"It's hard to imagine anything as unsexy as what we're told to believe is the most radical, boundary-pushing TV sex ever," Lucy Ford wrote.
"The dialogue and choreography feel like they're plucked from the brain of a horned-up teenager who just found out they could google 'boobs' on Google images," she said. Variety also reported that episode one of"The Idol" had picked up a bit of steam, reaching an audience of 3.6 million after one week of delayed viewing on Max, pulling ahead of the"Euphoria" premiere's numbers over a similar time period. Whether that audience sticks around, given episode two's slide, remains to be seen. , which tracks official top lists from streamers like Max , shows the series' reception around the world has been uneven.
HBO parent Warner Bros. Discovery told Variety that"The Idol" had scored higher viewership in Latin America and Europe than"The White Lotus" and"Winning Time" had in the same amount of time.reporting in March that the show had gone"wildly, disgustingly off the rails." Tesfaye, Depp, and Levinson all pushed back on the reporting.