My first instinct was to tell you not to watch Euphoria (Sky Atlantic) if you are the parent of teenagers. You will experience it not so much as a television drama but as a relentless assault on your nerves. Drugs, sex, nudity and nihilism – best to keep the kids locked up if this is what they’re getting up to.
But on reflection, and two episodes into the second series of this provocative HBO series, I changed my mind. Because we have been here before. Creator Sam Levinson is just aiming to be this generation’s Bret Easton Ellis. And watching one kid’s descent into addiction isn’t new: Phil Redmond did it with Zammo from Grange Hill more than 30 years ago. Teenagers have always had sex, got off their heads and made questionable choices. It’s just that most of the time they’re doing other, more boring stuff, and that doesn’t get a look in here.
Mind you, in Grange Hill the drugs were concentrated in one storyline. Here, they dominate, not least because one of the main characters – and one of its most likeable – is a dealer, Fezco (played by Angus Cloud, who was plucked from the street by a casting director who thought he looked the part).
To kick off series two, we were transported back in time to Fezco’s initiation into the business as a 10-year-old – a ridiculously OTT, Tarantino-style sequence in which his grandmother walked into a strip club and shot a man. It was graphic in every way.
Therein lies the problem with Euphoria: Levinson’s determination to shock. Because beneath that lies an often absorbing drama anchored by a terrific performance from former Disney star Zendaya. She rightly won an Emmy for her role as Rue, whose addiction is painful to behold. Even when playing Rue at her most wasted, Zendaya is mesmerising.
Beyond Rue, the characters are familiar: the mean jock (Jacob Elordi), the good girl (Maude Apatow), the flaky blonde (Sydney Sweeney). You can trace them back to John Hughes high-school movies, along with the fact that these are 20-somethings playing teenagers. The one depressing aspect is the sex; the scenes reflect the porn culture that young people now can’t avoid. Euphoria’s excesses are its USP, but there is a bleakness at the show’s core.
