After all of the hype, The Idol mostly turned out to be a disappointment – mainly due to the lost potential. The initial premise, exploring the ups and downs a child-star-turned-superstar faces as she mounts a comeback and has to deal with a creepy cult guy weaseling his way into her life, sounded like it had so much promise. Then the show premiered and it was… let’s say, not really what people had been hoping for…

We’ve already covered everything that went wrong with the show, so now we’re taking a look at what the show could have been, and where it could go if it does manage to get a second season.

Lost possibilities

One of the biggest changes between the original direction of the show and what we ended up seeing is the focus. Initially, the show was meant to be an in depth look at the psyche and experiences of a famous young woman dealing with past abuse while attempting to make her way in an exploitative industry, and how all of that began to dovetail once a charismatic cult leader works his way into her life. We were supposed to see things from her point of view, and through a female lens – with director Amy Siemetz aiming to create an empathetic, deeply-felt take on the pitfalls of superstardom for young women. But then, allegedly, Tesfaye just couldn’t handle the focus not being on his character, and the rest is (unfortunately) history.

Getting to see the world framed through Jocelyn’s eyes, in a show that treated her like an actual human being, would have made for a much more engaging show – allowing us to go on this journey with her as she battled against all of the forces trying to pull her apart, from industry figures to parasites in her inner circle to her past trauma creeping back up to the cult. Actually getting to see her deal with and work to overcome these struggles could have created a deeply absorbing narrative that explored so many facets of the industry that are often glossed over or ignored. And having a ‘female lens’ wouldn’t have necessarily meant that the show would have to pretend that Jocelyn is some perfect angel who can do no wrong, just that it would have likely been far more realistic and fair in its portrayal of her as a person. Instead of the audience being left to guess why she’s making any of the choices she does, we could have gone with her on her interior journey, experiencing the rollercoaster of emotions in tandem.

Leaked photos from the pre-takeover set do seem to paint a much different picture from what we ended up getting. Jocelyn appears to have friends and younger sisters, and we even get some real glimpses of her child star past. But all of this seems to have been erased for the final version of the show, which serves to make her feel less like a full human being and more like the sex fantasy Levinson and Tesfaye were apparently more interested in creating. Filling out Jocenlyn’s life and past in a real way would have made her more relatable as a character, and thus made it possible for the audience to connect with her even if some of the specific hurdles she’s up against [a huge music industry contract, legions of fans, a cult, etc.] might not be something we necessarily encounter in our everyday lives.

That elusive ‘maybe was meant to exist but also maybe not’ sixth episode also could have gone a long way in helping give the show time to fully expand not just Jocelyn’s story, but also all of the other interesting secondary characters’ stories as well. Getting to see all of the characters interact more with one another, and watching their intricate relationships build and break, would have created a much more cohesive and, importantly, interesting narrative. The show as it exists is so disorganized and untethered from anything that feels real that it’s nearly impossible to really care about anyone or anything that happens to them.

Even the ‘Jocelyn taking over the cult’ storyline could have been really engaging if done correctly. The inherent parallels between actual cults and the cults of personality created by famous people is certainly an interesting topic to explore. If drawing on those similarities was indeed the goal, then keeping the main focus of the story on Jocelyn would have helped achieve that, painting a clearer picture of how she uses her fame and charm to pull in both her millions of fans and people in her real life, for better or worse. With the proper effort and creative care, the show could have become a darkly satirical view into this world of fame and excess and what it really takes to be on top. As it stands, the show mostly just felt like it was written by someone who watched Gone Girl once on a plane and didn’t really get it but definitely thought they could write their own version.

The biggest downfall of The Idol is the loss of all of this great potential. Even with so much talent in front of and behind the scenes, and so many interesting ways the story could have gone, all it took was two people who were a bit too full of themselves to send everything right down the very sleek, overpriced drain.

Could they turn things around in a second season?

Despite all of the exposés, bad reviews, and relentless mockery online, rumors are swirling that the cast and crew are already gearing up for a second season. This isn’t totally surprising as it’s definitely not the first time that hate watchers have boosted a bad show’s numbers enough to get it renewed. (Though given how quiet HBO and co have been about the viewership numbers after they started falling post episode two, one does wonder just how many people were actually watching by the end…)

So if there is a second season, one that has to continue on from the mess that was season one, could they turn things around? Well, maybe, if they’re willing to make some big changes, the most obvious being having Tedros take a back seat (and, ideally, disappear.) Tesfaye was the weakest link when it came to acting, and the shift to focus more on Tedros instead of Jocelyn’s interiority was a mistake. They also need to decide how bad Tedros is really meant to be. At the beginning of season one, he’s a cult leader creep (who is confirmed to have been incredibly abusive in the past) looming in the darkness and taking control of the world, but by the end it feels like the show wants us to feel bad for him, like he’s just a really dedicated guy that got a little caught up in this crazy music world. Truthfully, it feels like the former was what Tedros was supposed to be, but then when Tesfaye decided that he should be more of the focus (and more directly paralleled to himself) then, of course, he had to be softened and made into “not such a bad guy, really” and have everyone else’s villainy ratcheted up to make him look better in comparison.

Shifting back to Jocelyn would also give the show the ability to fix a huge problem from season one: the ‘surprise’ twist that she is actually the villain and secretly in control. Her turn comes pretty much out of nowhere near the end of season one, feels unearned, and doesn’t really make a lot of sense, at least given the very little they actually let us know about the character. There were a few attempts to make it clear that Jocelyn wasn’t quite falling for Tedros’ schtick in the same ways the others had but narratively it just doesn’t feel like her villain arc was something they had planned from the beginning; it just feels like one more thing they tacked on for “shock value” as they were scribbling down the scenes the morning of the shoot. But if Tedros was out of the way for the second season, and actual writers were given the chance to craft the story properly, it could be an opportunity to finally gain an understanding of what’s really going on with Jocelyn and why she’s behaving the way she is.

It would also be great to give all of those interesting secondary characters that got no real character building time to shine and become fully fleshed out. From members of Jocelyn’s inner circle like Xander and Leia and Dyanne, to the uber-talented cult members like Izaak and Chloe, to the industry figures like Destiny and Talia, the show has so many interesting options to explore in fleshing out this world and the people that inhabit it, and to use these secondary characters to help guide our understanding of the light and darkness that fills Jocelyn’s world. That they all lost screentime to Tedros’ rattail is a real shame, and bringing them all to the forefront next season would go a long way in creating a much better and more emotionally fulfilling story.

Dyanne working her way into Jocelyn’s inner circle just to turn on her was treated as an afterthought, so it would be great to get more insight into her life and choices (and to have more opportunities for Jennie to actually have lines and sing and dance!) And that goes for the other cult members as well – we got little peaks into their lives before the cult, but it would be great to actually learn more about them. Jocelyn and Xander’s thorny history as child stars together is hinted at a bit (until she gets Tedros to tase Xander into submission and he slides right back into follower mode…

Unpacking what really happened between them, and how it led to Xander essentially just becoming one of Jocelyn’s powerless helpers instead of a star in his own right would not only flesh out his character but Jocelyn’s as well. Leia, the only really normal character on the show, had enough, packed her bags and left by the end of season one (and who can blame her? But her character provided important grounding to the show – their chat in episode one is the only time we see Jocelyn seem to feel safe or emotionally connected to someone. And she works as a good insanity barometer for the audience, reminding us that, yeah, all of the stuff happening is really crazy. So if the show wants to work towards feeling like a show about real human beings that exist in the world, it’ll be important to find a way to bring Leia back (and given that she does seem to care about Jocelyn in a way that no one else does, it shouldn’t be hard to pull her back into the fold.)

At the end of the day, the most important thing the creators need going into season two is to have a real plan from the get go and stick to it. Given all of the talk about Levinson’s issues with this both on this show and Euphoria, it does seem that he needs to humble himself and hand the reins over. A proper showrunner in control of the writer’s room would help to make sure that narrative decisions make sense and are set up and paid off, and that, y’know, the scripts are actually finished before the day of the shoot.

Conclusion

If the show is able to secure a second season, they’re going to need to do a lot of real work to pull people in – the “omg danger, sexy scandals ahead!” hype barely managed to keep people watching and talking about the show past episode two, so if early reviews drop that it’s just more of the same poorly paced fantasies of two of the worlds most unimaginative people, it’ll likely be a wrap before the new season even drops. From the beginning, there was a lot of interest in the promise of what the show could be, so if they’re able to make it clear that they’ve gone back to the drawing board and have really done the creative work to make a second season worthwhile, it could pull the show out of the dumpster. The question, really, is if Levinson and Tesfaye will be able to put their egos to the side and work to elevate the show to what it was originally destined to be. There are still little glimmers of potential within this story, but it remains to be seen if the show will help them burn brighter or just let it all fade away…