In a hilarious turn of events, HBO’s controversial The Idol announced out of nowhere that it wasn’t a six-episode series after all, with the fifth and final installment airing this Sunday to mercifully draw the widely-panned and hotly-debated original to a close.
The widespread creative overhaul that followed the bombshell reports utterly lambasting the production has already been pinpointed as the main reason why, and there are no guarantees that Euphoria creator Sam Levinson’s latest will be renewed for a second season based on dwindling viewership figures, and the overriding sense that it’s quite simply terrible television.
However, despite only having one final story left to tell, The Parents Television and Media Council has nonetheless called on HBO to immediately remove The Idol from the airwaves per The Wrap, calling it borderline “torture porn” that glorifies sexual abuse by way of sinking into “such depravity” that it could corrupt young minds into ignoring the fact it’s clearly not set in the real world.
Of course, the number one question to ask is why the PTC needs to get involved at all, when the age rating is right there for everyone to see, in addition to the disclaimer carried before all adult-orientated HBO programming. Surely the children of the affronted members will be old enough to watch The Idol of their own volition without mommy and daddy telling them it’s bad, but that’s another argument for another time.
There are also the parental controls on the HBO app, which still isn’t good enough for the PTC, although you do have to question the logic in the group mounting an offensive against a project that is quite literally five days away from ending and more than likely won’t be back on the airwaves.