I really wanted to give Euphoria season 3 a chance. I loved the complexity of the characters in season 1 - I felt genuinely invested in the storyline. Season 2 wasn’t great, especially with the last two episodes turning into a play, but I still decided to invest my time.
The thing that made this show beautiful was the complexity it allowed its female characters to have.
Rue was a relatable drug addict who wasn’t sexualized under the male gaze—she was given real complexity and nuance.
Maddie was in an abusive relationship, a Latina likely influenced by machismo culture, whose resilience showed up as being too loyal and holding on for too long.
Jules explored her sexuality with both men and women and worked through her non-binary in a deeply mature way.
Cassie dealt with daddy issues and low self-esteem in the worst way—yes, people didn’t like her, but at least it was more complex than every other teenage show that would’ve made her a flat, mean girl.
Even the male characters—Nate, Ethan, McKay—were developed in relation to women and how they related to themselves. Even Fezco had respect for women and valued friendship.
That’s gone now.
This show has turned women into one-dimensional characters who only care about attention, money, and men.
They’ve made the women act the way stupid men would for men's satisfaction.
Rue is arguably the only one whose storyline could’ve realistically led to non-consensual sex work, but instead of a complex dynamic with Laurie, it’s been cheapened into some random cartel page-boy dynamic with Alamo.
Maddie has lost her ethics and empathy and suddenly becomes loyal to a family she once resented. That shift feels like a male fantasy of responsibility—like a son dropping his morals for money.
Cassie is now doing OnlyFans? Realistically, Cassie would’ve become a hairdresser or lash artist (no shade) and probably gotten pregnant right out of high school. Unless she ended up in an even worse relationship than Nate—one that pushed her into that world—it doesn’t make sense. If Cassie and Nate were together, she would be an empty caricature of a woman with zero autonomy.
Jules has been reduced to a sexual object owned by a rich man. For someone who fought so hard for freedom of expression, giving it up for money feels off. If her family could support her transition, they could support her financially. People like Jules usually end up in creative, quirky jobs—agency work, social media—not this.
Nate realistically would be very successful, continuing to benefit from his privilege and likely everyone would ignore his "faults" because he had trauma and being in his proximity benefits him and actually he's a really "nice guy". He'd probably have some podcast or become a physiotherapist that was a bit weird with his male clients.
If the show is going to center strip clubs, OnlyFans, and prostitution, it can’t ignore the reality of that world—the vulnerability, the risk, the messages women receive, the weird requests, the dynamics in dressing rooms, the way families respond. None of that is explored, and it’s disappointing.
We literally watched a girl get assaulted with a champagne bottle and there was zero physical aftermath—no pain, no blood, nothing. And the explanation is “I love to dance,” not “I need the money”? It’s embarrassing, and the fact that violence towards women is always off-screen, but they are fine showing men die and get murdered is again hiding the fact that women are usually the main victims of violence and abuse.
There’s no real tension between the characters anymore. No emotional stakes. No pushback, no discourse—just Lexi occasionally saying, “what are you guys doing?” Everything feels surface-level.
A show that once delivered Michelin-star complexity now feels like a McDonald’s Big Mac.
Sam Levinson is trying to become Quentin Tarantino, and sadly, succeeding. If you actually watch True Romance and the films he references, they’re cinematically beautiful—even if they lean into straightforward violence. But here, the violence and sexuality just feel empty.
The problem with Euphoria is that it lost the female gaze. It lost Labrinth. And now it’s boring.
Yes, cheap sex and violence will stimulate dopamine and keep people watching. But the euphoric feeling of seeing relatable, complex women—rather than one-dimensional bodies written through a simplistic male lens—is gone.