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Euphoria Season 1 Review

Euphoria is a teen drama television series created by Sam Levinson. It premiered its first season on HBO Max in 2019. It’s a terrific season.

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“Memories exist outside of time“

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The series follows Rue Bennett, a troubled teenage drug addict who struggles to get sober, find her place in the world, and adjust to her relationships after rehab. Though Rue is the central focus of the show, the beginning of most episodes provides backstories for the rest of the main characters. This is a very unforgiving, brutally honest and dark show that is not for everybody, but for those of us who appreciate realism, it offered a great glimpse into the teenage experience of Gen Z and everything that they go through.

Rue is a wonderful heroine. This was a breakout role for Zendaya, propelling her career to movie stardom now. She deserved her Emmy win wholeheartedly as she was incredible on this show. She sold the more emotional scenes while being understated and very naturalistic in her acting throughout. Rue’s troubles with addition are realistically tackled and some of her more tragic moments were difficult to watch as she is so sympathetic that you root for the girl to find happiness. She’s by far the most relatable and most complex character on the show.

Jules is a transgender girl who enters a relationship with Rue that is blurring the line between friendship and romance. Their dynamic is complicated and very well realized. Hunter Schafer was perfectly cast in the role and she was so charismatic and so genuinely endearing that you also root for her happiness throughout the season. The two are different in personalities, but both are wonderful human beings, making for one powerhouse couple. The show tackled her gender identity with so much subtlety and nuance that made the series uncharacteristically sophisticated for the teen genre.

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Another standout is Jacob Elordi. This show started off his career as well and he was magnetic in the role of Nate, a closeted gay student whose sexual frustrations lead to explosive, aggressive behavior. The show honestly depicted the unhealthy nature and destructiveness of living a closeted life as a gay male. It’s difficult to watch and the character is obviously highly unlikable and easy to root against, but it was necessary to depict his behavior and character arc in this brutal way in order to achieve realism.

Through his father, the show deals with prostitution and Jules’ arc was very realistic in that area. The series also deals with domestic violence and rape as well as online dating and how hookup culture has shaped the teenage experience today. The sexuality and nudity on this show can definitely feel excessive to some, but I found it to be extremely grounded, believable and unfortunately relatable for anybody who hails from this generation. It was refreshing and important to depict all of these horrendous, overly sexualized behavior that is going on in schools today, so the show should be praised for that.

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The other highlights include Sydney Sweeney in a very sexual, but strong role and Barbie Ferreira whose Kat is a lot of fun and through her the series dealt with online sex work in a very realistic way too. Euphoria is very well acted all-around and wonderfully shot, but I do agree with the critics that Sam Levinson’s direction was bordering on a music video aesthetic way too often. The narration from Zendaya can be excessive and that structure of giving an episode to every character has become familiar by now, but at least most character arcs were excellent and the series was both grounded and amusingly juicy in its plot scenarios.