The Emmy award-winning and popular show Euphoria has recently finished airing its much-anticipated second season, and just like the first, it’s taken the internet by storm. Ever since season one first streamed on HBO Max, the explicit scenes and themes have been the topic of conversation amongst American households. People are divided on how the messages are communicated and if the creators kept true to their goal of portraying accurate, modern-day teenage life.
The story follows Rue (Zendaya), a drug addict fresh out of rehab who has no intention of staying clean. She creatively narrates her classmates’ lives as they navigate high school, mental illness, and their sex lives. The story is captivating and holds the audience’s attention by providing a unique aesthetic with camera work, costume design, and makeup. While the look is pleasing to the eye and is one of the most impressive visual pieces of 2022, the content has proven to be a turn-off for some audiences.
From full nudity of both men and women, sexual assault and harassment, an older character having sex with underaged characters, and abuse of people and drugs. Euphoria is filled with dramatic scenes that are not for the faint of heart. Zendaya posted a message on her Instagram warning watchers that the show’s content should be viewed with discretion as she states: “Euphoria is for mature audiences.”
Sam Levinson, the creator of the show, stated in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, “I started talking about my own personal history with drugs… I wrote myself as a teenager… I was just trying to capture that kind of heightened sense of emotion, when you’re young and how relationships feel.” Despite the intentions to portray accurate teenage life, teens and adults continue the debate on whether the capture of “heightened emotion” goes too far.
Common Sense Media is an online community that researches titles to give parents advice on media entertainment for their young teens and children. They rank specific properties in the content such as the presence of positive role models, consumerism, and positive messages, and leave their official reviews for others to read. The website allows its users, usually parents, to post their own opinions on content so other parents can read about their experiences and decide if certain media is appropriate for their kids.
The first reviews listed are mostly negative as individuals describe the show to be “porn and violence disguised as a social message,” “Disgusting and disturbing,” and that it is “effortlessly disappointing.” These adults often left one-star reviews and claimed that Euphoria contained too much sex, violence, drinking, and drug usage.
Later reviews leave four to even five-star ratings and claim the show is “beautiful and memorable,” a title to watch in order to educate teens and parents, but that it is for mature audiences only. These adults also stated that the show contained too much sex, violence, drinking, and drug usage and that parents of young children should wait until their child is fully matured. The parent review section is just as divided as everyone else, but it appears that parents on both sides agree on the opinion that the title contains too much explicit content while a small percentage of parents encourage others to allow their young children to watch the show for educational purposes.
Kids of all ages are also allowed to leave reviews sharing their own opinions and experiences. With nearly three times as many reviews as the parent section, kids are also divided claiming the same things as parents. Euphoria either goes too far, resulting in it being one of the worst shows the individual has watched, or a masterpiece that educates the masses on the secret, and graphic life of teenagers.
Euphoria has undoubtedly made an impact in the entertainment field, whether for better or worse, by good content or bad, has not been agreed upon as parents and kids continue to discuss the border between artistic expression and porn.