Rue swallowing balloons of fentanyl, Cassie on all fours dressed as a dog and loan sharks cutting off Nate’s pinky toe — all of this happened in the first three episodes of season three of HBO’s hit series “Euphoria.” On April 12, the show returned for its third season and drew mixed reviews from critics and fans.
When season two of “Euphoria” ended in February 2022, it was the second-most-watched show on HBO. Within 11 days of its release, season three’s premiere had more than 20 million viewers globally, nearly 70% more than season two’s premiere had in the same amount of time. Although viewership is increasing, season three of “Euphoria” sits at an audience rating of 40% on Rotten Tomatoes as of May 27, compared to 78% for the previous seasons.
Health Education teacher Shafia Zaloom expressed why she felt the show gained popularity to begin with. “‘Euphoria’ is like the car crash that you can’t look away from,” she said. “I feel like it’s really something that takes things to an extreme … in a way that normalizes all kinds of activity that [doesn’t] actually serve young people.”
“I … don’t like how the show glamorizes all that it does,” Health Education teacher Jennifer Epstein said. “Drug use, unhealthy relationships — both romantic and friendships, money, fame, appearance over all else.”
The show’s first two seasons focused on the main characters’ interpersonal relationships in high school and explored themes of drug addiction and abuse, while season three focused on their lives after high school and explored themes of human and drug trafficking.
Some viewers did not enjoy this season as much as the others. “I feel like, definitely, season one and season two are better seasons,” Margaret Burke ’27 said. “The whole third season just didn’t seem put together.”
Others appreciated the change of pace. “The [characters are] not in high school anymore. … You’re gonna have a different vibe when you become an adult,” Stacey Liu ’27 said. “I think [the director and] the actors did the best that they could [when] shifting from a high school setting.”
The music in “Euphoria” season three is different, too. Classical composition replaced the show’s signature mix of gospel, hip-hop and electronic sounds. Labrinth — the primary composer for seasons one and two’s musical scores — left the show before the start of season three, citing mistreatment. “When I work for someone, their vision is paramount to me. But I don’t let people treat me like s—,” Labrinth wrote on his Instagram story on April 11, a day before the first episode of season three premiered.
To some, Labrinth’s absence has affected the show’s tone. “The absence of [Labrinth’s] music is definitely making it a lot more uncanny to watch,” Liu said. “Labrinth’s music in ‘Euphoria’ added that teenage feel to it. … His music literally made the show feel euphoric. But without his music [and with] that weird classical music, … [it] feels like I’m watching a horror movie.”
Willow Stokes ’28 compared actress Sydney Sweeney’s controversial American Eagle ad and Sweeney’s character Cassie Howard’s storyline on “Euphoria.” “The director definitely plays into the drama [that] the cast has in season three, and kind of adds those [real-world] controversies to season three,” she said. “[Sweeney’s] whole controversy with her super-sexualized American Eagle ad might have had a role to play in the director’s choosing [certain things] for her character.”
These controversies changed some people’s opinions of the show. “Politics are always relevant. It’s hard … to separate a character’s actor from the actor itself,” Liu said. “I almost accidentally interpret Cassie’s character as a Republican, … since I know her actor is a Republican. I’d by instinct associate her actions with the behavior of a Republican.”
Zaloom felt that the characters failed to grow throughout the seasons, causing the change in fan reactions. “I think people wanted to be really hopeful about being faced with adversity, and then finding the protection skills and the resilience to actually grow out of it, and to evolve as people and humans,” she said. “I don’t know that that’s really happened in season three at all.”