In Praise of HBO's "Euphoria"

I remember being put off by all the self-destructive self-absorption on display in the first season of Euphoria, way back in 2018. But, three years later, I was not prepared for what I saw on screen in the first episode of the second season. In particular, blood spraying on an erect penis; a flaccid penis on proud display by a young man who was enjoying a bowel movement; and one of those savage beat-downs we often see on TV and in the movies that would surely leave a real-life human being with permanent damage. (At the very least a few teeth would be lost, wouldn’t they?)

Was all that necessary? Was it gratuitous? Or was it simply calculated to attract viewers (especially the young ones) who have come of age in a digital world where R- and X-rated entertainment of the professional or homemade variety is available at any time? If it's the latter, then I applaud the showrunners and executives involved for acknowledging the times in which they live and, dare I say, giving the people what they want. Especially the young people who, for better or worse, are very different from the youngsters of decades gone by. (A great example of this was the recent scene in which Kat, one of the many tormented teens on the scary Euphoria canvas, was so consumed by anxiety she imagined her bedroom was filled with gorgeous social media influencers spewing sound-bite advice, which made everything worse and had poor Kat screaming her lungs out.)

I'll admit that I sometimes find myself wondering why Euphoria exists. Can a show this relentlessly dark and disturbing be categorized as entertainment? Should it be (especially when it targets impressionable young people)? Does it truly reflect the reality of adolescence in the 2020s? (If so, what does that say about us -- and how do I sign up for a move to Mars?) It is certainly a cautionary tale, and I hope it is received that way, but that's not enough to keep viewers coming back week after week, is it? There has to be something more. Euphoria clearly has that elusive X factor.

HBO has brought us an extraordinary series of hardcore, explicit, violent dramas -- among them The Sopranos, Game of Thrones and Watchmen -- but they were built upon some of the most arresting storytelling we've ever seen on television. Is the story being told on Euphoria that riveting and, for that matter, original? Or is it content we have seen before, told in a more straightforward manner?

Season two has kicked off on such a potent note that those questions will have to remain unanswered for now. Because even if the stories Euphoria is telling aren't necessarily grabbing me, the fearlessness of its young cast demands my attention. (This was also true of the short-lived We Are Who We Are, yet another potent HBO drama about screwed up teenagers. Sadly, I believe Who We Are was a one-season wonder. I hope I’m wrong.)

The thing is, I have spent a fair amount of time these last two years watching streaming series from other lands in other languages, and I have been consistently blown away by the physical, emotional and psychological fearlessness of the younger actors in these shows. (The cast of Netflix's sizzling prep-school serial Elite tops the list.) By comparison, the young actors I see in most American television broadcast and cable shows come up way short, leaving me to wonder if they have the same chops as their international contemporaries, or if their performances are purposely sanitized by popular platforms for polite consumption?

But the stars of Euphoria (like those of We Are Who We Are) have forced me to reevaluate basic assumptions about content of this kind, the people who make it and the audience for it. If I were a young actor in the early years of my career I would kill to be on this show, in the way that I would target roles in unrestrained independent films. (I’m thinking of American Honey, a 2016 drama about messed-up kids that has been all over Showtime in recent months and belongs in the company of the shows discussed here.)

Man, there's a lot to unpack with this show. I'm almost at the end of this column and I haven't singled out series lead Zendaya (who was surprisingly but deservedly honored with an Emmy Award for her work in season one), the tremendous talent of executive producer Sam Levinson (who has written every episode, no doubt sending chills through every writers' room in Hollywood), or the fact that Euphoria is based on an Israeli series with the same title (which may explain my enthusiasm for it, given my newfound appreciation of international fare within this genre, as noted above).

Bottom line: I love a good grown-up show, even if it is about kids, and HBO continues to deliver in a way its ever-growing array of competitors rarely manage to do, at least on the domestic front. Given its subject matter and its unwavering, raw authenticity (#rawthenticity), it’s hard to think of Euphoria as revolutionary or admirable -- but I'm going there anyway because, to use an unfortunate phrase in the context of this drama, I’m hooked.

New episodes of Euphoria premiere on HBO Sundays at 9 p.m. The series is also available to stream on HBO Max.

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