![]() ![]() A cold open, narrated by Rue, acquaints us with Fez’s backstory, which explains why he deals drugs and offers insight into his relationship with his younger brother Ash (Javon “Wanna” Walton). It picks up from another first season cliffhanger, a tense exchange between Fezco (Angus Cloud), Rue’s sheepish drug dealer, and his supplier, Mouse (Meeko Gattuso). Of course, the second season doesn’t dive into all this headiness immediately. This quest for affection pulsates through the crew’s interactions, drives their questionable decision-making and nurtures their fixations on absolutes - hence that recurring preoccupation with being either good or bad. Or as for Kat, it’s only by formally entering a relationship that you begin to understand the kind of love you’re looking for. Maybe, as for Lexi, love means respect, and earning it requires asserting your perspective through artistic endeavors. Or an obsession with loyalty, like it is for Maddy, whose toxic relationship with tortured high-school quarterback Nate (Jacob Elordi) takes a seemingly irredeemable turn. It could be through the thrill of desire, as it is for Cassie, who, after getting an abortion last season and breaking up with her college-aged boyfriend McKay (Algee Smith), finds herself single for the first time. These teenagers yearn to be loved - how and where they find that love depends on, well, everything. Their attention spans might be fickle, but their interest in love and acceptance aren’t. ![]() The plotlines are mostly predictable, but the problems Rue, Jules and their friends, who include Cassie (Sydney Sweeney), Maddy (Alexa Demie), Lexi (Maude Apatow) and Kat (Barbie Ferreira), face are heightened by a deeper interest in what motivates their behavior. Season 2, or at least the first seven episodes provided for review, gets us somewhat closer to realizing this vision. They affirmed the talent of Euphoria’s leads and forecasted sturdier storytelling: If the show detached itself long enough from the burden of interpreting the zeitgeist, it could focus on its characters’ more compelling search to make sense of themselves. Instead, they scrutinized its psychic aftermath and primed us for what to expect, emotionally, from the two teens, whose electrifying relationship animates the show. These hour-long episodes, set around Christmas, didn’t explicitly resolve the drama of the previous season. The season ended with a rhapsodic portrayal of her relapse.īecause production for the second season was interrupted by COVID-19, the show’s creator, Sam Levinson, released two specials - one about Rue and the other about Jules - to satiate viewer appetites. Jules, who had a taxing year as the new kid at the local high school, boarded the train away. After hatching a half-baked plan to run away from their claustrophobic town, Rue couldn’t bring herself to abandon her life. Rue Bennett, our awkward recovering teen addict protagonist (played with remarkable finesse by Zendaya), stood on a deserted platform, watching best friend and crush Jules Vaughn, an endearing trans girl with killer makeup (assuredly played by Hunter Schafer), sitting on a train as it rolled out of the station. But futilely chasing an absolute answer is a rather fitting endeavor for the misguided, and stress-inducing, teen characters at the center of the HBO series.Ĭast: Zendaya, Hunter Schafer, Maude Apatow, Angus Cloud, Alexa Demie, Sydney Sweeney, Jacob Elordi, Algee SmithĮuphoria’s first season - a mixed bag of stunning visuals, mesmerizing performances and occasionally shallow storytelling - ended on a disconsolate note. What makes a person “good” or “bad” might seem like a stodgy concern for a show whose popularity is built on a bleak and hyper-stylized portrayal of Gen Z antics. “I did not say you are not a good girl,” bemoans another. “You’re not the good guy,” another exasperatedly declares later in the season. “I don’t know if I’m a good person,” one character says tearfully during the first episode. The second season of Euphoria is preoccupied with a timeworn moral sentiment. ![]()
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