There’s something meta about having a K-pop idol play a role in a show about the music industry and its “dark side” and then barely having her on the show. When it was announced that Jennie from Blackpink would be debuting her acting career in an HBO Max show starring The Weeknd, Lily Rose-Depp, and Troye Sivan, everyone was reeling with excitement. It’s not as if Blackpink hasn’t already taken over the world, but as a Hollywood series with such big names, it only made sense that this would be the next step for the global superstars. Unfortunately, soon enough, there were rumors about the show, and the Rolling Stone article completely changed the trajectory of the show. To be fair, it was already changed at this point when Sam Levinson came on board and allegedly cut down on all of Dyanne’s parts in the show. Now, we can’t know why he did this, but to me, it was wasted potential for sure. Dyanne is a strong character and an opposing force to Jocelyn. They’re actually very alike, but this point is lost because the show is too short to really establish Dyanne as a character, and she’s forgotten when she’s not on screen.
Dyanne is as talented as Joss and has the star quality she has too, but she’s sidelined because she’s just a backup dancer. Tedros takes advantage of this jealousy and pushes her to get to Joss. The big difference is that Dyanne is actually naive and believes Tedros is doing all of this for her, not because he actually wants to do great things with Joss. But if we had the chance to watch this play out and actually see the damage done to Dyanne, making her a villain, maybe we would’ve had a more impactful ending. Of course, we get that the show is called The Idol because there’s only one, which is Joss, but while Tedros is her inspiration or her motivation to make new music, the show may have turned out more interesting with a strong opposing force that made her lose her mind completely.
We don’t see Dyanne at all in 2 episodes, and this is a little bit strange because she is a part of Tedros’ team, meaning she should be hanging out with the rest of them too. Technically, Tedros has them all living with him all the time, so why is Dyanne not a part of this living situation in Joss’ house? Yes, some would say it’s because Joss doesn’t know about Dyanne’s connections with Tedros, but she could just have pretended that, as a friend and backup dancer, she wanted to be with them. This could’ve allowed her to check up on what Joss was doing and how much she should feel threatened by her.
Tedros And Dyanne’s Relationship
When Chloe tells Joss about Tedros’ plan to get her to the club through Dyanne, we learn an important detail about their relationship. One could’ve assumed earlier that Tedros probably has “relationships” with all of his prodigies, but it’s Dyanne he had an actual relationship with before he went ahead and got with Joss. Chloe makes this very clear, and that’s when we can feel for Dyanne, who was just abandoned by Tedros. It appears she is willing to do anything to get her way, but she falters in the end when Nikki too abandons her, knowing it’s Joss who made sure her song doesn’t get released.
One Of Your Girls
Specifically, if we look at the lyrics of “One Of Your Girls” by The Weeknd, Jennie, and Lily Rose-Depp, the lyrics very perfectly describe not just the characters the two girls are playing but Jennie’s real life. Her lyrics include words like “not free” while being on top of the world and giving anything to remain on top, even if that means keeping many secrets. It’s a very good description of Jocelyn’s character too, and it would’ve been so great if this song was Dyanne’s comeback against Jocelyn. But considering the show got cut off really early, and there had to be more room for Tedros’ character, Joss only interfered right at the end and got rid of Dyanne with the flick of a finger. We can imagine that the meeting she had with Nikki in the last episode was not just to show her the new song but also to make sure that Dyanne doesn’t take away what’s hers. There’s also a really amazing detail in the costumes in the two scenes of Dyanne and Joss visiting Nikki. The scenes are shot in a very similar manner as the girls walk into the office, shoulders bare, both in black, and both with their hair tied up. There are so many similarities between the two of them, but Jocelyn is the bolder one with an emphasis on eye makeup, whereas Dyanne looks docile and sheepish in comparison. Showing us that although Dyanne was painted as a villain at first, she became a victim in the end, just like everyone else.
Final Thoughts
It’s almost as if there was too much happening, and the show just had to get it over with, so they added the last part where Dyanne’s release gets cancelled. It’s possible some of us invested in the story may have been carried away and forgotten she was there at all. We can just imagine that if the show had been made differently, there was a chance we’d have seen Dyanne shine as bright as Joss too.
