This is partly because of its continued novelty cisgender male actors so seldom drop trou that when they do, the impact of said scenes is unintentionally excessive. Its central guiding metaphor, as its title suggests, may be the pleasures and perils of drugs, but Euphoria is just as interested in frank depictions and discussions of its characters’ sex lives.īut on American television, even in 2019, full frontal male nudity - especially the kind that Euphoria so brazenly portrays - still feels like an affront. Priding itself on frankly depicting these various issues, the show manages to make provocative television that skirts (and at times treads over) the line of propriety. Slowly introducing us to her various classmates (and their idiosyncratic histories, sexual and otherwise), Rue offers us a glimpse into a world where dick pics, sex tapes, stolen opioids, underage sex, and cam sessions are a quotidian part of the 21st-century high school experience. (And write-ups of the show were happy to harp on the drama’s provocativeness, noting the presence of “ close to 30 penises” in one scene.) Euphoria is narrated by Rue Bennett ( Zendaya), a 17-year-old who recently overdosed and is just returning home after a stint in rehab. Many scenes in Sam Levinson’s Euphoria, which premiered on June 16, seem intent on shocking its viewers. Beyond the rarity of this image, there is a lot of weighted cultural baggage in this blurry shot of Dane’s (prosthetic) dick. The frame keeps Jules in focus, allowing the full frontal nudity in front of us to remain in soft focus. The dreamy eeriness of the moment makes the shot that follows all the more jarring: As Jules (just in her underwear) remains seated on the bed in the background, we see the man putting a condom on his hardened penis. Remaining standing, his face obscured by the camera’s framing, he begins to push his fingers into her mouth, asking her to open wider. As he talks to her, the camera focuses on her face. Stoic about the soulless life he leads in this small town, the unnamed older man (Cal, we later learn, played by Eric Dane) takes pleasure in ordering around the young nubile girl with pink-tinged long blonde hair. A young girl named Jules (played by trans actor Hunter Schafer) giddily shows up to meet an older man she’d first contacted online. Let’s cut out the fat and the bits that are just fancam fodder, Levinson, and really focus on what makes Euphoria special.There’s a scene in the pilot episode of HBO’s Euphoria that is, pun intended, hard to shake off. I will say, though, that a few of these plot points could be better developed and more worthy of a spot in the show (Gia/Leslie, Kat, Maddy) if a few were abandoned entirely (Cal, Nate)-particularly the ones that only vaguely work their way back to the heart and soul of the show, Zendaya’s unforgettable Rue. My final tally says that half (50%!) of the current shows within Euphoria should go. In spite of its terrific, mood-morphing score from Labrinth, the show still struggles to balance its by our count 12 different narratives and their respective tonal shifts.

Madeline: Euphoria is many things: an erotic thriller, a rager film a la Spring Breakers, a heartfelt queer indie romance, a harrowing afterschool special on opiates. What’s Fact and What’s Fiction in Killers of the Flower Moon The Real History Behind Diabetes’ Pivotal Role in Killers of the Flower Moon I’ve Never Seen a Movie Immerse Itself in a Culture Like Killers of the Flower Moon Did With Ours The Right Wing Just Made a Conservative Disney+. I do not need any additional context for why he is the way that he is let’s just end this sadistic rollercoaster. Speaking personally, I also just can’t stomach watching him choke another girl during sex. The seriousness of whether Nate will release the naked photos of Jules seems to vary from episode to episode, making his connection to the main cast tenuous at this point. Madeline’s Verdict: I’m surprised that we’re still watching episodes of The Nate Show as much as we are. And yet he remains one of Euphoria’s focal points, with his interiority and motivations explored far more often than that of other characters. Let us count the ways he’s remained a malignant presence on this show: continued abuse of all the girls he dates the psychological warfare of catfishing Jules via Grindr to gather nude photos of her as child pornography collaterol to protect his father and the assault and subsequent blackmailing of one of Maddy’ former hookups, which forced him to confess to a rape and physical abuse he never committed. Logline: Have you ever wondered what unrelenting empathy for a sociopathic character might look like? Look no further than Nate.

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