Content Warning: This article contains discussions of substance abuse, emotional abuse, mentions of suicide, and more; as well as spoilers for HBO Max’s Euphoria. Please read with caution.
Everyone is watching Euphoria right now, which is streaming on HBO Max.
Even if you’re not watching it, you’re still going to see it being talked about constantly on TikTok and Twitter. TL;DR Euphoria is about a group of high schoolers who face issues while growing up. It’s essentially a very intense — and realistic — coming of age story.
It’s narrated by the main character, Rue Bennett, as she tells not only her story but that of her classmates. Rue kicks off the show by coming home from rehab for a drug overdose but makes it very clear right off the bat that she has absolutely no intention of staying clean.
The show depicts the characters going to huge parties with beautiful cinematography that makes these parties appealing to go to; these parties include students drinking alcohol, taking drugs or even having very public sex in the swimming pool. Critics of Euphoria argue that the show is causing damage to its viewers because it’s romanticizing these risky behaviors.
The truth is, Euphoria isn’t about the romanticization of drugs. In the season finale of the first season, it finishes with Rue relapsing. This new season has shown Rue back into her regular drug use and lying about it to all the people in her life.
This starts off with Rue breaking the fourth wall and telling the audience that to get away with using drugs, she’s going to gaslight her sister, Gia. We watch an incredibly powerful scene of Rue telling Gia that she’s going to start smoking weed or else she’ll feel suicidal and you can see just how passionately Gia feels that Rue is being selfish. This highlights the fact that Rue’s actions don’t only affect Rue, but they affect everyone in her life. Gia was the one that had to find Rue when she overdosed and this essentially traumatized her.
Rue feels no remorse for putting Gia in this emotional turbulence. We also see Rue make a deal with a drug dealer to begin selling drugs, obtaining an entire suitcase full of opioids and fentanyl. Rue continues to show no care for others as she brings her suitcase full of drugs to an AA meeting, putting everyone sober at the meeting at extreme risk of relapsing. Ali, her sponsor, tries talking to her about the dangers and Rue disrespects him by throwing mistakes he made when using drugs back at him. Finally, she tells her girlfriend Jules that she just couldn’t stand her after Jules asked her not to drink alcohol since she’s a recovering addict.
There is nothing Rue loves more than drugs. Her entire life revolves around them, they come before any of her loved ones. We see Rue’s physical and mental health decline as she gets deeper and deeper into her addiction. It’s clear that Rue is heading very quickly to rock bottom and this, in no way, is any romanticization of the life of a drug addict.