“THE IDOL”, THE TRAGIC FACE OF THE AMERICAN DREAM
Cinema Writer/Film Critic Efe TEKSOY; wrote the drama and music TV-Series “THE IDOL”, for America’s Los Angeles-based Internet Newspaper @alaturkanews.
“JOCELYN”, A DEPRESSIVE POP DIVA
Premiered its first two episodes at the 76th Cannes Film Festival in May 2023, The Idol is an American drama television series created by Reza Fahim, The Weeknd and Sam Levinson. In the lead role of this series, which was shown on HBO Max; Lily-Rose Depp, Born to actor Johnny Depp and singer Vanessa Paradis, and Famous singer Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, known by his stage name The Weeknd takes place. BAFTA and Primetime Emmy Award-nominated director Sam Levinson, who co-created the series, is also directing The Idol. The director, known as the creator of the popular HBO teen drama Euphoria, adapted from the Israeli TV series of the same name in 2019, this time focuses on the complex and tragic relationship of a promising pop star, her fall and rise from the top. This series, which premiered on Hbo Max, shows in all its transparency how brutal the American dream is in real life, and how cruel it can be.
THE DRAMA OF THE GIFTED CHILD
The story actually tells us; It shows that a top idol pays a big price in the background and contrary to what it seems, the world of fame actually opens to a completely different dark and cruel door. So that; we see that the family traumas of the main character Jocelyn in the past both build and destroy her future. Alice Miller, a Polish-Swiss psychologist, psychoanalyst, and world-renowned author and philosopher, delves into childhood trauma and the lingering effects of repressed anger and pain in her bestselling and translated into many languages book The Drama of the Gifted Child. Miller; “Depression / collapse / what we call depression and void, meaninglessness of life, fear of spiritual impoverishment, state of being lonely -the root of which always goes back to childhood- I am witnessing again and again that there is loss of self, thus alienation from oneself.”, she talks about psychological illusions that are thought to be love, just like Jocelyn lived with her mother in the past.
TOPIC OF THE SERIES
Jocelyn’s last concert tour derails as a result of a nervous breakdown. But that doesn’t deter her, and she’s determined to claim her well-deserved status as America’s biggest and sexiest pop diva. Tedros, a nightclub manager with a dirty past, reignites Jocelyn’s passions. However, this glorious awakening will either carry her to the top or take her back to the deepest and darkest shadows of her soul.
Stars; Lily-Rose Depp,The Weeknd, Suzanna Son, Troye Sivan, Jane Adams, Rachel Sennott, Jennie Kim, Rachel Sennott, Hari Nef, Moses Sumney, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Ramsey, Hank Azaria, Mitch Modes and Bianca Ghezzi.
GUILT AND REPARATION
Another detail is that the character of Jocelyn survived the nervous breakdown and depression, thanks to Tedros (who was not welcomed and loved by Jocelyn’s friends). Melanie Klein, a famous Austrian-born British psychoanalyst who had a significant impact on contemporary psychoanalysis and child psychology and developed new therapeutic techniques, she is the founder of the “object relations” school and one of the most influential theorists in the history of psychoanalysis after Sigmund Freud. Her book “Guilt and Reparation“, which has an important place in the history of psychoanalysis, has an important place in that it deals with the struggle of good and evil in human beings, not from an abstract metapsychology, but from a point close to complex inner experiences. Klein; “Undoubtedly, frustrated and unhappy experiences lead to a certain degree of envy and hatred developing in each individual’s life; but the severity of these feelings and the way people deal with them will be very different.”, says psychoanalyst, who says, refers to the connection of the ability of pleasure and satisfaction with gratitude and states that it is one of the reasons why it changes from person to person. In the series, too, we see that the character of Jocelyn resorts to a unique way of coping with her problems and a dangerous person (although despised by others) who is good for her, namely Tedros.
THE IDOL
Under the image of strong women, The Idol touches on the theory of capitalism and exploitation. Karl Marx, in his popular analysis of the universe of commodities, mentions that human relations emerge in the guise of relations between objects. We see that the relationships between the characters in the series are based on fakes and lies. Also, The Idol tells us that the flamboyant world of celebrity is very different from what it seems in real life. The great writer of classical world literature, Russian writer Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky, refers to the concept of “Random Family” in his novel The Adolescent. At the end of the novel, the character of Nikolay Semyonovich refers to this concept, which he refers to in his letter, that noble Russian families from a very old lineage will only be like Tolstoy‘s War and Peace, This HBO series It shows us with striking realities that the perfect world of fame will only be an illusion in real life and that we can only encounter it in a cinematic universe. Just as Dostoevsky mentioned in his novel.
EFE TEKSOY
References
Alice Miller, The Drama of the Gifted Child (Yetenekli Çocuğun Dramı), Emine Avşar, translate, İstanbul: Profil Kitap press, 2022
Melanie Klein, Guilt and Reparation (Haset ve Şükran), Orhan Koçak & Yavuz Erten, translate, İstanbul: Metis Yayınları press, 2011
Fyodor Dostoyevski, The Adolescent (Delikanlı), Leyla Soykut, translate, İstanbul: Yordam Kitap press, 2020
