Euphoria’s final season has been officially streaming as of April 12. Each Sunday, a new
episode comes out, and while I was initially excited for the show’s final season, after watching
the past four episodes, I am left questioning, “What is the plot?”
It’s been three long years since Euphoria’s last episode, and lots have changed. During the wait
three actors had dropped out of the show, such as Barbie Ferreira, who plays Kat, Storm Reid
who plays Rue’s little sister Gia and Angus Cloud who plays Fez had passed away was also not
in the show. Along with this, a month or so before the season three release, the show’s
composer, Labrinth, also dropped from the show.
I think anyone who has watched the show can agree that the first two seasons of Euphoria were
phenomenal. The show perfectly captured an overly dramatic tension of High School, and fit in
humor in all the right places, not to mention the show had an amazing soundtrack. But as the
episodes for this new season keep rolling out, I am left with a lot to be desired.
Initially, I was drawn to Euphoria because I felt a personal connection to Rue’s storyline.
Zendaya is the perfect actor for this role, and she played the character of a drug addict well. The
show intricately demonstrated the effect of her drug abuse on her family in a very real way.
But as I am watching this new season, I have noticed that the new “plot” has taken away a lot of
nuance from her character. Rue now seems more like comic relief than a struggling teenager,
which I think takes away the severity of all the serious things surrounding her character.
While Zendaya perfectly plays Rue, even with the deduction of her character, I really think she
has outgrown this role.
Additionally, I think this new season leaves a lot of plot holes. From High School to being all
married and living adult lives is a big jump (what about college???), and Euphoria shows no
in-between.
Not to mention the entire vibe of this season is completely different, it’s more focused on vintage
and 70’s style than its classic sparkly fun makeup, which would be fine, but there wasn’t much of
a progression for this change despite the time jump.
I will say there are a few things that I think the show still does well. I think the comedic side of
the series is still very good, and all of the jokes are very well placed. I have to say one of my
favorite characters this season is Laurie; her monotone responses add a funny contrast to the
chaos of the story. I also think that Nate Jacobs, Cassie, and Maddie’s storyline is being played
out quite well. Although Jules’ plot line is a whole other can of beans that I do not understand.
Overall, the new season doesn’t completely suck. It still maintains a lot of its charm that it’s
garnered over the past 2 seasons, but as I mentioned, it has lost a lot of its nuance. It feels like
this season the show runner is running on shock factor instead of content to keep its viewers
watching. Nonetheless, I am curious to see what will happen in these next few episodes.
