HBO’s Euphoria is getting rave reviews, and a major reason is how it tackles identity.
Have you been watching Euphoria? It’s must-see summer TV and one of Zendaya’s best performances to date. Luckily, it’s already been renewed for season 2.
Euphoria doesn’t pull its punches when it comes to violence, nudity, sex, or drug use, but some of the best parts of the show are its tamest. Similarly, while the show’s shocking visuals certainly keep me captivated, it’s the series’ message about identity that makes me want to come back week after week.
The series focuses on a group of high school students as they navigate everything life throws at them, but its message speaks to teenagers and adults alike. What Euphoria showcases is incredibly real, if somewhat saturated, and extremely relatable.
Rue comes home from rehab with no intention of staying clean. It takes her a few episodes, but by the time we find ourselves on episode 6, she’s been sober for a couple weeks. She even says being sober is like a new kind of high, and it’s clear that she’s trying to figure out who she is without the drugs.
Rue got involved with drugs in the first place because she was diagnosed with a vast array of mental disorders, from ADD to OCD to a possibly bipolar disorder. Getting high made her forget everything wrong with her and her life, even if it was only for a few short minutes.
How many of us feel defined by the problems in our lives? Some days, it seems like I’m just a culmination of my anxiety and depression, that there’s nothing more to me than the fear and sadness I feel on a daily basis. I can have a drink or go to a party with my friends without any dire consequences, but Rue is an addict. She’s chosen to stay clean, and therefore must find a way to not only live with her mental illness but find an identity that doesn’t revolve around her addiction.
Jules, on the other hand, almost has the opposite problem. She knows who she is — she has for a long time. But the world isn’t always as accepting of her identity as she is. Luckily, she has an incredible father and a wonderful friend in Rue. Euphoria has done an excellent job of making Jules’ transition a part of her story without making that the only thing she has to offer to the narrative.
Still, Jules struggles with the cards she’s been dealt. She still has to endure transphobia and ignorance from the world around her, even from her own mother. She’s a much happier person today than she was before she transitioned, but that doesn’t mean it’s not hard. She often puts herself in terrifying situations to satiate her sexual desires, and while I have no intention of slut shaming her in any way, it’s obvious there’s something else going on here, something that hides much deeper under the surface than Rue’s traumas.
We all have our kinks, and I believe in sex positivity, but Jules’ relationship with sex is troublesome. She’s a minor who visits hotel rooms to sleep with older men. The situations she’s putting herself in are dangerous. There’s a very real chance she could be killed. She’s obviously done this before, but at what cost? Does she know what she’s doing, truly, and understands the consequences of her actions, or is she just living her life as freely as possible until, one day, everything catches up with her?
That “one day” scenario may be sooner rather than later. We learned fairly early on that Nate was posing as ShyGuy118, aka Tyler. It was all fun and games until they met and Nate got angry when she rejected him. Instead of calmly telling her how he truly felt, he threatened and blackmailed her. Now she’s doing his bidding so he can get out of trouble for hurting Maddie.
Nate is another character who struggles with his identity. No one has put a label on it yet, but it’s clear he’s following in his father’s footsteps. Whether Nate is bisexual, gay, or something else has yet to be determined, but he’s exploring his sexuality as quietly as possible. On the outside, he looks like he has the perfect life, but on the inside, he’s not being true to himself.
Like many of the other characters on this show, Nate deals with this in a variety of unhealthy ways. There is a lot of rage inside of him, but he tends to be calm and collected on the outside. That’s a dangerous combination, and we’ve seen how calculating he can truly be. The more Nate rejects his identity, the more he lashes out and hurts those around him.
Kat is also coming to terms with her sexuality, but in a vastly different way from Nate. After losing her virginity to a random guy at a party, and subsequently watching the video go viral on a porn site, she finds a way to make it work in her favor. She dives into the world of BDSM, eventually having several men on call who are willing to do whatever she says and pay for whatever she wants.
She started off as a slightly shy teen who was clearly the odd one out amongst her group of popular, skinny, cheerleader friends. While Kat was confident and outspoken, there were clearly times when she was body-conscious. Once she adopted her online porn moniker, however, she started dressing differently and not caring about what people thought of her.
It’s not easy finding yourself at any age, but especially when you’re a teenager. People can be cruel, and while everyone around Kat has been positive so far, it’s clear that she’s pushing the boundaries of what she’s capable of. She’s figuring out that a lot of men aren’t as confident as they appear, and that she can very easily take the lead in just about any situation she wants.
And these four aren’t the only ones trying to figure out what the hell is going on inside their heads. McKay struggles with feeling good enough (both in bed and on the field), while Cassie must combat her sexual nature with the ups and downs of her relationship. Maddie wants to keep her relationship with Nate alive, but she’s also afraid of what he might do to her. Gia has just started to experiment with weed, and there’s a very real possibility she could walk the same path as her sister.
The backdrop to Euphoria may be high school, but any one of these characters is relatable to both teens and adults alike. Struggling with your mental illness or your sexuality or your anger or your lot in life is not confined to your teenage years. What Euphoria portrays is something we all relate to, and that’s a huge part of the reason why this series has spoken to so many people.