The review contains spoilers.
“Laugh. Show how innocent you can be. Be sexy. Be vulnerable. Make yourself cry,” directs the photographer to the singer Jocelyn, who is posing for the cover of the new album. Everything must be perfect, according to her team, the young artist cannot afford any hesitation or misstep. A year ago, she had a mental breakdown in the middle of the tour when her mother died.
From the two episodes published so far on HBO Max, we find out that Jocelyn (Lily Rose-Depp) still hasn’t processed the loss of the person closest to her, but she is focusing on her ambitions. “I want to be among the artists who are born only once in a generation, I want to create music that will outlive me.” That’s why she surrounded herself with people she more or less trusts, but they either see her as just a product or feel sorry for her.
The manager speaks to her in a fatherly manner, but then immediately kicks out the intimacy coordinator in the bathroom, because according to him, nudity sells and Jocelyn sees it as a source of income. Leia is the singer’s best friend and assistant at the same time. However, he cannot combine these two roles.
When Jocelyn’s compromising snap gets on social media, Leia takes her phone and consults with the team first about what to do. Together with creative director Xander, he considers the artist to be unstable. Although they care about her, they cannot argue against the statement “mental illness is sexy” and they more or less put up with the exploitation of their friend.
The creator and director of the six-part series Sam Levinson says that even the main character Jocelyn is no angel, as another key character Tedros (Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye) paradoxically calls her. The very first scene from the photo shoot is said to express her ability to emotionally manipulate the audience. “One of the messages of the show is to be more skeptical of the celebrities we blindly admire,” Levinson explains.
However, the original intention of the entire project filmed for HBO Max was completely different. It was supposed to be a dark satire of fame and everything that a young artist has to undergo and endure in order to stay in the limelight. In the end, the plot revolves around a toxic relationship, from which the singer does not want to get out, because she finds inspiration in it.