‘Euphoria’ & The Game of Thrones-esque Fall: Season 2 Review

Every so often you come across a show that makes use of the fact that it is fictional. It doesn’t limit itself to use only conventional, linear storytelling. The creators show off their creativity. They bask in their weird storytelling and they generally manage to say something more significant about the real world while also being a great time. 

I believed that the show that best embodied this was Euphoria. A 2019 teen drama that has an artistic but clearly adult tone, that tells a story in the most heartbreaking but wonderful looking fashion. A show that’s glamorous, unrealistic and exceptionally binge-able.

With season 2 of Euphoria just having ended it has become more than apparent that this show doesn’t want to concern itself with effective storytelling or prioritise the story, which was a disappointing shift, to say the least.

Euphoria, as seen from the first half of season 2, relies a little too heavily on shock value. Much like an earlier HBO show that lost sight of what made it great in the first place and decided that plot could be substituted for big moments *cough cough* Game Of Thrones. 

So I’m going to look at what these two shows have in common, what each managed to do best and where I think they both failed. 

The Best Of The Best

Euphoria season 1 is easily some of the best TV to come out in a long time. It takes the teen drama to the next level, not only does it have an exhilarating plot right from the get go, it also sets itself apart by having a soundtrack that’s instantly recognisable and cinematography that makes it feel like a movie. 

Each episode follows a different character and we have Rue, played by Zendaya, narrating these events in creative cutaways and making use of every moment of screen time, but Rue is ultimately unreliable due to her own struggles with substance abuse. 

Every scene in season 1 feels purposeful, every sound, every second given to a character feels weighty and like it belongs to that character. 

And at the same time we get to know these characters, we get to see their backstories, we get to understand them, at least to a certain extent. 

The show does a brilliant job of establishing these characters, setting up their conflicts and their flaws while also being supremely entertaining. 

Much like Game of Thrones, it has a first season that does everything right. It cannot be confused with any other show, stylistically or thematically. The nudity was, at times, excessive and uncomfortable but it could be ignored in favour of the plot that seems to drag on a little but definitely ties everything together. It sets things up brilliantly. It uses the element of surprise and shocks you when it needs to grab you again. And, most importantly, a cast of characters that draws you in but where each character remains deeply flawed. 

The Characters

Euphoria has a colourful cast of characters, to say the least. Each character has a unique voice and believable motivations. They do, for the most part, feel like teenagers who have been moulded by their experiences and their backgrounds. However, their behaviours are exaggerated. I didn’t mind, it made for some compelling drama.

Maddy Perez (Alexa Demie) for example, has quite a sad backstory, she’s also iconic, her outfits, her makeup, her attitude it makes her easy to root for but she’s also in a relationship that’s awful and makes her awful, and while she realises that she’s still not ready to let go of that. 

Her boyfriend, Nate Jacobs (Jacob Elordi) is a terrible person. Even a character like Nate shows moments of vulnerability that make him interesting, if nothing else.

What worked in season 1 of Euphoria was the immense care that went into creating it, visually, acting wise and in terms of the writing. It was unattainable and shiny and melodramatic and it was exactly what it needed to be, relatability be damned. 

You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain

Season 2 tries to top that. The teenagers are sexualized like never before, the nudity is at an all time high and all the things that made the story plausible in season 1 are given up for shock value.

You don’t realise how essential the structured storytelling of season one is until you come to the third episode of season 2. Suddenly everything is random, it’s hard to keep track of all the characters because the show struggles to give all of them attention. Instead of narrowing down, the show expands its cast to include more storylines. It tries to flesh out characters who didn’t really need it, like in the case of Cal Jacobs. It feels very season 5 of Game of Thrones. 

The show lacked direction. Something that should have been obvious from the start because the show wasn’t structured to last more than a single season, as it was. Season 1 works by itself. It leaves enough loose ends to keep you thinking about it but it has a big ending. An ending that only works if you stick to it. 

The show still has addictive drama but it made me feel a little stupid as a viewer. More than once I felt like I was stuck watching something a little too close to Riverdale for my liking. It also made me question what I loved about the show in the first place. 

Which is not what a season 2 is supposed to do? 

Speaking of Season 2

It was messy. It doubled down on its pretentious tone but took away the narration that made it sound rational. And it desperately lacked cohesion. The story just can’t seem to get it right, it’s stumbling at every turn. There’s no clear direction, which was okay as long as the show had some reliable structure.

I don’t know if this is just me but this season unfairly punishes characters like Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) and Jules (Hunter Schaefer) for being teenagers and making the kind of poor decisions that teenagers often do. It’s okay if they make mistakes. 

And characters like Lexi (Maude Apatow) get away with things they shouldn’t because they don’t make as many mistakes and are the closest to being relatable. 

The second season is self-indulgent to the point of narcissism. It takes itself a little too seriously and assumes it’s smarter than its audience. There’s one episode that tries to be a bottle episode where we follow just one character. No distractions, no cutaways, just this one character doing increasingly unhinged tasks and getting away, and that’s the one that jumped the shark for me. It’s a clear display of acting ability but it contributes so little to the plot that it seems unjustified. 

I didn’t hate it but I did think that it squandered all its potential. Euphoria doing a bottle episode makes sense on paper but I haven’t been that frustrated with a show since the last episode of season 7 of Game of Thrones. You know things are in a tough spot, you know it’s probably lost the charm that made it so addictive in the first place but you also know that you’re going to keep watching and you’re going to keep hoping that it gets better despite showing no signs of the same. 

Game of Thrones built something so magnificent over its first four seasons that it was inconceivable that the ending would disappoint even the least critical of viewers. I don’t want to see Euphoria go down this path but it seems likely and yet my optimism will persevere. 

Conclusion

The end of the season gave me hope for a better third season but it’s too far away. Who knows if I’ll even be watching. It’s okay, I think, is what I’ve learned from this show.

I enjoyed watching it, it kept me going, it was something to look forward to each week. It was something to talk about, something to cherish. But in hindsight season one was enough. It was contained and couldn’t have worked as a show with multiple seasons. 

I’m heartbroken. I wanted this show to be better. To rise above its worst tendencies. To let us enjoy a show set in highschool that doesn’t resort to love triangles and two girls fighting over a guy, a show with hope and colours that popped. A visual delight that was equal parts melodrama and one of the most exciting things you’ve seen in a long time. 

But it fails in so many ways. So many aspects of this show are removed in favour of something much more commercial. Something easier to sell.

And that’s all I have to say. This is a show that did everything right and subsequently sacrificed all of that in favour of mediocre plotlines and an aesthetic that comes nowhere near being as distinctive as the first season. Which is a shame.