Content Warning: Potentially Triggering Topics

Euphoria is a popular HBO American TV show that first aired June 16, 2019. The show follows a high school girl, Rue (played by Zendaya), who just got out of the hospital due to her drug addiction. For the most part, Rue interestingly narrates the show. The main focus is her addiction and how she fights to prove to everyone, especially her mother, that she is sober now, when she is really not. This gets her and the other characters of the show into a range of different problems. However, as they work through these problems, all the characters experience individual growth.

Euphoria is not something I would usually watch. The vibe seemed too much over exaggerated high school drama for me, personally. However, because season 2 was to air on January 9th, 2022, one of my roommates convinced me to try in order to watch the second season with her. I am not going to lie. While the show has been nominated for many different awards and has actually won some awards including an Emmy, it was really hard to get through the first season. I want to say that at that point I would have rather watched Riverdale (no offense to the Riverdale fans out there).

The show raised and continues to raise viewers’ eyebrows. However, a new age is upon us. The idea of nudity is freeing is transitioning to the idea that being comfortable in your own skin and desires is what is truly freeing and empowering. Therefore, in a sense, Euphoria is outdated making it confusing to take a stance on such an explicit show. Don’t get me wrong. I understand that some people are not a fan of anything that is not your standard family friendly TV show or movie. But me? I will watch anything and everything. It is not something to lightly say I enjoy but I do not shy away from things like nudity, being explicit, gore, etc. I believe there is merit in consuming things outside of your comfort zone, it is how you see different perspectives and become more well-rounded, so to speak. However, the context matters and without a reason the needlessness of it makes it unbearable. In Euphoria, the nudity and explicit scenes were suffocating.

In the beginning of Euphoria, I do not believe it had reasons to show such explicit scenes even with a TV- MA rating. From breasts, to penises, to graphic sex scenes, including one involving an adult and minor, all you could do was cover your eyes as you sit on the living room couch with your three roommates sitting right next you. Maybe I am being dramatic but maybe I am not. Even some of the actresses have since come out saying that the extent of their nudity scenes made them uncomfortable, and they had to request that there be less. Ergo, what we saw was actually a toned-down version of what could have been (thank god). The over-the-top scenes reminded me of 13 Reasons Why, another show that its explicit nature was downright extraneous.

I am not saying this just to act like a prude older person who is not in touch with the current times (not to say that being prude is a bad thing, necessarily). The point is, I was dreading season two. Instead, I was as pleasantly surprised as I could get. Euphoria is still not one of the best shows out there and is nowhere near a masterpiece, however, season 2 was exceptionally better. I argue that this is due to focusing on the story as well as the characters and dropping some of the explicit scenes which seemed to be there to gain attention. For viewers of season two, there is room for realizations about the show’s important issues that some people have not experienced. The struggles and horrors of dealing with things such as addiction, abandonment, loss, transitioning, internalized homophobia, etc., and at such young ages. Season 1 was basically a glorified porno and season two was a story to be told. They did not cut out every explicit scene, but the extra time allowed more room for characters to develop. Again, this is set in high school, and though dissimilar from many peoples’ high school experiences, that does not mean there can’t be something learned from the show. The series creator, Sam Levinson, dealt with addiction himself, and that is where the script was born from. He wanted his show to capture the heightened emotions of being a teenager, especially one with an addiction, and the effect it has on relationships during that time. This deeper meaning of the show really shines through in the second season and becomes more authentic.

Cassie is a character who I believe was most victim to unnecessary nudity scenes. Her body was paraded so much in season one that it cannot be argued that as a comment on the sexualization of women. It just was sexualizing a woman. However, in season two her character evolves. The viewers get to see how being sexualized from a young age because of major changes in body during puberty resulted in her struggling to come to terms with being a woman. Especially in comparison to her more modest sister. Popular opinion is that viewers do not agree with many of the choices she makes in season two and have come to dislike her character. But even the act of people disliking her rather than being indifferent of her means her character now has sustenance in this show. This is true for a lot of characters in season two, their story is able to be developed without the distractions of unrelated nude scenes.
Nudity is a part of adolescent and life but to have it shoved down your throat from a TV show does not help get a point across. It might get more views but not for good reasons. Sam Levison claimed he wanted to help open a dialogue when talking about hard topics such as addiction and season two creates an atmosphere for that. The way nudity and explicit scenes are used in season two adds to the characters instead of taking away from them. The characters, especially the women, are not just their sexual prowess but how their sexual prowess, or lack thereof, is a part of them. Censorship is discussed often in media and the idea is not for total censorship but to have a reason and decorum when showing difficult explicit/ intimate scenes. Season two of Euphoria exhibits this decorum better than in season one making it a better viewer experience and offers more to take away from.

https://www.sheknows.com/entertainment/articles/2539358/euphoria-actresses-wanted-fewer-nude-scenes/
https://ew.com/tv/2019/06/16/euphoria-creator-sam-levinson/

Written by Maria Assimakopoulos
Art by Yanni Spanolios