WARNING: SPOILERS OF SEASON 1 AND 2 OF EUPHORIA 

When you think of Euphoria, what comes to mind? Is it the ramped scenes of minors fornicating? The most clueless parents in the world, or is it Elliot and Rue snorting cocaine in a random room? Euphoria, however controversial, is a show that people actively want to see, but why is that? 

“When I think of Euphoria, the word that comes to mind is illuminating,” said Senior Emma Johnson when asked regarding the show. “Euphoria really shines a light on the highs and lows of teenage mental health and substance abuse. This is done in a way that is not often shown in the media. There isn’t any sugar-coating, just the cold hard reality.” This is precisely what most of the show comprises: adolescence worst reality from teenagers battling the loss of their parents both to death and substance abuse to parents who obviously needed five years of intensive therapy before even thinking of having children. Euphoria highlights the darker parts of the teenage experience that the media often hides or lightens. 

Often, critics of the show say that real teenagers don’t actually go through the things detailed in the show. Obviously, Euphoria at the end of the day is a show, and considering that, as well as the fact that the average person nowadays has an attention span of a dog that hears a squeaking toy from across a room, a teaspoon of entertainment value in the batter of cake is going to need to be added. When critics say this, it gives a clear impression of their out-of-touch state. I can say that I know people who partake in drug use as a coping mechanism, people that made some bad decisions because of heartache, people who’ve been on the verge of going in and out of psych wards, and someone who had to go to rehab for their hard drug and alcohol use. Modern adolescence is not the glitter and glamor of the past, and dare I say, it never really was as innocent as those made it seem; people just were a lot better at hiding and not showing it.

Now let’s get into the juicy stuff, the plot! So far, this season has been enjoyable, and the newest episode with Lexi’s play beefed up the drama, particularly between Nate and Cassie. If you’ve been keeping up, you’d know that Cassie got into an entanglement with Maddy’s ex-boyfriend Nate, which is a BIG no in girl code books. As a result of this, for the first time in Maddy’s life, she was able to let go and free herself from Nate and their toxic relationship. After this, Cassie and Nate became official…kind of. A lot of things have happened this season, but there is one scene that had Twitter going crazy, which was Cassie getting her business leaked out by Rue. The fact that their sneaky linking would’ve probably been kept under wraps if Rue didn’t crash Maddy and Cassie’s get-together is the cherry on top. An honorable mention is definitely the football workout scene in Lexi’s play. I’m pretty sure the majority of watchers didn’t think this play would be this out of pocket, especially since it was coming from Lexi. 

Euphoria might not be Victorius, but it is a show dealing with the modernity of adolescence. We can see it around us in our friend’s classmates and even smell it in the halls. There’s no getting around the fact that although it is dramatized in intensity, the core message and the core problems these teens face are nothing short of reality, both currently and in the not-so-distant past. Someone just decided to write about what they were already seeing.