- Network: HBO
- Series Premiere Date: Jan 24, 2021
Critic Reviews
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It’s the good kind of mess—mess that feels deeply human. Euphoria lets Jules brim with contradictions. Her monologues have specificity but also manage to touch on so many things at once. The writing does a lot with a little, and that’s not Euphoria’s usual speed.
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This special installment of Euphoria slows things down and presents a truly gutting character study and a breathtaking performance from Hunter Schafer.
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Schafer is emotionally raw in a way that feels completely genuine. She nails all of the emotional backflips that she’s still processing without sinking into melodrama. Weedman is good but not given the kind of juicy part of her own that Domingo was in the first hour, and that hurts the process a little bit, and yet Levinson and Schafer compensate by opening up the episode more to flashbacks and other characters.
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Overall, "Part 2: Jules" is a success. If the purpose of these two Euphoria special episodes is to help bridge the gap between Seasons 1 and 2 while also providing more depth for two central characters in a bottle episode-like structure, then "Part 2" succeeds (maybe even more than "Part 1").
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The never-ending fantasy scenes of canoodling between Jules and her virtual lover Tyler (with whom she had communicated only by text) certainly threatened to drag the action into artsier 50 Shades of Grey territory, but Schafer’s brooding performance and an ever-present melancholy kept melodrama at bay.
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The special finds its strength in sparseness, something it occasionally loses sight of in favour of psychedelic fantasy sequences more typical of Euphoria’s aesthetic. The strongest scenes are of Jules on the couch simply attempting to find the words for her feelings, and when the camera careens into purple-hued sex montages, your only wish is to be brought back into the calm of the therapist’s office.
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Schafer’s performance (and writing) clearly elevates this episode, holding our attention with everything from a subtle lip quiver to a heart-wrenching sob.
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“Sea Blob” takes an indirect approach to the questions Jules faces. This installment, in particular, feels less prescriptive than exploratory.
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While Rue’s hour feels more enriching (thanks in part to its dialogue-driven, back-and-forth structure) and more inviting to revisit (it’s a unique, “Blue Christmas” holiday special with an uplifting message), it’s been encouraging to see “Euphoria” break from its extremist tendencies and deliver two low-key stories intent on mining the emotional reservoirs of its main characters.
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The most common criticisms of Euphoria are its inaccurate portrayals of modern high-schoolers, its complex and confusing plotlines, and Levinson’s constant use of differing experimental filmmaking techniques. All three of those things are at play here, but in this case, where Levinson focuses specifically on a single character, they become more rewarding.
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Schafer is across-the-board terrific. (Therapy scenes are not easy, and Jules’s diffidence, defiance, and exploration of possibility flicker across Schafer in intriguing counterpoint.) ... [But] What was charming in a full season of the show, where information was parceled out sparingly over time, comes to feel excruciating in an hourlong sit that plainly wants to get somewhere but dithers too long getting there.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 21 out of 27
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Mixed: 2 out of 27
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Negative: 4 out of 27
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Nov 20, 2021Saw the first season and glad there was another on the way to conclude what happened between them.