Review: The Idol, “Daybreak” | Season 1, Episode 3

Tedros Tedros swallows the story whole in the most fake-deep episode yet

Photograph by Eddy Chen/HBO

The first two episodes of The Idol were characterized by a pretty clear split: half an hour devoted to Jocelyn and her main team, and half an hour devoted to her queasy romance with Tedros Tedros. The difference in quality between those two halves was stark, but their separation made it somewhat easier to enjoy the parts that did work. Hate Tedros? Just watch the first half-hour, then tune out once he arrives at Joss’s house.

But that’s a much taller order in “Daybreak,” the first episode to really unite the two halves of the show. Tedros is everywhere in this one: not just bossing Jocelyn around, but directly interacting with her team. And while I still think that early characterizations of this show as a “rape fantasy” were exaggerating—the show’s perspective on Tedros’s controlling nature seems, to me, pretty clear—that doesn’t automatically make what is on screen particularly interesting.

From a plotting perspective, it should be a good sign that the show …