That pilot episode not only included a significant amount of scenes featuring teenagers engaging in substance use, but it also included a shocking intimate moment between then newcomer Hunter Schaffer and actor Eric Dane. That scene arguably set the stage for questions audiences would end up asking throughout the series’ entire run. How necessary was it to show all that? Is Levinson shining a light on the exploitation that young people and especially marginalized folks experience, or is the explicit nature of this content only re-exploiting them? Critics and audiences alike debated whether or not Euphoria exposes the truth about what it’s like to be Gen-Z today or if this heightened, exaggerated representation was really just Levinson’s bizarre and morally questionable fantasy.
Still, like all car crashes, audiences were unable to look away. Euphoria saw a rise in viewership after that buzzy first season and, despite multiple instances of backlash both on screen and behind the scenes, the sensationalism of the show and its actors only continued. After all, the public kept validating the show, thereby encouraging more and more shock value.
Author: Kayitsi.com
