So, yes,Euphoriais coming on strong in its opening episodes.
And the party looks like a music video, like everything else on the show.
A stylistic attempt to capture the exultant feeling of being young and on drugs?
Credit: Eddy Chen/HBO
Or are makers ofEuphoriajust focused on making teen sorrow look cool as hell?
The series adapts an Israeli drama, which Ive not seen.
This remake has been created by Sam Levinson, who does much of the writing and directing.
Its clear that Levinson has thought a lot about teenagers today.
Admittedly, I dont know anything about modern-day teens.
Their life seems both easier and harder than how I remember my own high school days.
Euphoriahas a large ensemble, and the most interesting characters feel torn between those two directions.
They could only exist right now, andright nowmight very well destroy them.
OnEuphoria, shes an internet-famous fan-fictioneer who experiences unusual consequences from a sex tape.
She befriends Rue, whos fresh out of rehab and already using all the drugs again.
Their scenes together are searching and generous, safe harbor in a storm.
The sexual content baits cheap controversy, andEuphoriafits into the Larry Clark-ish lineage of Xtreme Teen melodrama.
Still, I have legitimate concerns.Euphoriais often exploitative, wannabe realism thats more like R-ratedRiverdalewithout the wink.
The second episode is ultraviolent to a degree that is just ridiculous.
I didnt build this system, nor did I f it up, she tells us.
That dialogue sounds like a very thirtysomething notion of teen rebellion.
Her home life can feel sketchy, despite the cheerful presence of Storm Reid as her little sis.
Theres something here, though.
That episode also complicates the Rue-Jules friendship and Zendaya and Schafer are a great pair.
In episode 4, a character named Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) decides to get back at her boyfriend.
She takes some ecstasy and starts flirting with a handsome hunk of man-candy.
They ride on a carousel, next to each other on rocking horses.
They start making out, their up-and-down motion shot with swoony-goofy romanticism.
