The new HBO series Euphoria is interesting and shocking at the same time. It’s not just because of the amount of drugs they take and the problems they find themselves in quite often. It’s also because there aren’t too many television shows that don’t put the characters under judgmental lenses. Almost every character – main and supporting – lives in the grey zone. They don’t care about the words they utter, or the decisions they take, for they have never made long-term plans. Why would they do it? After all, they’re in high school! But they believe, as many adolescents do, that there’s only doom waiting for them.
The teenagers I’m talking about are the kids from generation Z. They don’t hesitate to use the f-words with their parents (generations X and Y would have been grounded for just thinking of them); and even though, they make empty promises, they stand by their friends through thick and thin. A few decades ago, characters that were addicted to drugs, or alcohol, would have been automatically branded as antagonists. Sometimes they’d be reformed by good-natured protagonists if they fell in love. In Euphoria , however, things don’t work that way. Nobody wants to be saved here. They think they can take care of themselves. It’s another matter as to whether they’re financially and emotionally on the top of the ladder to pull it off.
Rue (the central character and narrator, played by Zendaya) tries to stay clean every now and then for the sake of love. Her sweetheart, Jules (Hunter Schafer), somehow makes her take a step back from gulping down painkillers. Love is nothing but a temporary solution, but it clicks, and, that’s what matters (for a few months, at least). Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) throws herself head first into relationships and gives guys all the attention they ask for. Even when they make her do uncomfortable things, she doesn’t put up a fight. She sees all the guys she dates through rose-tinted glasses. And she seems to always trust the kind of guys who would gossip behind her back.
Kat (Barbie Ferreira) wants to be loved for who she is. She’s not too sure if her object of affection is crushing on her because of her plus-size body, or if he’s genuinely interested in her. But when she sees him conversing with another girl in the middle of a romantic night, she storms off. You can definitely toss the phrase “inferiority complex” to describe her mindset. Nevertheless, she’s smart in other areas, and cunning, so, she mints money by tapping into men’s weaknesses. For somebody who feels worthless most of the time, she finds solace in flaunting her curves via camming.
Then there’s Maddy (Alexa Demie), who’s stuck in a tragic and nerve-wracking relationship with Nate (Jacob Elordi). She gets abused physically and mentally throughout the eight-episode season, and, yet, doesn’t make any effort to burn the bridges between them. Nate reminded me of the murderous Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) from the hit TV series You . If Joe could manipulate Beck (Elizabeth Lail) into believing that he was a hundred percent boyfriend material in the beginning, the football player (Nate, obviously), in Euphoria , takes Maddy for granted and acts as though he’s a victim of circumstances.
The likes of Maddy-and-Nate are all around us. Maddy’s obsession with Nate is so dangerous and stupid that she accuses somebody else of choking her. When the police arrest Nate soon after discovering some marks of assault on Maddy’s neck, she breaks down. But Nate, on the other hand, doesn’t look rattled at all. He knows that Maddy will support him, no matter what. And he also knows that he can frame somebody else by blackmailing them. He’ll go to any extent to get what he wants. The difference between Joe and Nate is that the former can kill and get away with it, whereas the latter sometimes buckles under the weight of not being able to confront his dad about his sexual escapades (his dad sleeps with minor trans-people).
Euphoria may be about the many things that today’s teenagers are grandly experimenting with, but it’s mainly about not finding the light at the end of the tunnel.
