It seems as though the TV show “Euphoria” came out of nowhere. A teen drama starring Zendaya, the show follows a high school girl named Rue and her struggle with drug addiction. Although the first season came out all the way back in 2019, its recent weekly episode release of season two has led to the show’s resurgence. Now it’s the only show younger generations are talking about.
I have never been one to watch TV shows. The last show I finished watching all the way through was “Ted Lasso” almost half a year ago. Most of the time I feel that TV shows last too long and continue the unnecessary drama. However, between HBO Max offering the first episode of “Euphoria” for free and everyone talking about it, I decided to watch the first episode and give my honest reactions. As someone that had no idea what the show was about or the scenes it contained, I’ll say right now that it was certainly a wild ride.
Disclaimer: there are some very small spoilers in my reactions, though most of them were me wondering what the hell was going on rather than spoiling plot points.
00:40
The very first thing I see is a warning about violence, nudity, and sexual content. They’re trying to weed out the 13-year-olds I hope.
01:05
Starts with a baby being born, interesting start. I like Zendaya’s voiceover, it’s calming.
03:10
The Britney Spears slander, how dare they!
04:09
This is incredibly sad so far, seeing such a young girl with so many issues.
05:40
Okay, but the transition into the next scene was bomb.
7:37
That was just the intro??!!
8:10
She’s only in the summer before her junior year??! That is so wild to me, she is so young. What is this show’s timeline?
11:05
“I’m just tryna stack my cash, pay our mortgage.” This is from a 10-year-old, what are you doing drug dealing?
13:10
I don’t know who this guy is but I hate him already.
16:30
I hate them too.
21:50
What. Is. She. Doing.
23:10
This soundtrack hits hard, I’m not going to lie.
24:10
I am so on edge. This is not as blatantly enjoyable as I thought it would be.
27:40
I AM SO MAD. I hate every male on this show except for one of them.
32:00
How are these people high schoolers again? It doesn’t make any sense.
34:44
This is awful. What am I watching?
36:40
I wonder how they filmed this? This is a really cool portrayal of being high.
41:20
Oh my God, I hate this.
46:50
Wow. Uh. Yeah.
49:19
This is the one and only moment in the show that hasn’t had sex, violence, or drugs in it. It’s kind of cute.
50:49
That wound got so bad so quickly. Why couldn’t she have taken better care of it an hour ago?
52:50 (the end)
Huh. That was intense. I don’t really want to watch the next episode but I’m also curious? It’s a weird back and forth in my brain at the moment.
Final Thoughts
“Euphoria” has one of the most intense first episodes of any TV show I’ve seen. It probably would’ve been a good idea to watch the trailer, because then I wouldn’t have been so surprised with all the drugs and sex (seriously, it was never-ending.)
The only thing that I am still unable to get behind was the ‘realistic-ness’ of the high school. I can’t imagine any high school where everyone parties every night and snorts cocaine on the regular, but it does make it more dramatic and intriguing for the viewer. I’m just worried about possible middle schoolers who watch this show (which I hope they don’t) and think “Euphoria” accurately portrays what high school is like when it’s far from it. That being said, however, it did catch my eye quickly and I’m interested to see what happens next in the plot development.
I guess I have to find someone’s HBO Max account to steal now.