‘No matter what, you have to just keep going and that’s the point of it…’
Considering the fact that half of the cast have gone on to become global superstars (Sydney Sweeney, Jacob Elordi and Zendaya are all household names), show creator Sam Levinson’s Euphoria follow-up, The Idol, was a total flop and four years have passed since Euphoria season two, it’s a miracle that this third season exists at all. So, when the first three episodes were put out for review, it’s perhaps unsurprising that critics were reticent. I’ll admit to feeling the same. But, by the end, despite being something completely different from the first two seasons, this final season of Euphoria was still pretty special…
It’s been five long years in the world of Euphoria since we last encountered these characters. Fezco is in prison. Rue (Zendaya) is paying off her debt to Laurie (Martha Kelly), alongside Faye (Chloe Cherry). Jules (Hunter Schafer) is a ‘sugar baby’ for a much older man. Lexi (Mauda Apatow) is working as a runner on a hit TV show. Maddie (Alexa Demie) has blagged her way into working for a talent agency. Finally, childhood sweethearts Cassie (Sweeney) and Nate (Elordi) are living a seemingly picture-perfect all-American lifestyle in a huge mansion. Over the course of eight episodes, these characters are degraded, beaten, tortured, broken apart and in some cases sewn back together… both literally and metaphorically.
Having abandoned the high school setting of the first two seasons, Levinson channels both Breaking Bad and the work of Quentin Tarantino in this gonzo final season. One of the criticisms most often levelled at both Euphoria and Levinson’s work in general is that he’s more interested in providing shocking moments with the potential to go viral than he is in telling a coherent story. Well… There is definitely an element of that here. There are times when I didn’t recognise the Cassie Howard presented here from the first two seasons (although the character development of both Maddie and Lexi is both satisfying and logical), and there is definitely too much of a focus on plot rather than those quiet moments of human connection that made the first two seasons so successful. There is a beautiful scene in the final episode between Lexi and Cassie that serves as a reminder that these characters were once human beings and not caricatures, which made me yearn for more quiet and thoughtful moments like this. That being said, I watch a lot of films and a lot of television, and Euphoria is one of the few things that I never fall asleep while watching. That perhaps says more about my status as an old, old man than it does about pop culture, but I feel it is pertinent nevertheless.
If this is to be the end of Euphoria (and Levinson has signalled as much), then it will end as one of the most daring, memorable and watchable TV shows of the last decade. Yes, it is flawed, but many of those flaws derive from the fact that Levinson and his talented cast push the boundaries and take risks. I will miss Rue and Jules, Nate and Cassie, Lexi and Maddie. As an audience, we have watched these characters and actors leave adolescence behind to become something bigger than Euphoria ever was. What a ride.
