Words by Grace Kinter
From Euphoria’s explosive introduction to the masses in 2019 to the overly anticipated series finale a few weeks ago, the controversial show has always had a way of being the talk of the town. The five-year wait for the third season couldn’t have been more drawn out. Some actors stepped into pearly white stardom while others made some choices that had us questioning their politics, and two actors even tragically passed away.
During the wait, Euphoria’s glory days crystallized in our minds, and the image looked something like this: Labrinth’s beautiful and holy voice serenading us through the traumatic, drug, alcohol, and sex-fueled lives of teens, with sparkly makeup and outfits I certainly could never wear to school. Maddy’s fabulous one-liners. Rue’s poignant portrayal of addiction. Nate’s sociopathic and villainous antics. Fezco and Ashtray’s brotherhood. Cassie’s descent from sweet and innocent to backstabber, and more. The first two seasons were gripping, bombastic, and raw.
Therefore, the third season had so much to live up to and, in my opinion, ultimately missed the mark. It certainly had entertaining moments, some great acting (shoutout to Colman Domingo, who was a beacon of light in the otherwise tragic finale), and I really enjoyed the last two episodes. They leaned all the way into the Western themes that felt a little forced in the first few episodes. The ending of the series felt like both an action movie and a bender, enthralling viewers in a high-stakes sprint towards survival. Some make it out alive but are forever changed, and some don’t make it out alive at all.
I actually watched the finale with my friend who rolled her eyes and said, “Alright, Sam Levinson. It took me until the finale, but I’ll watch another season if you make one.” And that seemed to be the popular public opinion on season three. There’s this obvious knowledge that the show is past its golden era, but this begrudging curiosity to find out what Sam Levinson would do. How would he spin things to keep us engaged? How would he replace the characters, and would he honor those who passed away? Oh, Labrinth dropped out of doing music for the show and seemed to completely denounce it…what’s that about? Even when under scrutiny, people just couldn’t stop talking about Euphoria, and when we couldn’t find answers, we just had to watch.
The first six episodes of season three were disjointed and disappointing…we lost characters who made the show enjoyable to watch, the new characters were interesting but hard to invest in because of the natural urge to stay loyal to older tropes, and of the characters that did stay, like Jules and Nate, character arcs fell flat, like they were filler.
Oh, and every woman character is involved in sex work now. Okay, not Maddy or Rue or Lexi, I guess. Oh, actually Rue is trafficking women now. Oh, now Faye is in love with a nazi. Oh, now Maddy has to sell her body as well, making Lexi the only OG character who does not dabble in sex work. Oh, now Nate is dead after being chased and brutally beaten up in every single scene he was in, where he was ultimately a lobotomized version of himself. I kept watching, but I couldn’t fully get behind many of the writing decisions.
Shock factor was always a big part of Euphoria but the third season certainly crossed over to distasteful with some examples being an eight minute montage of Cassie as a godzilla sex doll stomping on the world and squeezing her air balloon sized breasts onto a window for a middle aged man to pleasure himself, quite a few scenes of animal cruelty I could have done without, and even overly gross scenes of the aftermath of Rue and Faye swallowing bags of drugs and taking laxatives to… you get it. The earlier seasons had plenty of explicit sex scenes, but they still felt impactful and layered. Season 3 was overkill. From the constant backdrop of the strip club to Cassie’s fetish work to Jules being tied up in plastic by her sugar daddy, there was not a single moment of love or romance or pleasure this season that didn’t feel icky. Maybe Rue and Angel, in the car at least in that 3-second scene, sounded like they were having some fun. It was shot outside the harsh male gaze Sam Levinson forces into every moment he possibly can. And I guess Faye had a genuine romance, but again, he was a nazi.
A Forbes article concluded that the third season of Euphoria didn’t know what to do with itself, and I agree. The potential was always there; these actors are no joke. I wish they had better to work with this season. I’m happy the show ended because, as my friend suggested, a fourth season would have been even more questionable to watch, though I’m sure people still would have. Nothing will ever beat Euphoria in its glory days, and though I wish season 3 was a little tighter and honored the characters we thought we knew, the show will always be a great topic of conversation. And whether we like it or not, we did get closure. Rest in peace, Rue Bennet. You made a big impact on us all.
