Life as a celebrity is all about image: whether you’re a film star or an arena-filling singer. And behind that image will be a carefully constructed public person with a PR campaign that the person in question will be forced to stick rigidly to.
As we see in The Idol, things get thrown out of kilter when unexpected issues arise around appearance: take the compromising photo of the pop star, Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp) that we’re told was doing the rounds on social media in Episode 1. Her team panic, but then they begin to control the narrative again, calling out people and publications online for running it as being ‘slut-shaming’ in a bid to prove that Jocelyn is actually empowered by her sexuality.
It’s also why, in Episode 4, Tedros (Abel Tesfaye) makes Joss go public with the revelations about her mum abusing her, getting her to post the whole sorry tale to IG stories, with tears running down her face as she does it. They’re re-positioning her as a woman who has been broken but is now ready to hit back with a new single, available on Spotify and all other outlets soon.
So when Jocelyn’s ex-boyfriend Rob (Karl Glusman) is summoned by the pop star for some revenge sex, he recognises the trouble he might be in after Xander (Troye Sivan) corners him for a picture with an almost-naked girl.
A picture tells a thousand words
When Rob is leaving Jocelyn’s mansion - he’s off on a press tour for his new superhero movie - Xander and a bikini-clad girl pop up for a chat.
We establish that Rob and Xander obviously know each other, as Xander has lived with Jocelyn since he was 14, and Rob was Joss’s ex-boyfriend. Xander tells him that his friend is a “huge fan” and would he mind taking a picture?
Rob looks awkward but then agrees, but as he sits down on the steps for the snap, the girl basically mounts him. As he backs away, she invades his personal space even more and suddenly Rob can see that it’s a set-up.
“This is way more than I expected,” he says, “Shut it down.” But then, in what will likely be his biggest mistake, he tells Xander “delete that photo”, but fails to make him do so as he runs out the door for his car. Guess who’s definitely not deleting what could be made out to be a highly incriminating photo?
It’s likely Tedros is behind this whole mission. After being literally locked out by Joss and Rob for their steamy sex sesh, this would have given him just enough time to run downstairs and recruit Xander, the newest recruit to his cult (not voluntarily, mind, through the power of electric shocks that Tedros inexplicably uses on his gang of followers) to carry out his dirty work.
Tedros will likely have known that Rob was about to embark on his press tour to promote his new film. In a world where image and reputation is everything, if this picture is released with a whole other fictional context added to it: it could sink both the film and Rob’s career, much to Tedros’ twisted pleasure.
Or, maybe the girl just wanted a lol photo with her favourite actor to upload to her finsta. With this show, who can tell?
The Idol concludes next weekend and can be streamed on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV
