So I know I'm a little late to the party but... my boyfriend and I just finished watching Euphoria last night... and oh my. There are scenes from this show that will be engrained in my head forever.
Non-Spoiler Review
Here are my non-spoiler thoughts and if you don't mind small spoilers then that section will be below.
Overall Review: 3/5 stars
Overall, this show certainly captured mine (and many other peoples) interest.
It was good at hiding shocking revelations until the last moment with its cinematography. The characters had some diverse problems that reached much further than the stereotypical high schooler's problems of being popular. There are drug problems, sexuality searching, identity crisis, anger issues, and above all, nearly every central relationship in this show is extremely unhealthy.
You will like this if...
You will enjoy this show if you enjoy the setting of teenagers working through some very serious (and dramatic) issues. If you enjoy unexpected plot lines and surprising connections and interactions between characters, watch this. If you like naked people, watch this.
And that very first episode in season one... woah! It definitely threw me for some twists and turns.
If you're like me and you get very wrapped up in TV shows, I would suggest watching this with someone else. I knew from the first episode that I couldn't watch this without my boyfriend because many scenes did make me cringe.
Spoiler-ish Review
I won't include too many spoilers in this, just references to certain scenes in the show.
What I liked:
Obviously, they chose a great cast for this show. I'm not just talking about Zendaya, but everybody in this show was chosen well for their roles.
"Dominant Daddy" (you know who I'm talking about if you've watched episode one) was a great character. That was a good twist to the stereotypical cheating-father plot line and we thought his scene in Fez's apartment and when he was peeing all over his entryway floor were hilarious. The dude had snapped.
The sweet drug dealer... Fez! I think he stole a lot of viewers hearts and I'm still hoping for that magical ending between him and Lexi.
The creators of the show made some interesting secret lives for unexpected people and I think that's what I liked overall. The idea that things are not always what they seem.
What I disliked/found funny
Ok so my boyfriend was the one to say this... does anybody remember the D.A.R.E program we were forced to take in grade 6? It stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education. I don't know what they call it now but basically police officers came to school and lectured us on the danger of drugs etc, and we all got t-shirts and stickers with that lion mascot on the front.
Anyways, that one drug dealer Mouse was literally the type of dude that program warned us about. A creepy bald guy with face tattoos who's ready to force feed you Fentanyl off the tip of his knife. That guy could have been the poster boy for the D.A.R.E program.
In general, I found the show to be over-sexualized, and I feel the show itself wouldn't have had nearly such a large audience without all the sex. Sex sells! But seriously, those teenagers seemed to have a lot of free time to do-the-dirty considering they were in high school. Where were their school books?? Must have been hiding in those teeny tiny purses Maddie and Cassie wore, right?
I didn't like Rue. People might hate me for saying that but she just wasn't the type of character I relate to and I found it odd that she could find so many drugs without actually purchasing them. She didn't have a job and even before the whole suitcase incident, she took a ton of drugs. How did she buy all of that? That stuff is expensive. I know Fez was her friend but friendship only goes so far.
I do worry about the image this show is selling to teenagers, and I say that because I've noticed make-up companies selling Euphoria lines of eyeshadow etc. Euphoria is a TV show and absolutely should not be seen as a "cool" way to behave. Euphoria shows us the absolute worst ways to deal with our problems... literally.
Final Thoughts
If this show hadn't blown up in popularity, I probably wouldn't have watched it. I am glad I watched it because I like to be part of trending tv shows so I know what's going on, and it had some good scenes from a writing perspective, but I know I will NEVER re-watch this show.
Once was enough.