I just watched the first two episodes of Euphoria. It is ... a lot. The teen experience is well-mined ground, all the way back to Rebel Without A Cause but in the online-all-the-time world we live in, the blend of sex, drugs, and violence is disturbing (even though most research shows teens are doing less of the first two than prior generations). The lead actress, Zendaya, is excellent. To carry a show like this you have to have the balance of pathos, sympathy, and charisma that she possesses. She is a drug addict who can lie with a smile on her face, is manipulative, and makes a lot of really bad decisions, but you still root for her.
The touchstones of online dating, porn, and text messaging are not so much blended into the story as the atmosphere. In an earlier time, throwing a party while your parents were out of town might result in some fuzzy memories and memorable stories, but now, it is captured, catalogued, and shared with the world in all its out-of-context unfairness and risk of shame and discovery. To be sure, some of the characters are cliched - the hyper-aggressive high school quarterback, the white-but-talks-black drug dealer, and every adult over the age of 40, who is invariably naive, clueless, or hiding deeply disturbing secrets (the father of one character is a serial philanderer, sexual dominant, and closeted bi-sexual - like I said, it's A LOT).
I am absorbing it in all its insanity (and occasional inanity). Youth culture was the defining time in my life; I am here for seeing its progeny expressed in a raw, extreme, and challenging way. I think James Dean would approve.
Follow me on Twitter - @scarylawyerguy
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