Am I the only one who loves Season 3 of Euphoria?
I've been thoroughly enjoying Season 3 of Euphoria so far. It's colorful, edgy, risky, and it revives many old-school filming techniques that make it feel Tarantinesque in a way.
I've found most of the complaints about the show so far quite silly, and people aren't giving it enough credit. The impression I get is that many just want to smear the show for the sake of showing that they have something to say.
My favorite thing about the show so far has been its bold iconoclasm. It doesn't appease the morals of its viewers; it actually subverts them at every chance it gets, and no, I'm not talking about the nudity or the sex work.
Let's start with Nate being the poster child of white privilege and the patriarchy, with inherited wealth, a big house, lots of toys, a trophy wife, and still being clearly the one who suffers the most through the entire show. He's on his knees, bleeding, crying, and pleading to a world that has grown cynical to his problems and that denies him any grace. The scale of gender imbalance is aggressively flipped in Euphoria as he has to depend on his wife for money.
Right there, the show is setting up the terrain as dramatically different from what the classic feminist narrative would have you believe. Every woman in the show is not subjected to men. Maddie and Alamo are doing business as equals. Cassie and Lexi have to impress casting directors who are also women. The redneck drug dealers have to answer to Laurie, who's their boss. It's a new world where men and women trade individually with what they have, and we come to find out that some women are already born with marketable qualities, which gives them an unfair advantage in society.
The world of Alamo managing women is disappearing, and a new world of women managing themselves is emerging. There is not yet an ideology that matches that reality. Characters like Maddie and Cassie are discovering things as they go.
Another big iconoclastic moment for me was the conversation between Cal and Jules. He got sent to court for sleeping with her when she was a minor but was acquitted, and now they have a cordial exchange at the bar during Nate's wedding. To the young adult target audience of the show, this can be downright disturbing. A predator like Cal shouldn't be able to redeem himself, and I agree, sex with minors is summarily wrong and should receive the full punishment of the law. Yet Jules is less than enthusiastic about condemning him as she herself has had several relationships with older men. This is actually the reality for a lot of women in college. Being a sugar baby in your early 20s is not uncommon nowadays, or even producing content on the internet for money. They like to hide that side of themselves, and I just find it amusing how strong their reactions are to Euphoria as the show exposes their lifestyle.
But then we get to two of my favorite slaps in the face by the show. The first one is the acknowledgement of the existence of fascist-leaning Gen Z kids who idolize World War 2 villains and whose sense of identity is rooted in Aryanism in America. Nobody saw that coming. Yet it exists, you and I know that, and though we don't like to admit that such people exist, they're still part of a reality we have to contend with. They live in the dark basement for a reason: they've been pushed out of mainstream culture. They've been replaced by a democratic and multicultural America that has ultimately failed to give them a new role to play. So they just cling to an old, reactionary, and honestly sad identity of past glory, because the alternative would be playing no part at all.
Lastly, and this one is perhaps the biggest slap, it is the sanity of religious people. Rue's mom and Ali are the only two people in the entire show who see this twisted reality as a hell we must escape from. They're working to rescue Rue from the nightmare her life is, but they depend on Rue's wilfull cooperation, and she has been slowly making that turn throughout all 3 seasons. The allure of the world is dwindling as Rue experiences its dark side, and she's yearning more and more for that light at the end of the tunnel. The neon cross, the stained glass Jesus, the burning bush, are all exit signs. Her drug and porn addiction are looking less and less like fun, and more and more like shackles. Sam Levinson was careful enough to feature Christians, Muslims, and Jews in the show as a way of separating the religious experience from a single tradition. It's not about converting to religion, it's about having a personal transformative experience with God. It's about realizing that your life is a mess, but it doesn't have to be.
The reason why this is iconoclastic is because of the derogatory way in which Hollywood has historically portrayed religion and religious people. They've always been shown as superstitious, ignorant, short-sighted, hypocritical, and in Lexi's words, "judgemental." Yet in Rue's story, they're the only ones trying to rescue her, and the only people she comes to for answers for her inner restlessness.
So there are several things I'm looking forward to in this show moving forward. I'm looking forward to seeing how deeply Maddie will be pulled into Alamo's world and bring Cassie along with her. I'm looking forward to seeing whether Rue will finally achieve her redemption and freedom or if she'll suffer irreversible damage along the way. I'm looking forward to seeing if Nate will manage to pay off his debt before Cassie drops him and leaves him to die alone. I'm looking forward to seeing how Jules will juggle her transactional relationships and the real deal Rue is offering her. And I just see all of these points becoming increasingly interconnected to form the perfect storm.
So I don't agree with all the criticism. So far, it's been an original and iconic show for me, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.