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Euphoria Season 2 Review

The second season of Euphoria is inferior to the first one. It has a couple of amazing episodes and some great character arcs, but a messy ending.

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“What’s a bigger feeling than love? Loss“

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This season is a mess. For every great thing that Sam Levinson did here, he also counteracted it with some frustrating decision or another. My main contention with the season is that two-part finale. Both of those episodes were highly disappointing. The stage play that we got was basically a rehash of every character’s arc up until this point in the series’ run with nothing new to offer. The finale was particularly weak as it did not feel as epic or as emotional as season finales should always feel.

Maude Apatow’s Lexi had been almost a non-entity before this season, but now suddenly she was made to be highly important, which was odd to me. She’s a somewhat relatable character to me as this bystander who only watches others and comments on their lives, but as a bystander she’s obviously not all that interesting for this show, so this huge focus on her was not warranted.

But I did like her relationship with Fez, which was quite sweet. His arc here is quite tragic and he got more screen time to be properly developed, but I still found an overemphasis on drugs and crime frustrating as the series is at its best when it’s focusing on the sex lives of its characters.

There is one exception to that rule, however, and that is Rue herself. The fifth episode is devoted entirely to Rue and in it we witness her resorting to an animalistic mode in her pursuit to find drugs. This episode was incredibly powerful and extremely realistic, and it’s by far the best episode of the entire show after Rue’s special that was even stronger.

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The episode was so cinematic and so kinetic that it flew by how fun it was. It was almost funny in a very dark and black comedy type of way, but ultimately heartbreaking. Witnessing Rue’s family being so worried and vulnerable was so touching and the ending itself was immensely dark. Rue running from the police was such a memorable scene while her fight with her family was brutally honest and quite difficult to watch.

The main reason why this episode worked so well is due to Zendaya’s acting. It is ridiculous that this incredible young actress still hasn’t got a movie role worthy of her talents, but at least on this show she got to shine and she was properly honored by the Emmies. Zendaya was throughout the show fantastic, but in this episode she was magnetic, nuanced and super believable.

Jules was a bit sidelined throughout this season, but I did like the new character Elliot and the highly sexual energy that he shares with both Rue and Jules. Their interplay was so much fun. Kat was pretty much sidelined throughout this entire season, which was so annoying as she was among the most interesting characters in Season 1.

The show tried so hard to make you root against Cassie, but I did not find her to be as terrible as she was obviously portrayed. The extent to which they continue to torture this character is problematic as there is no need for it, but at least Sydney Sweeney excelled playing those highly emotional beats. Maddie is a much less likable character to me personally, but their drama was definitely quite amusing and juicy.

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But the juiciest and trashiest part of Euphoria’s second season is everything that happened with Nate and Cal. I did really like that flashback episode about Cal’s first gay love and how they explained his closeted lifestyle. That final scene where he had that epic speech to his family was unforgettable. But the show was problematic in that it at first was too sympathetic toward his story and eventually too harsh toward him – him being arrested was unrealistic and ridiculous as he never did anything criminal to begin with. Jacob Elordi himself continues to be quite charismatic and terrific in the role and the character is meant to be frustratingly ambiguous in his sexuality and his intentions, so this vagueness and mystery about him really worked.