In this piece · 9 sections+
Yes, if you can handle the tone. Euphoria is a genuinely well-made HBO drama with an Emmy-winning lead performance and a look nothing else on TV is doing. It's also miserable on purpose. That's the trade.
Sam Levinson's show is one of those rare prestige swings that mostly connects. The writing wobbles, especially in season 2, and the third and final season landed with a mixed reception that we'll get into. But the craft is real, Zendaya is doing the best acting on television when she's given room, and the pilot alone is worth two hours of your life. If you want a fun show to unwind with, this is the opposite of that. If you want to watch something that treats television like it's allowed to be an art form, press play.
The quick verdict
Yes, watch it — with a giant asterisk. Euphoria is dark, sexually explicit, drug-heavy, and often deeply sad. It is not background TV and it is not a hangout show. But the performances are enormous, the direction is ambitious, and the pilot is one of the best hours HBO has put out in the last ten years. If any of the content warnings above sound like a hard no, trust that instinct and skip it.
What Euphoria is actually about
On the surface: a group of high school students in an anonymous American suburb navigating drugs, sex, phones, and the terror of being 17. The show follows Rue, a 17-year-old addict fresh out of rehab and openly not planning to stay clean, played by Zendaya. Around her orbit Jules, Nate, Maddy, Cassie, Kat, Lexi, and Fezco — each of whom gets their own extended showcase episode at some point across the run.
What it's really about is closer to a hallucination. Levinson shoots the show like a music video crossed with a memoir. Neon light, glitter tears, cameras that spin through walls, whole scenes that turn out to be a character's imagination or a drug high. The plotting is soap-opera in the best way, but the tone is prestige-drama serious. It's a big loud swing at what it feels like to be young and online and losing, and it either grabs you in the first fifteen minutes or it never will.
The math on time
Three seasons. 24 episodes. Runtimes swing from 50 minutes to a punishing 75. Call it roughly 22 to 24 hours all in, plus the two Covid-era "special episodes" between seasons 1 and 2, which are basically two-hander plays and among the best things the show ever did. Do not skip those specials. They're on HBO Max in the main episode list.
A weekend of hard watching, or two to three chill weeks at an episode a night. Not a binge you'll want to do in one sitting. Take breaks. This is a show that colonizes your mood.
What it gets right
Start with Zendaya. She won two Emmys for lead actress in a drama for this role, and both were deserved. The season 1 finale monologue and the entire first special episode are the reel. She plays addiction from the inside — the boredom, the manipulation, the flashes of the person underneath — without ever making it noble or safe. Not a lot of 25-year-olds could carry a show this heavy. She does.
The direction is the other pillar. Levinson and cinematographer Marcell Rév shoot this thing like they've got something to prove. Long tracking shots through packed houses, camera pushes that follow characters through impossible geometry, and a lighting palette of neon pink and sodium yellow that the whole industry has been ripping off since 2019. The needle drops are ludicrous and mostly work. Labrinth's score is genuinely one of the best original TV scores of the last decade — Zendaya's "I'm Tired" alone.
And the supporting cast is stacked. Hunter Schafer is a discovery. Colman Domingo shows up as Rue's sponsor and turns the diner scene in season 2 episode 5 into a masterclass. Sydney Sweeney, Jacob Elordi, Alexa Demie, Angus Cloud before his death — this was a star-launching show, and you can see why in real time.
What doesn't work
Let's be honest about season 2. The writing gets sloppy. Levinson wrote every episode himself, filmed on 35mm with no real showrunner backstop, and a couple of the storylines just evaporate. Kat basically vanishes as a character. Barbie Ferreira left the show mid-production over creative conflicts, and it shows. The plotting stretches to fill 65-minute episodes that should've been 45. There's a stage play inside the season that some people love and some people find insufferable. Fair fight either way.
Season 3 is its own conversation. It filmed years after season 2 because of the pandemic, actor scheduling, and Angus Cloud's death, and the reception was split. Some critics thought it recovered its footing. Others thought the time jump and the tonal shift broke what made the show work. Go in with lowered expectations for the finale run and you'll be fine. Come in expecting season 1 magic and you'll be disappointed.
The other honest note: the show is a lot. Explicit sex, nudity, on-screen drug use, self-harm, sexual violence. Levinson doesn't flinch and sometimes he should. The line between depicting something and wallowing in it gets blurry, especially in season 2. If that sounds like too much, it probably is.
Who should watch it
If you liked The Idol and thought the problem was just that it didn't work — this is the version that mostly does. If you liked Skins UK and want a bigger-budget American cousin, yes. If you liked Kids or Larry Clark's whole thing but wish it had HBO money behind it, absolutely.
If you bounced off 13 Reasons Why because it felt exploitative, tread carefully — Euphoria is better written but hits some of the same buttons. If you need shows to have likable characters you're rooting for, this one will annoy you. If you're watching TV to relax, put on The Bear or something. This isn't that.
Skip entirely if: you're in recovery and drug depictions are a trigger, you can't handle explicit content, or you just want a story where things get better in a straightforward way. This show does not owe you catharsis and does not deliver it on schedule.
Where to watch
All three seasons plus both special episodes stream on HBO Max in the US. No rent-or-buy needed if you've got the subscription. It's not on Netflix, Hulu, or Prime Video, and it probably never will be — HBO holds this one close because it's one of their biggest hits with under-35 viewers in the last decade.
The Labrinth soundtrack on Amazon is genuinely one of the best original scores of the last ten years, and worth having on separately.
✅ WORTH IT
FAQ
Is Euphoria overrated?
Season 1, no — the pilot and the finale are as good as HBO gets, and Zendaya's performance is real. Season 2 got hyped past what it delivered, especially the middle stretch. If you go in knowing the show peaks early and gets messier from there, you'll come out happy. If you were told it's a flawless masterpiece, you'll feel lied to by episode 5 of season 2.
Does it get better after season 1?
No, season 1 is the peak. The two special episodes between seasons 1 and 2 are the second-best thing the show ever did. Season 2 has huge highs — episode 5 in particular is stunning — but is uneven overall. Season 3 is divisive. If season 1 doesn't grab you, quitting is the correct call.
Is it too dark to watch?
For a lot of people, yes, and that's not a failure of the viewer. The show depicts addiction, overdose, sexual assault, self-harm, and grief without softening any of it. HBO puts content warnings before episodes for a reason. If you're in a rough patch mentally, this is not the show to put on. Save it for when you have the bandwidth.
How does the show actually end?
Season 3 was confirmed as the final season, and the finale wraps Rue's arc in a way that some viewers found earned and others found rushed after a multi-year hiatus and a time jump. No cliffhanger, no dangling cancellation — the show ended on its own terms, for better and worse. Go in expecting an imperfect landing and you'll be okay.
Watch the pilot tonight. If the opening ten minutes don't hook you, this show is not going to. If they do, block out your weekend for season 1 and both special episodes, then take a real break before starting season 2.
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