Plot Summary – An American adaptation of the Israeli show of the same name, “Euphoria” follows the troubled life of 17-year-old Rue, a drug addict fresh from rehab with no plans to stay clean. Circling in Rue’s orbit are Jules, a transgender girl searching for where she belongs; Nate, a jock whose anger issues mask sexual insecurities; Chris, a football star who finds the adjustment from high school to college harder than expected; Cassie, whose sexual history continues to dog her; and Kat, a body-conscious teen exploring her sexuality. As the classmates struggle to make sense of their futures, the series tackles the teenage landscape of substance-enhanced parties and anxiety-ridden day-to-day life with empathy and candor.

★★★★ 

Although I finished the show yesterday, I didn’t review it immediately like I usually do, because I have so many conflicting thoughts and feelings about this show. I had heard so many amazing things about this show from friends and when Zendaya won the Emmy for her performances I stopped putting it off and decided to watch the show. Then I did some reading and found that it was made by A24 and I was committed to finishing the show even thought I wasn’t too invested by the pilot.

Everything about this show is aggressively A24 in both the best and worst ways. When it works the hyper-stylized cinematography, the saturation of purple everywhere in the cinematgraphy, the melodrama and the tonal inconsistency are really effective in telling the story but when it doesn’t work it becomes quite a tedious watch. While from a filmmaking and cinematography perspective this show is pretty much perfect, I found the writing to be all over the place at times. Since the show is so character-based, I’ll try to voice my criticisms character-by-character without spoiling any plot-points.

Rue is definitely the most complex and well-developed characters in the show. She is the narrator and protagonist and Zendaya does an amazing job. Her drug addiction and mental illness is shown in a really mature way and overall her story is the most interesting. Even though it feels like it’s going down a winding road to nowhere (and it kind of does), Zendaya and the story are engaging enough to distract from the lack of a character arc, which might be the point of the show, but the metaphor is unclear. Jules is a fan favourite and it’s easy to see why. She’s such an interesting and deep character and initially her struggles are very devastating and you really feel for her. She has one of the best cold-opens and initially her story is very engaging. As the show progresses, and especially towards the end she becomes very selfish, unempathetic and self-absorbed which you could blame on the people around her but in the end of the day, they are her choices. This feels like a character betrayal and especially her final act of the show is very confusing. You can see how this toxic high-school culture has influenced her actions which is very interesting. Nate is by far the most interesting and nuanced characters in Euphoria. In my opinion, Jacob Elordi gives an even better performance than Zendaya, especially towards the end of the season. I have no complaints about his character arc because I know that somehow he’ll pay for his ‘sins’ in the next season. Fezco, while being a great foil and fun addition every now and then, could have been more fleshed out and his arc is also somewhat dissatisfying.

I think the trend that we see here is that Euphoria kind of runs out of gas towards the end and most of the characters don’t get a satisfying ending which is annoying from a writing stand-point. Cassie, McKay, Kat and Maddy barely get closure and it feels very underwhelming especially considering the build-up to the finale is so good and unrelenting. The finale becomes cool purple cinematography porn by the end and leaves you with nothing. Labrinth’s score throughout the show and the use of music is brilliant in evoking the right emotions at the right moment. I would love to have seen all the episode names be named after rap songs, they randomly gave up on that in Episode 7 for some inexplicable reason. Tonally, the show keeps trying to switch between Riverdale and an A24 masterpiece and doesn’t nail either. The show is still great and entertaining. It’s shot, directed and acted really well. For the most part, the writing is also great but when something lets you down in the end, it’s hard to look past and hopefully S2 picks up quickly because the ending of this season leaves you on the edge of satisfaction, not yet giving you the full taste.