Euphoria Season 3 is an unhinged catastrophe:…
There’s a second in “Euphoria” Season 3 when Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) shrieks, “What is happening right now?!” and that sums it up, as a complete. You’ll be saying the same factor as you watch every other scene.
The hit HBO show’s long-awaited return is an off-the-rails curler coaster of madness. Whether that’s good or dangerous relies upon on if you need to see the most important Gen-Z superstars — Zendaya, Jacob Elordi and Sweeney — in ludicrous conditions that really feel like “Breaking Bad” meets “Looney Tunes.”
It delivers that in spades. But if you need narrative coherence and character consistency, Season 3 leaves you wanting.
Zendaya as Rue in “Euphoria” Season 3. HBO Max
Sydney Sweeney as Cassie in “Euphoria” Season 3. HBO Max
Premiering in 2019, when its stacked forged was less well-known, the Sam Levinson collection started as an edgy teen drama, following drug addict Rue (Zendaya) and her high faculty classmates, including psycho jock Nate (Elordi), insecure Cassie (Sweeney), queen bee Maddy (Alexa Demie), artsy trans lady Jules (Hunter Schafer) and author Lexi (Maude Apatow).
Season 2 aired in 2022. During its four-year hiatus, there have been tragic forged deaths: Angus Cloud, who performed the affable drug vendor Fezco, and Eric Dane, who performed Nate’s dad, Cal, and is still showing in Season 3.
On screen, 5 years have handed since Season 2.
Season 3 finds the previous teenagers now residing grownup lives, which “Euphoria” has taken to imply that “nearly all of them are involved in sex work, crime, or work that’s adjacent to both.”
Eric Dane, Colman Domingo, Zendaya, Sam Levinson, Hunter Schafer, Jacob Elordi, Sydney Sweeney, Angus Cloud, Maude Apatow, Dominic Fike and Austin Abrams at HBO’s “Euphoria” Season 2 photograph call in LA in January 2022. Getty Images for HBO
Jacob Elordi as Nate in “Euphoria” Season 3. HBO Max
That’s where Season 3 stumbles. In the first two seasons, the show’s strength was how it dug into these characters’ lives. The plot bought wild, but it was anchored by human drama.
Now, as we discover them as adults, it will be more compelling to see them battle because of their flaws. Instead, many of them battle because random felony henchmen are after them.
That’s lazy writing. It sacrifices depth for absurdity. For Zendaya, Elordi and Sweeney, “Euphoria” launched them into stardom, and now it introduced them back for materials that doesn’t meet their skills.
Zendaya as Rue in “Euphoria” Season 3. HBO Max
Hunter Schafer as Jules in “Euphoria.” HBO Max
Take Rue, for instance. In Season 3, she leers at strippers, and her drug-related antics have a cartoonish air. While there’s an factor of “Big Lebowski”-esque madcap enjoyable to her plot, it takes away her nuance and doesn’t use Zendaya’s capability to faucet into her character’s tragedy.
“Euphoria” does the same to Elordi, who returns as an Oscar-nominated actor. But he’s so hamstrung by Nate being written bizarrely out of character, it makes you marvel why they interrupted his film profession for this.
In the first two seasons, Nate had anger points and choked his girlfriend for publicly embarrassing him. In Season 3, when Cassie publicly embarrasses him, he barely will get offended and simpers after her. He unironically makes use of the phrase “make love” (bear in mind when typical Nate dialogue was “F–k her like the whore she is”? The show apparently doesn’t).
Sure, people change, but he’d need years of therapy for this character transplant to make sense (and there’s no indication that occurred). Why trouble revisiting Nate if he doesn’t really feel like Nate?
Jacob Elordi as Nate in “Euphoria” Season 3. HBO Max
Cassie is more in-character, but that doesn’t go away her better off. In the first two seasons, she degraded herself for male consideration. “Euphoria” had a deal with on its broader themes, so it (principally) didn’t really feel just like the show itself was degrading her. That’s not the case in Season 3, as she tries to have an OnlyFollowers profession with “erotic” photograph shoots. If there’s a loftier level to be made past the digital camera ogling her, it’s nowhere to be seen.
Aside from Rue, Nate and Cassie, some other parts of Season 3 work better.
The new additions to the forged, such as Marshawn Lynch, are woven in pretty nicely. The unhappy process of writing off Fez is dealt with appropriately.
Alexa Demie as Maddy in “Euphoria” Season 3. HBO Max
Eric Dane as Cal in “Euphoria” Season 3. HBO Max
Cassie’s mother (Alanna Ubach) stays a scene-stealing blast. It’s bittersweet to see Dane’s posthumous efficiency, but he delivers aptitude.
Maddy’s story is the most profitable, in phrases of feeling true to her character without sacrificing emotional resonance for shock worth. It has the right combination of wild antics and pathos that still looks like “Euphoria,” while the remainder of Season 3 feels more like Levinson’s widely panned show “The Idol.” Jules and Lexi might also have plots more in line with Maddy’s, but it’s too soon to inform.
Only three out of eight episodes have been made accessible for review, so it’s attainable the second half of the season is better.
The “Euphoria” Season 3 poster. HBO Max
Maybe out-of-character Nate will probably be revealed to have been half of another play Lexi wrote. Maybe all of this will probably be revealed to be a drug journey that Rue is having.
“Euphoria” Season 3 premieres Sunday, April 12, at 9 p.m. on HBO.
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