![]() There’s a wildness that sees the show imagining everything from a Game of Thrones-inspired high school massacre to an animated fan fiction sex scene between Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson, impossible to predict from scene to scene. With Drake on board, there’s an expectedly keen awareness of music with the soundtrack veering from Andy Williams to Beyoncé to Bobby Womack to Jorja Smith, often reaching hair-raising moments of transcendence. It’s not announced or made obvious but there’s a casual fluidity that’s both the product of a generation and also a deft storyteller. There are still camera-friendly faces but the casting feels closer to capturing what an actual high school looks like and similarly, Levinson also manages to deal with sexuality and gender with unusually grounded nuance. Her performance is one of many great turns in a show populated by relative unknowns who each prove captivating in varying ways. She’s an awkward deadbeat, far from a character to aspire to and, in her most substantial role to date, Zendaya is admirably understated. One of the show’s biggest challenges is not glamorising the scenes of a Vogue cover star taking so many drugs and while the scenes of Rue snorting and drinking are stylishly shot, the script never shies away from the devastating impact of her decisions at every turn. Rue’s road to addiction is explained through a difficult mosaic of grief, mental health and being born into a world suffocating in stress. It’s often incredibly bleak in its portrayal of addiction and in trying to construct the overwhelming social assault teens face day-to-day, whether it be from online bullying or from the unending influx of contrasting media messages. While it might boast a heady sheen, it’s far from a glossy look at high school life, comfortably existing in an entirely different dimension to a show like Riverdale. There’s specificity in the problems faced by the teens, whether it’s how pornography has mutated the idea of real-world sex or how to rationalise depressive thoughts when you’re fully aware of your own privilege, and each episode available entered new, enticingly uncharted territory. The show boasts a dizzying aesthetic that some could conceivably criticise as over-stylised but I found it intoxicating, not only because it’s so refreshing to watch a cinematic, directed show after enduring so many flat Netflix series but because there’s substance in the script to support the visual indulgence. ![]() Rue finds herself captivated by Jules and the two begin an intense friendship, but one that might struggle to weather the storm that’s about to engulf them all.Īside from its buzzy cast of up-and-comers, headlined by Disney star done good Zendaya, Euphoria has its cool points stocked up behind the camera, too, with boutique indie studio A24 and executive producer Drake to give it at least a superficial air of authenticity. Her life intersects with a distinctive subsection of peers, from swaggering sociopathic jock Nate (The Kissing Booth’s Jacob Elordi) to sexually unsure college freshman Chris (The Hate U Give’s Algee Smith) to body-conscious Kat (model Barbie Ferreira) to, most notably, new girl Jules (trans activist Hunter Schafer). It’s not one that she’s comfortable stepping away from just yet, choosing to continue abusing while pretending to her fraught mother that she’s getting better. While something of an ensemble piece, Euphoria’s main focus is the post-rehab journey of Rue (Zendaya), an anxiety-ridden 17-year-old returning to school with a dark cloud hovering over her head. It’s still probably going to piss parents off (there are more dicks in the first few episodes than I could count) but there’s more on its mind than simply courting controversy. ![]() It’s a delicate balancing act, making a show about teens that feels both unfiltered yet careful but somehow, Assassination Nation writer-director Sam Levinson has crafted something that succeeds in every way 13 Reasons Why failed. But, while bracingly frank, it’s also able to balance any shock appeal with surprising sensitivity. It’s a show that deals with addiction, sexuality, porn, body-shaming, drugs, sexual assault, toxic masculinity, self-harm and pretty much every other One Million Moms-angering issue you can think of … and that’s just in the four episodes available to critics. ![]() There’s then something rather daring, perhaps even dangerous, about the idea of Euphoria, HBO’s splashy, explicit high school drama premiering in the midst of this ongoing furore. ![]()
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