The Idol finale has left everyone salty, from BLACKPINK fans to The Weeknd himself

The Idol has finally shut shop for good but audiences can still not stop talking about the substandard finale and the overall absurdity of the show. From The Weeknd’s cringe-inducing sex scenes to the meme-worthy dialogues, The Idol has been getting continuous flak for the past five weeks. 

In fact, the show was supposed to run for six episodes before HBO itself decided to pull the plug early (forcing showrunners Sam Levinson and The Weeknd to wrap up the third act in the fourth and fifth episodes). 

But the finale failed to win over any new fans with many reacting to the ending. Social media users have been commenting on its “mediocrity” and “stupidity” while crowning The Idol as one of the worst TV that they have ever consumed. 

ALSO READ: The Idol Review: A sleazy porno with music and some terrible acting by The Weeknd

The false allegation storyline has left Weeknd fans salty

SPOILER ALERT 

Some have also expressed their dissatisfaction with a very forced #MeToo storyline (Lily Rose Depp’s on-screen ex is falsely framed for rape by The Weeknd’s character). This, coupled with Lily Rose Depp’s Jocelyn herself lying about the abuse she faced at her mother’s hands, has left viewers with mixed reactions. 

Considering that Levinson was already being criticised for reshaping The Idol’s female-driven perspective into an excuse to throw in more and more gratuitous sex scenes (all from a predominantly male gaze), audiences are finding The Idol to be a subtle expression of his own narrow views (and perhaps that of his fellow executive producer and creator The Weeknd). 

Whether The Weeknd likes it or not, his “toxic boy” persona as a musician does cater to hordes of the so-called “incels” (men who often harbour a hateful attitude towards women due to their inability to find a romantic or sexual partner). 

As Twitter user @bettyssgarden points out, the fact that the storyline of a woman falsely implicating a man can be used as an excuse by The Weeknd devotees to “now use this to victim blame women who come forward”. 

Representation of sexual assault cases in the post-#MeToo era is anyway getting more sensitive given much-debated cases like the long trial around Lily Rose Depp’s own father. But with Levinson and his crew rushed to finish the finale (and the show as a whole), the result was a mess as these Twitter reactions sum up. 

Even K-pop fans are annoyed

Even before The Idol began airing, K-pop fans (in particular listeners of the girl group BLACKPINK) were angered with the limited screen presence BLACKPINK’s Jennie Kim got in the trailer. Playing a singer trying to break into Hollywood, Jeannie’s casting drew headlines given that this would be her first major acting role. 

But with The Idol ending, many K-pop aficionados are not impressed with the way the show handled Jennie’s character. Some of the conservative advocates of the “purity” of K-pop had already frowned upon the first episode that found Jennie raunchily dancing with male backup dancers in one scene. Back in South Korea, this is the main reason why The Idol is virtually “cancelled”!

Now that Jennie’s arc has also been wrapped up, the reactions for her limited role are mostly positive but it’s her costumes that have been infuriating K-pop fans. Apart from the conservative elements who fear any inch of revealed skin, the fans are particularly roasting a revealing light pink one-piece swimsuit (with a crochet top) that the popstar wore in the penultimate episode. 

Given Jennie’s flashy persona as a BLACKPINK member, many feel that The Idol could have resorted to better styling options than this. From Jennie’s fans tweeting “It looks like the clothes were made with some 3D pen” to “I just feel bad for her. She's a top star, but she's doing all of this just to fit into the US standards...”, they have found a new enemy in The Idol’s costume designers. 

But then there are also some fans who feel The Idol offered a better opportunity to be bolder with her star persona, unlike the constraints of Korean society back home. 

But The Weeknd has no regrets (even if The Weeknd fans do)

“It’s difficult to be a Weeknd fan.” That’s the dominant perspective among many self-aware Weeknd fans who can’t blind themselves from the negative elements of The Idol (and Weeknd’s own failed attempt at acting). 

Selena Gomez fans have also expressed their displeasure to the toxic romance between The Weeknd and Lily Rose Depp (that got all the more toxic in the finale). Rumour has it that The Weeknd based this relationship on his own ill-fated love with Gomez!

The singer-turned-actor, however, has no qualms about people mocking The Idol and his performance. Taking to Instagram, The Weeknd wrote about how grateful he is and he will “continue to push the vision no matter how bumpy the journey.”

The replies ranged from “What vision did this show POSSIBLY push?” and “please go back to making haunted strip club music”.