‘The Idol’ Only Works When Tedros Is Being Unintentionally Funny

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for The Idol Episode 4.If you were thinking to yourself through the first episodes, “This Tedros guy just isn’t doing it for me,” then you weren’t alone. As Sam Levinson‘s The Idol has progressed through its season on HBO, the character arc of Tedros (Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye) has been, well, interesting to say the least. There was already a lot of controversy surrounding this character to begin with, from the content we knew heading into this show, Tedros’ on-screen behavior, and the fact that the inexperienced Tesfaye was playing a major character all made things dicey. Over the past two episodes, however, there has been a development with this character, whether it is intentional or not. Through the first two episodes, Tedros seemed pretty one-dimensional until we finally got to a new side of him.

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Tedros Is Funny in ‘The Idol’

It’s been established that Tedros is a bad dude on this show. In showing us this, there have been a few moments that were likely meant to portray him as a monster but instead came across rather comically. Again, who’s to say if this was intentional or not, but Tesfaye is bringing something to Tedros that makes him memorable. This goes back to the third episode, “Daybreak,” where we get to see his insecurity. The scene in which he confronts and threatens the store employee whose helping Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp) try on clothes is entertaining purely for its comedy. Seeing Tedros staring down the taller man while showing no sign of backing down brought out a laugh, while his empty middle-school-esque threats were far more funny than serious.

A similar scene played out in Episode 4, “Stars Belong to the World,” when Jocelyn was having sex behind closed doors with her ex. Seeing Tedros sit outside the door was clearly humorous in an unintentional way. This once again goes back to his insecurity, just as the prior scene in which he was taking shots with her ex. Tedros was clearly struggling to hold off his drunkenness while breaking into some karate moves in what was easily the strangest, yet satisfying scene to watch play out, especially after two rather gross moments involving a shock collar and public foreplay.

Tedros likely isn’t being written to be a funny character but these supposed-serious moments are hard not to grin at, which is an improvement from the first two episodes in which the character wasn’t eliciting any emotional response from viewers. Having Tedros also be able to play off characters like Chaim (Hank Azaria) and Destiny (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) is also bringing out this side to him. The Destiny-Tedros interaction in Episode 4 was especially gripping as she sought to find out everything there is to know about this guy. The Idol has its flaws, but this isn’t to say that there couldn’t have been a world where this series was able to put together a worthwhile show, especially with the strong supporting cast it has assembled.

Tedros Is Also Making Us Hate Him on ‘The Idol’

Perhaps this is where the conundrum comes in. Just like the writers aren’t trying to make Tesfaye’s character low-key hilarious, we’re not supposed to find anything Tedros does funny because he truly is a terrible person. Maybe the best thing that Tesfaye is doing in this role is portraying this character in such a minimalist way. There’s really not that much to this character. He’s a horrible human being who abuses his followers because he has a need for control. What makes an iconic villain is the complexity and the reasoning for what they do, but Tedros isn’t trying to be that nor should he or the writers want that. He’s just being himself, which is what Tesfaye is actually portraying in this position.

It’s uncomfortable to watch, namely seeing him abuse Xander (Troy Sivian) with a shock collar and publicly assault Jocelyn in front of everyone just to get her to “realistically” enunciate a word in a song. That’s also the point of Tedros. He doesn’t have this larger-than-life plan that’s fueling these heinous acts. He’s simply torturing and abusing just because he can and because he feeds off the power. The past two episodes have shown us all we need to know about this guy’s mindset, which is a dark place where he sees himself above everyone else.

This wasn’t exactly clear in the early going because we didn’t really get to him in his environment until his eventual takeover of Jocelyn’s mansion. Now we are seeing him on full display and it’s actually giving us the worst in him, which is what is by far the best thing about him as a character. It’s fair to wonder whether this role would have been better served with a more seasoned actor, but Tesfaye at least appears to be doing something with this role after a few episodes in which the character was lacking.

As a cult leader, there’s still questions as to why everyone gives themselves up for this guy, but we’re at least seeing just how cruel he is. I’m not sure that we’ll ever get enough time in this series to learn more about Tedros, but an episode being spent on what made him this way would have really gone a long way in developing this character. That’s also why Tesfaye had an uphill battle in the early half of the season because the writing just wasn’t given this character enough for us to work with besides him viewing Jocelyn as his new ticket to power. Nonetheless, Tedros has at least had a chance to show us just how terrible he is which gives The Idol something to stand on. With this, we’re finally getting something to root against as Tedros is an infuriatingly horrible antagonist to watch, and The Idol is better off for it.

The Idol airs on Sunday nights on HBO and is available to stream on Max.