9/1/2023 0 Comments Jewel euphoria hbo![]() Their reckless freedom is not, exactly, to be encouraged. The consequences are awful, occasionally catastrophic the girls, in particular, endure so much pain, humiliation, and violence in the pursuit of things that make them feel good. These badly behaving teens, who operate with minimal to no supervision from their parents, are jumping off the edge of adolescence into adulthood without so much as a helmet. Mary McNamara, observing the differences between the high school experiences in Euphoria and Booksmart, writes that pop culture keeps returning to high school because those four years mark the threshold to adulthood-an awakening, a rite of passage, that is “a perpetual oscillation of mood best described with hyperbole.” It gives the audience a chance to try to understand Jules, whose cotton-candy hair and girly bicycle belie a fearless, plucky soul willing to be herself at all costs.Įuphoria makes the crises and triumphs of being a teenager into operatic drama-the kind of drama that we are all susceptible to, at some point or another, but are especially vulnerable to when we’re drenched with hormones, free of most responsibilities, and terrified of what other people might think of us. It’s rare to see a show engage with a fantasy perceived as ugly and dark, and stay with it-to neither judge nor ignore it, but rather digest it. Euphoria later revisits the moment from different angles, in ways both painful and illuminating Rue, who is narrating, is trying to understand and come to terms with Jules’ erotic self, her desires and compulsions. ![]() It’s violent, in a way that seems to be what Jules and Cal both crave, but consent-insofar as a 17-year-old on a dating app can give consent-does not make the scene easier to watch. The most notable example is an early sexual encounter between Jules, a teenage trans girl, and Cal ( Eric Dane), a middle-aged family man. But when the show circles back on the same inciting incidents, it feels as if it’s mimicking the circularity of trauma, which sends us back to the source of our pain over and over again. ![]() It’s a problem when a series is more premise than plot, and Euphoria is a little guilty of sacrificing forward momentum out of a perpetual need to set the mood. It’s a provocative juxtaposition-a bleak view of over-drugged, hypersexed American youth, but depicted in a way that makes it all seem romantic, enviable, and apparently free, even when underage characters (played by adult actors) take their tops off, onscreen, for teasing girls, leering boys, and, of course, the camera.Īnd cannily, Euphoria weighs in on its own shocking moments again and again. And, it should be said, so beautifully: Euphoria’s vision of teenage dissipation, even when it goes awry, is shockingly gorgeous, a color-saturated vision of California youth that picks up on deep purples, candy pinks, and flat, orangey haze. On the other is the scandalizing behavior these high schoolers get up to-drugs, sex, alcohol-which is conflated with shock that the show would depict high school bodies so explicitly. ![]() On one hand is the show’s wall of cool-cred talent: executive producers Drake and Future the Prince lead actor Zendaya, a former Disney star with incredible style, a Marvel universe role, and 56 million Instagram followers co-lead Hunter Schafer, a model in her first on-screen performance and a supporting cast including model/actress Barbie Ferreira, comedy scion Maude Apatow, Wrinkle in Time star Storm Reid, and The Kissing Booth’s breakout heartthrob Jacob Elordi, who is almost always shirtless. As she told us, she’s not a reliable narrator-just a damaged, perceptive, charismatic one.Įuphoria, from writer/director Sam Levinson, is already controversial. ![]() She’s self-pitying, sure, but her logic is hard to argue with: active-shooter drills, climate change, the pervasive sexual pressure of porn. In voiceover, Rue has been telling us the story of this one party, interrupting herself with bitter digressions about how fucked-up it is to be young right now. She’s just snorted something in the bathroom of a crowded house party, and while staggering back downstairs, the hallway hurtled around her, Inception-like, so that she walked onto the walls and the ceiling, dodging picture frames and light fixtures, until the floor regained its gravity. “To be honest, I’m not always the most reliable narrator,” says Rue ( Zendaya), a 17-year-old drug addict, in the middle of the first episode of Euphoria. ![]()
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