Can HBO’s ‘The Idol’ bring back the sleaze of the ’80s?

A savvy executive drives a cherry red convertible.

A nightclub owner carries a spoon of coke and wears his hair in a rat tail.

A troubled pop star masturbates while drowning.

Those images could have come from an erotic thriller made by Brian De Palma, Paul Verhoeven or Adrian Lyne, directors who stood out in the 80s and 90s thanks to films like “Body Double” (Mr. De Palma), “Basic Instinct” ( Mr. Verhoeven) and “9 ½ Weeks” (Mr. Lyne).

But those scenes were actually part of “The Idol,” the HBO series that debuted Sunday with the apparent intent of reviving a nearly dead genre.

Filled with close-ups of luxury items and body parts, “The Idol” also recalled the works of lesser filmmakers whose R-rated creations populated the late-night lineups of HBO and its rivals long before the advent of prestige television.

It was a style that died out over the years: the death blow might have been Mr. Verhoeven’s infamous style. “Showgirls” an expensive flop from 1995, and it seemed highly unlikely that it would return to the cultural stage in the midst of the #MeToo movement.

Like Karina Longworth, the creator of the film history podcast. “You must remember this”, recently observed, today’s movies are so devoid of torrid sex scenes that they “would pass the sexual standard set by the strict censorship of the 1930s Production Code.”

The old aesthetic was on full display in the early moments of “The Idol,” a series created by Sam Levinson, Abel Tesfaye (known as The Weeknd) and Reza Fahim, three men who came of age by flipping through cable channels. late at night. it was a frequent pastime for adolescent boys.

The first episode opens with pop star Jocelyn, played by Lily-Rose Depp, baring her breasts during a photo shoot as a team of managers, crew members, and an ineffective privacy coordinator look on.

Later, Ms. Depp’s character smokes in a sauna, rides in the back of a Rolls-Royce convertible, and rubs up against a man she just met (a club owner played by Mr. Tesfaye) in a dance floor bathed in smoky red light. . There will be no flannel pajamas for Joss; a couple of awakening scenes make it clear to viewers that she sleeps in a thong.

It’s not just the show’s gratuitous nudity that reminds us of Mr. Lyne and company, but the overall look and mood, reminiscent of a scruffy glamor from the days of Armani boxy suits and cocaine nights. A main stage is a $70 million mansion in Bel Air that looks like something out of Mr. De Palma’s “Scarface”, but is in fact the actual home of Mr. Tesfaye.

Several young viewers have said that they find sex scenes embarrassingbut Mr Levinsonwho created the HBO drama “Euphoria,” and his fellow producers have made no secret of their desire to pay homage to Cinemax’s heyday (when it had the Skinemax moniker).

A nod to viewers comes when Joss, in the darkness of his private screening room, watches “Basic Instinct.” And then there is the throbbing score, which seems to conjure Tangerine Dream, the German electronic group that marked the sex scene on a train in “Risky Business”. In another nod to the show’s influences, the cast includes “Showgirls” star Elizabeth Berkley.

While it may seem like an outlier, “The Idol” has apparently tapped into a cultural moment that would have seemed unthinkable just a few years ago: Ms. Longworth recently devoted a season of her film history podcast to the “80s erotica”; no less a trendsetter than the Criterion Channel has presented a series about erotic thrillers of the same period; and last month in Los Angeles, the American Cinematheque held a screening of “Basic Instinct”.

Stephanie ZacharekTime’s film critic, suggested that the return of such fare may have stemmed from years of glut of comic book movies, along with the lack of a certain kind of R-rated movie that was once in vogue with adult moviegoers.

“In the ’80s, that was pretty much all there was in multiplexes,” said Ms. Zacharek. “Adults would go see those movies. Now we don’t even have that many adult movies, period.”

Ms. Zacharek criticized “The Idol” in your review and in a phone interview: “It sounds like it was done by someone who’s never had sex,” she said, but said she was a fan of “Body Double” (and even “Showgirls”) and regrets the demise of that kind of thing.

“I always enjoyed those movies, even when I thought they were sexist or ridiculous,” Zacharek said. “They have a certain element of glamor to them.”

There is a distinct possibility that the idea of ​​reviving this particular genre will appeal more to Mr. Levinson and his colleagues than to the public and critics.

After a two-decade absence from big-budget productions, Mr. Lyne tried to make a comeback last year with “Deep water,” an erotic thriller starring Ana de Armas and Ben Affleck. Mr. Levinson was one of the writers for the film.

“Deep Water,” which streamed on Hulu upon its release, was never shown in theaters. drew a Approval score of 36 percent from critics and an audience score of 24 percent on review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes.

“The Idol” has done so much better and worse: Only 24 percent of critics have given it a thumbs up, and 63 percent of audience members have given it a thumbs up.