s bedroom, suggesting that Jocelyn’s origin story was covered in Seimetz’s take, saying: “Amy Seimetz’s version of The Idol was going to include scenes that referenced Jocelyn’s past as a child star,” going on to make the very valid point that “one of the biggest flaws in Sam Levinson’s version was that Jocelyn being a pop star never felt real or authentic so it would’ve been nice to see that fleshed out.”
Other Twitter users agreed, saying: “This works sooo much better. Damn. I really want somebody to do a tell-all on what the heck happened” and, “This makes me so sad we were robbed of an actual story instead of whatever we got.” Then, people began to rally, and commented: “RELEASE THE SEIMETZ CUT”, “Can Amy please release The Idol (Amy's version)”.
There was presumably a large part of the original series dedicated to Jocelyn’s back story, and the late Anne Heche, who was cast in The Idol before her death in August 2022, was expected to play her mother. A young actor had also been brought in to play the young Jocelyn.
Given the confusing and rapid about-turn in the finale – in which it was insinuated that Jocelyn was a master manipulator and was lying about her mother abusing her, and a plot line was introduced in which the mother was involved in destroying Xander’s budding entertainment career – the show could have definitely done with some more world-building and character exposition.
The movement starts here people. If we can do it for Zack Snyder’s Justice League cut, we can get justice for Amy Seimetz too.
