High School was a dark time for me. Twenty years later and I can still feel it lingering. Loneliness, depression, confusion, and the struggle for acceptance led me down a path of addiction. For me, I worked to bury the past. Bury it down deep in the caverns of my mind, hoping I’d never have to deal with it again. But nevertheless it’s there, and still affects me.
Euphoria is an ode to my buried darkness. A reminder of the pain I carry from times of troubled youth. And it’s uncomfortable. So uncomfortable that I almost gave up after the first episode. It’s like I was staring my younger self in the face, disgusted at who I was, the choices I had made, and the people I had affected.
The hype around this show intrigued me, as well as Drake & Future being executive producers. I initially thought the show glamorized drug use, and that no teenager should even be watching it. I was afraid it would create young addicts who otherwise would have never touched a drug, other than the fact Zendaya does. So parents need to strongly advise the MA- rating. While I still feel the same way, the level of depth to the characters justifies their behavior. It adds a horrific realism that strikes heavy emotional chords.
The overall tone and graphic nature of the series plays like a horror film, far scarier than the slashers I grew up on. The generation gap between Baby Boomers, Millennials, and Gen-Z can seem almost cavernous. But realistically the themes of our flawed society don’t change much throughout the decades. Today we just get away with showing a lot more on T.V.
There’s no shortage of sex and violence either. The series explores the effects that pornography has on this generation: From the un-consensual spreading of cell phone-made sex videos, to web-camming, to the degree of secrecy that parents will go to hide their own porn addictions. In particularly how one fathers secret sex life affects not only his son but the whole entire cast of the show. Many of the sex scenes feel awkward and messy just like in real life. From losing your virginity to losing an erection, to cumming too quick, too even completely disregarding the other persons comfort. Not to mention there is a lot of male nudity shown throughout the show, which they would never have gotten away with in the 90’s.
Other times the series feels like you’re at a never ending rave, tripping on acid with the morning sun nowhere in sight. The music is dope as hell. I Shazamed a multitude of songs. I recognized many classics sprinkled throughout such as Bronski Beat’s – Smalltown Boy and even The Chordettes- Mr. Sandman. My favorite Shazam had to be Dodgr – HOT which led me down a rabbit hole of Anti-Pop on Spotify.
Other reviews will get into the shows specifics, but I don’t feel the need to spoil anything here. I do recommend that you don’t binge watch the show, because it will more than like likely leave you feeling depleted. As Wired perfectly puts it, it’s an “Anti-binge watching show.” The show is only in it’s first season, and the first eight episodes are now streaming on HBO. It’s worth watching and exploring some of the dark corners of your own character. As well as get a front row seat to the trials and tribulations the younger generation deals with on a quest to find themselves.