Euphoria

People watch Euphoria for an abundance of reasons, but the show really is so much more than absurd Y2K outfit inspo, an ad for sparkly eye makeup, or dreamy blue and red lighting. At its core, it’s a heartbreaking story of a girl trying to survive.

This season of Euphoria is doing the most, and sometimes it’s so much that key figures fall somewhat by the wayside. This is a television series that doesn’t just depict the darker impulses of adolescence — horniness, jealousy, resentment, a flippant attitude toward one’s mortality. It wears them like a bodycon dress, a fresh gel manicure, and carefully applied eye glitter. And more often than not, this version of “too much” is a hell of a drug.

Blazing with creativity and screen-popping visuals, “Euphoria” is a crackling live wire of a series with frightening and chilling insights into the world of far too many teenagers — and their parents — whose lives are in danger of being swallowed up by addiction-fueled actions.

Every time that “Euphoria” threatens to sink into one of its less believable valleys—such as in Cal’s over-written arc this season—one of the young performers brings it back with an interesting choice or unexpected grace note. They’re all so very present in every scene of this show, creating characters who feel vibrantly alive.

Despite their endlessly harrowing moments, the first four episodes of the second season were the first time that “Euphoria” actually felt fun to me. Rue is once again a full-blown addict, and everything is horrible and scary, but also exciting and sexy and stylish.

If you enjoyed season one of Euphoria, you will enjoy this. If you didn’t, you won’t. It continues in much the same vein, both exhibitionist and bombastic, but also introspective and tender. There is much in there that is surface level, designed to send your jaw hurtling to the ground, but this is entertainment, baby! A little bit of that never hurt anybody, and it takes care in other ways to ensure that it’s not an empty vessel.

Given the show initially leaned on shock value, a second season (and the ones that will surely follow) would have to sidestep the inevitable diminishment of that shock. But Levinson keeps his foot on the pedal in other ways, with the support of a cast who are only getting better. Remarkably, Euphoria continues to justify its provocative existence.

Darkness encroaches on Rue’s life this season, as she repeatedly betrays the people around her, leading to a chaotic and intense intervention episode. Desperate, impractical, painful and pellucid, it reminds us that despite Euphoria’s effortful thrills and frills, the series is most worth watching for Rue’s journey.

The series doubles down on staking its claim as the classiest and most artistic form of the lowbrow high school drama ever, but what lies beneath the debauchery is a powerful dramatic core, particularly in the story of Rue.

"Euphoria" ultimately leans into its best and worst impulses in Season 2: It's grating, but intoxicating; implausible but grounded; severe but deeply emotional whenever it cedes the spotlight to Rue and Jules. And like the show's glitter-covered miscreants, we just can't help but keep chasing that high.

As someone who called the original superficial, this is the season that helped me “get” “Euphoria” and what it can be. But at the same time, its plotting and long-winded nature also make a great case that it should end with season two.

Euphoria Season 2 is good, but not quite great. ... Without seeing the final pieces of the overall puzzle, it’s impossible to say if Euphoria Season 2 manages to succeed as a whole. What we have seen is as masterful as it is messy. Euphoria remains an imperfect gem that works best as a showcase for the next generation of towering acting talents.

The second season still prods at taboo, but it inevitably does so with less of the special surprise of Season 1. In anticipation of that diminished shock, the writers attempt to find other avenues of discovery, turning away slightly from hard-nosed depravity in search of humanity. They find it, here and there, but there is something shaggy about the process.

Levinson’s capable of making that ever-so-slightly comic and relaxed version of the show whenever he wants to. He just doesn’t seem interested in it. ... Euphoria is great enough often enough to excuse at least some of its bad behavior — even if the show also takes after Cassie, who admits at one point, “I keep making mistakes and not learning from them.”

Season 2 suffers as much from trying to top itself through repetition as it does from downplaying aspects that were working (which, for a freshman hit, are common Season 2 issues).

Despite Zendaya's attention-getting, award-winning presence, the HBO series remains so unrelentingly bleak and nihilistic that it's overly defined by how far series creator Sam Levinson will push standards in terms of nudity, sex and drug use. (Answer: Pretty far indeed.)

It is far more interested in style than substance.