Euphoria

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Never Cursed
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Re: Euphoria

#26 Post by Never Cursed » Sat Jan 23, 2021 4:52 am

Full-disclosure criticism out of the way first: Fuck Anyone Who’s Not a Sea Blob is not quite as good as the first special, trading some of the latter's immediate raw grounded power for an stylized/unfettered nonlinearity that hits less hard just by virtue of being more abstract. Both shows use the the same structure of a therapy session as narrative spine, but as befits the episode dominated by a first-time patient rather than a seasoned sponsor, there isn't as strong a central voice to guide the viewer through the process of sifting through Jules' experiences (and there are a lot of tangents, some of which feel weirdly spurred on for someone so early in therapy, as opposed to the razor focus of the first special). That said, I still loved the episode, and I think it effectively used these limitations (as well as the more obvious, public-health-crisis-imposed ones) to mimic its main character's more uncertain approach to her issues with gender identity and love, with the highlight being
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an impressionistic collection of sex scenes where a memory of fantasy is intruded upon by more immediate real-world anxieties - top marks to the score in this section as well, which mixes elements of a Spanish-language ballad with a droning lurch for the descent into hell.
Hunter Schaefer is amazing in an egoless (her crying scenes remind me of another master of verisimilitudinous ugly-crying, Vincent Lacoste in Amanda) self-authored and somewhat autobiographical central performance, honestly outshining Zendaya as far as the special episodes are concerned. There's a lot of recontextualization in the special owing to Jules' alternate perception of events from Rue, almost to the point of retcon in a couple places, but these moments never feel cheap because Levinson uses these duelling incompatible narratives to explore the feelings of unknowability and mutual misunderstanding between the two. That's the philosophy behind this episode too - it's messy, meandering, and occasionally self-contradictory, but all in the service of a bittersweet poignant understanding of maturation that is difficult to express.

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Re: Euphoria

#27 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Jan 25, 2021 1:15 am

I rewatched Fuck Anyone Who’s Not a Sea Blob, was able to resign some of my issues with it- mainly the ethereal anti-rhythm of her flight-of-ideas/memory visualizations, and came away loving it. I particularly appreciated the complex views on expected responsibility from oneself and of others in relationships, as well as this concept of spirituality- something Jules describes as individualized and personal, an achievable state she's experienced; yet there's a contrast of anti-spirituality in some of her rough experiences engaging in toxic expectations sourced in the safety of solipsistic fantasies (I'm going to pretend the therapist is also a fantasy, because she's just the worst). The safety of getting to know someone through imagination is also touched on in an interesting way, surely an esoteric gen z cultural phenomenon of intimacy via physical detachment into technology, but still relatable in the sense that ideals die once we contest with another three-dimensional person in the flesh, and that compromise destroys that rigid faux-security of love on our terms.

As another layer to the complementary nature of these two specials' singular yet eccentrically mirrored perspectives, Jules' subjective position in coping with significant people in her life struggling with addiction is invaluable to Rue's narrative, and Levinson's overarching composite of recovery. It's a very raw and real look at 'the other side', from the viewpoint of the those in relationships with addicts, who endure pain, trauma, and take on accountability and the burden of non-existent control. If Levinson's recovery program is as solid as it seems to be, I imagine his most significant contributions to this story is putting on an Al-Anon hat- giving a voice to those who are affected by the condition. It's an important part of the program, the selfless peripheral reminders of the hostages taken to counteract the selfish roots of the stepwork that must start with the addict, but not remain there forever. The Jules of the world are the people who have a better day if the Rues stay sober, and their perceptions need to be honored with the same degree of empathic, impressionistic detail.


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Never Cursed
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Re: Euphoria

#29 Post by Never Cursed » Sun Aug 08, 2021 2:16 pm

Interested to see that it's mostly nonprofessionals (one of whom is the son of an imprisoned big-time drug trafficker) - can anyone who is more familiar with Friday Night Lights than I comment on Kelly?

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Never Cursed
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Re: Euphoria

#30 Post by Never Cursed » Sun Oct 03, 2021 10:56 pm

A couple beguiling teasers

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Re: Euphoria

#31 Post by therewillbeblus » Sun Oct 03, 2021 11:15 pm

For anyone else who's already fallen in love with the music from that second teaser, Shazam incorrectly diagnoses it as a song called "Los Angeles" by, simply, "Emily" (a song that does not seem to actually exist). Here's the real, full version, original music for the second season.

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Re: Euphoria

#32 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Oct 11, 2021 1:34 am

I just did a full revisit of Euphoria's first season and the two specials and the full first season played much better this time around. Nate's character has greater complex depth indirectly recognized by Levinson, a pretty courageous and challenging maneuver compared to the typical TV strategy of settling for markedly observable evolution towards sympathetic access. The presentation of Rue and Jules' dynamic, how they refuse to follow a linear trajectory of intimacy, and how each cannot truly obtain knowledge of the other, or surrender their defenses, is incredible apt- as each character doesn't even know they are putting up walls or craving something fantastical outside of the tangible love in front of them. Jules' polyamorous nature is conveyed with deference and empowerment, whilst also acknowledging Rue's confusion due to her contrasting monogamous mindset of love. As someone who is similar to Rue and unable to comprehend the idea of loving two people at once, it's refreshing to see a filmmaker give equal validation to these perspectives. I've known and dated people who are polyamorous and the essence of that individual's internal drives, while still foreign to my own way of thinking, must be treated with curiosity as well as juxtaposed against the normative judgments of the conservative milieu in order to function respectfully in its portrayal.

I love Fez' character too, who more accurately represents my own experience with kindhearted, humane drug dealers (you know, someone who will compassionately cut their friends off and cope with the painful consequences without robotically viewing their peers like Harry Lime sees people as dots) without excusing the moral implications of his life choice. I look forward to seeing what the show does with him in the future, but man, humanizing his character sans oversaturated rationalization is a bold and respectful choice, and I'm glad Levinson isn't in the camp of taking a black-and-white worldview to his past life vs. his life in recovery- though nothing he's ever done since would indicate that he has adopted this narrowminded outlook.

Trouble Don't Last Always is still the greatest depiction of a sponsor/sponsee relationship, and most realistic explanation of thought processes from the relapsed, hopeless addict and the person with time in 12-step recovery groups that I've ever seen. The language, interventions, questions, and powerlessness are all expressed so fairly, including Rue's challenges to the aspects of the program she is not willing to engage in. They're all experiences anyone who enters these programs struggles with, and Levinson treats both parties without judgment because he's been there, in both sets of shoes. Also, the film ousts Cancel Culture in the most conscientious way I've seen yet, and helped me understand why I'm so passionate against knee-jerk approaches to pathologizing others; that stigma addicts face constantly (usually via microaggressions most people have no idea they're perpetuating on a daily basis) is synonymous with boxing people up and sealing their capacity for change with permanence, the anti-rehabilitation mindset we've unfortunately gravitated towards as we pull back the rope we used to generously gift our fellow human beings. Colman Domingo sensitively makes his point with a pathos that can hardly be argued with, and states this sad truth succinctly in the span of a minute. Everyone should see this special just for that moment.

I still have a few problems with Fuck Anyone Who's Not a Seablob, but it's undeniably a transformative and empathetic slice of insight into Hunter Schafer's life experience, mixed with some of the most creative visual imagery and editing I've seen from a TV production. Its flaws don't stop the work from greatness, but compared to the previous film's twofer theatre style masked with hyper-realistic dialog (these could be taperecorded conversations I've had with my sponsors and sponsees over the years...), Schafer's episode projects its messy psychology into a kaleidoscopic jumble of chaos, and couldn't be more fitting for this character's purgatory state between her various parts' desires- for the real and the imaginary. The confusion is authentic, inescapable through will power (a broad yet piercingly-felt strain of commonality between this film and the previous one, and the show in general, whether touching on addiction or the varied trials and tribulations of being a teenager- body image, gender identity, maintaining popularity and conservative ideas of masculinity, etc.). The phantasmagoric disorder is allowed to linger without reprieve, though Levinson releases enough emotion to satisfy those of us who have felt an adjacently-similar struggle.

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Never Cursed
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Re: Euphoria

#33 Post by Never Cursed » Tue Oct 12, 2021 12:41 am

Beautifully said, TWBB. No matter what it is, I hope a higher-profile second season will compel more people to glean riches from the (not particularly long) first collection of episodes. I won't spend too much time throwing superlatives at the show, and I hope what I think of it is decently clear by now, but for all its aggressive, often labored stylizations (which I should stress are very good choices on their own), the series is one of the most tender and humanistic pieces of film I've ever seen, making its unwillingness to use any easy outs to stereotype its principals into a guiding philosophy well-integrated with the process of recovery (in both applicable uses of the term) that Levinson depicts as applicable to everyone in some way. There isn't a writer/director I trust more right now to deftly navigate complicated and morally grey emotional territory (though perhaps Desplechin comes close in his own idiosyncratic way).

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Never Cursed
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Re: Euphoria

#34 Post by Never Cursed » Tue Nov 23, 2021 4:18 pm

Season 2 Teaser; will start again January 9

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Re: Euphoria

#35 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Nov 23, 2021 5:46 pm

Looks fantastic, loving the attention given to Fez in the trailer

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Never Cursed
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Re: Euphoria

#36 Post by Never Cursed » Mon Dec 20, 2021 2:33 pm

Full trailer - I guess we definitely know now what Rue's greater association with Fez and the Dominic Fike character entails

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Re: Euphoria

#37 Post by therewillbeblus » Sun Jan 09, 2022 11:17 pm

Season two is off to a bang with Trying to Get to Heaven Before They Close the Door, besting anything Levinson has done before on the levels of pure narrative, suspense, and style, but outside of his craft there was such density and authenticity to a few choice scenes that would get too personal to disclose the why. All I can say is that I received texts from multiple people tuning in who are in recovery, relating in awe. If this was a standalone film, it'd give the best special(/best American film of 2020) a run for its money
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I love the connection between the 'justified violence' Fez tried to stop as a kid and the violence we can empathize with as relatively-justified, after the breadth of information from first season, by the episode's end. Beyond personal vengeance, or passively welcoming a power dynamic that invites active threats to his self-preservation, there are reasons why Fez needs to do what he does, for similar broad psychosocial reasons that drive Nate and all the characters in this show.

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Re: Euphoria

#38 Post by Altair » Mon Jan 10, 2022 12:05 am

I have to say as a fellow fan of Euphoria (I think it's probably the best TV show going at the moment, by far) - I've very much appreciated your on-going commentary therewillbeblus, it's certainly increased my own esteem of it, particularly in how it deals with addictions of various kinds. From my own perspective, the swirl of melodrama, exaggerated formal strategies, and raw emotional intensity combine to create something that rings true in its depiction of a generation from the inside: if there's any glamour here, then it's the glamour that the characters themselves view their own lives through in order to cope with the socio-economic iniquities of their circumstances.

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Re: Euphoria

#39 Post by Never Cursed » Mon Jan 10, 2022 2:47 am

Wow, Levinson and his collaborators have really hit the ground running, delivering what is probably the show's (and Levinson's) smoothest and most confident hour yet. The episode would be a large enough accomplishment if it maintained the first season's relentless forward momentum and high level of novelty, but Levinson seems to be going after something moodier and more agitated overall (trying to get at a different "sheen," to borrow someone else's terminology) and has reconfigured a lot of the show's visual grammar to do this. Gone, for instance, are most of those rapid Magnolia dollies-in that were ubiquitous in the first season, replaced by soaring crane shots and anxious tracks from side to side replicating the feeling of back-and-forth pacing. Levinson also proves very quickly that he still has new ways of propulsively staging, filming, and editing the party sequences that form so much of the show's popular perception, and he has a lot of fun playing with his lighting, shifting at times into a totally expressive mode by dropping or moving strong spotlights in the middle of a scene.

Levinson is, of course, also a gifted director in the other sense, and the actors remain wonderful presences in their own ways (and this episode doesn't even feature Colman Domingo, the MVP of a cast filled with MVPs.) Jacob Elordi continues to do excellent work in obliterating his old reputation as an easily-acceptable, handsome, YA-adaptation-ready love interest type by truly embodying disgusting yet enticing sexual menace, aggressing upon male and female characters alike with almost animalistic body language and verbiage. Sydney Sweeney is more than his match as a broken person ready to spiral, kicking off what seems to be an arc of self-destruction with palpable terror and exhaustion. And I hardly need to gush again about either Zendaya's perfectly calculated snarky pith or the well of passion that is Hunter Schaefer, but both kill what they're given to do in this episode. I only hope that Schaefer becomes as much of a star as Zendaya is now.

I also want to talk a bit about what happens to Angus Cloud in this episode, too. The opening ten minutes are tailor-made for anyone who wants to introspect about how they think or have thought their lives were a Scorsese movie (with needle-drops to match), expressing a keen awareness of the dualistic glamour and grit of such depictions of a "transgressive" lifestyle while understanding that the dichotomy itself is a self-imposed and myopic perception of a tenuous existence.
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The episode is basically bookended by two acts of violence, one that Fezco tries to stop and one that Fezco actively perpetuates. The journey between the two is the character's arc through the episode, and as twbb puts it, Fezco is compelled to commit an act of violence much like a similar act that he had previously tried to stop by feelings outside of traditional, self-aware social motivations. The thing I find most interesting about this is that, in light of the ending, the prologue reads as much like subjective justification for subsequent action as it does a more "objective" biographical depiction of this character, as if through that prologue, our narrator Rue is attempting to say, "what else could he have done, his life is like this" while remaining shocked by his actions in her role as a character. All of the cold open biographical prologue segments have to some extent functioned in this way, but never before has the audience of this show been confronted with a behavioral shift like this depicted from so many points of view. Of course I'm not convinced by any of them - Fezco quite self-evidently does not live like Henry Hill or Ace Rothstein or Jordan Belfort - but his incorrectness and Rue's incorrectness only serves as a reminder of how wrong it is to boil down your own life into its own simpler representation, or to do that to your friend.

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Never Cursed
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Re: Euphoria

#40 Post by Never Cursed » Fri Jan 21, 2022 4:12 am

Seems that Euphoria has a big-name guest composer in addition to its guest stars: "Watercolor Eyes"

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Mr Sausage
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Euphoria S01 (Sam Levinson et. al., 2019)

#41 Post by Mr Sausage » Mon Jan 24, 2022 7:48 am

DISCUSSION ENDS MONDAY, February 21st

Members have a two week period in which to discuss the film before it's moved to its dedicated thread in The Criterion Collection subforum. Please read the Rules and Procedures.

This thread is not spoiler free. This is a discussion thread; you should expect plot points of the individual films under discussion to be discussed openly. See: spoiler rules.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

I encourage members to submit questions, either those designed to elicit discussion and point out interesting things to keep an eye on, or just something you want answered. This will be extremely helpful in getting discussion started. Starting is always the hardest part, all the more so if it's unguided. Questions can be submitted to me via PM.

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Re: Euphoria S01 (Sam Levinson et. al., 2019)

#42 Post by Mr Sausage » Mon Jan 24, 2022 7:59 am

What we're watching::

-All 8 episodes of season 1 of Euphoria, broadcast from June 16th 2019 - August 4th 2019.

-Not included:
  • --the two special episodes following season 1, Trouble Don't Always Last and Fuck Anyone Who's Not a Sea Blob. Discussion of them is welcome, but must remain spoiler tagged for the full discussion period.
  • --any episode from Season 2, broadcast January 9th 2022 - present. Since it's ongoing, posts about it ought to go in the dedicated Euphoria thread.

How it works:

-Discussion will run for four weeks instead of the usual two weeks.

-The first two weeks (Jan. 24th - Feb. 7th) are spoiler-free. This can be lengthened depending on participants' progress in the series. Let me know.

-The last two weeks (Feb. 8th - Feb. 21st) are as usual: spoilers welcomed.


Where to watch:

-HBO Max in North America (accessible if you have an HBO cable subscription). Potential free period and discount.

-Sky Atlantic in the U.K.

-If you cannot access these and will commit to participating fully in the discussion, PM therewillbeblus for help.

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Altair
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Re: Euphoria S01 (Sam Levinson et. al., 2019)

#43 Post by Altair » Mon Jan 24, 2022 1:05 pm

I think of Euuphoria as a melodrama, in all of the most positive ways. The hyper-stylisation of the show in terms of cinematography and music cues match up with the drama on screen - physical violence, drug dealing, endless parties, sex - yet it remains rooted in a raw pain shared amongst the main characters (no one is really happy here, and if they are, it's usually a fragile state that won't last until the end of the episode). This is most prominent in Rue's attempts to end her drug addiction, but it's also present in the sexual assaults and emotionally destructive relationships that we witness. As a consequence, the melodrama registers almost as self-glamourisation by the characters themselves: the only way to process what they're going through is to heighten the stakes of everything, as though they're the main characters in a film. So while the parties are bigger and sexier than they would really be, and everyone is more beautiful and better dressed than they would be in a working-class high school in California, Levinson is making the show within the phenomenon - that is to say, he shows it through his main characters' eyes, rather than at a cool, calm distance. It's Scorsese crossed with Sirk.

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Re: Euphoria S01 (Sam Levinson et. al., 2019)

#44 Post by senseabove » Mon Jan 24, 2022 1:36 pm

Altair wrote:
Mon Jan 24, 2022 1:05 pm
As a consequence, the melodrama registers almost as self-glamourisation by the characters themselves: the only way to process what they're going through is to heighten the stakes of everything, as though they're the main characters in a film.
S02E03 SpoilerShow
Image

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Re: Euphoria S01 (Sam Levinson et. al., 2019)

#45 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Jan 24, 2022 2:17 pm

I think Levinson does a great job at balancing the subjectively-defined experiences of corporeal fantasy with raw consequential realities- extended from the glamour of Nate's 'winning' highlights juxtaposed with his introverted anger, to Jules' butterfly-induced anticipation of romantic encounters compared to the real thing in practice, to Rue's declaration that drugs can be "really fucking cool" contrasted with the subsequent acknowledgement that it's a "really narrow fucking window." All of these experiences are authentic, Levinson 100% knows that the euphoric feeling of opiates is unbeatable, and that someone like Rue (and him) are validated in seeking that relief from unbearable dysphoria anywhere they can, and yet he also recognizes this as futile at solving the core issue, destructively fatalistic, and broadly 'troublesome' in both macro and micro realms. It's a devastating look that meets the characters on a level playing field, and most admirably, extends the self-medication hypothesis of addiction to basically all forms of agonizing psychosocial dysphoria.

I love how self-aware these characters are (not 'entirely', but who is?) because that's more or less my experience as well- which isn't exactly 'common' to hear in recovery circles but not singular either. We may be cognizant of our addictions or maladaptive behaviors, but also delude ourselves and choose to repress and forget acknowledgement of addiction- Still, there's nothing more painful that being sober to the fact that you are heading down a horrible path and ruining your own and others' lives and yet cannot actualize a path away from the one you're on. Rue's character is, in my opinion, the most commendable addict character ever committed to film or television for so many reasons- many of which are unable to be communicated- and could only have been concocted in a collaborative effort by a real addict in recovery- However, Zendaya's perf is so honest that it's incredible she's able to pull it off so well without lived experience: Acting, at the very top of the craft. I can only imagine that people who have struggled with experienced more in line with Hunter Schafer's development (who contributed significantly to her character) or Nate's contention with toxic expectations for exhibitions of masculinity with a sensitive, sexually-ambiguous core, will find similar kinships with these stories- but the beautiful effect of Levinson's unconditional humanism is that we can all glean heightened empathy to these truths without having lived through these pains ourselves.

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Never Cursed
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Re: Euphoria S01 (Sam Levinson et. al., 2019)

#46 Post by Never Cursed » Mon Jan 24, 2022 6:22 pm

I'm excited and a little nervous that this was the overwhelming collective choice of the voting board (given that it nearly got as many votes as all the other options combined)! As much as I adore the other films that were on offer, I think this was the best option, given what I think are the show's incredible aesthetic and narrative merits, its frightening relevance, and the wildly polarized reception it has gotten across the critical and popular sphere. It seems as though just as many people hate it as love it, and one need only search the name of writer/director/creator "Sam Levinson" on Twitter to find a horde of aggressive fans and stans of the show threatening its auteur with death for his very deliberate decisions to forgo simple-minded audience pandering.

I've tried to post and thrown out innumerable drafts of posts trying to describe what I love about the show, so I suppose now is a good time for me to write a tiny introduction to it (while taking care to avoid description of specific narrative strands that will hopefully come under discussion later!). Altair and others here and elsewhere are right to call this a hyper-stylized melodrama about fairly serious issues, something that is attempting to express in a really tactile way the feeling of intense anxiety and small-scale chaos that comes with adolescence in general and Gen Z adolescence in specific. (Subjectively, as someone who is part of Gen Z, one of the greatest accomplishments of the show is its ability to capture that internet-and-culture-war-addled anxiety while filtering everything through aesthetically pleasurable lenses and retaining a sarcastic sense of humor; the show is never nearly as miserable as its characters even when it is quite sad). I can't blame anyone who bounces off the show super hard because of how abrasive it can be, but I think even those less receptive to the show's aesthetic sensibilities will find their time well-rewarded by a work that is really willing to reflexively engage with itself and express empathy in a way that presses against some prevailing cultural winds.

Euphoria, and Levinson, generally wear their visual influences well and a little on their sleeves (for this show, the most important filmic ones are Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love, One from the Heart, and Péter Gothár’s Time Stands Still). Levinson's immediate visual predilections remain what they were in his previous feature (expressive and "unrealistic" lighting, a roving yet tightly controlled camera that is always in motion but rarely handheld), but here he moves as far in the direction of a heightened reality as possible by shooting most of the show on mutable sets that occasionally bend and shift around their actors. Even those scenes that are shot on real locations take on the show's somewhat otherworldly quality and lean into the expressiveness of a self-consciously artificial musical dream world
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until the show embellishes its final and most fantastical sequence by briefly becoming a musical.
A lot of what we see is, as Altair and TWBB say, aspirationally fantastical, empathetic in its capacity for depicting the relentlessly driven and sometimes noxious minds of its focal characters without imposing inherent reductive judgements on them.

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Re: Euphoria S01 (Sam Levinson et. al., 2019)

#47 Post by skilar » Tue Jan 25, 2022 12:50 am

I recently finished season one, so this thread has started at the perfect time for me. I don’t often write out thoughts for discussions like these, and I don’t love posting negative opinions (I know there’s a whole thread about that right now), but I want to engage this time around because I’d like to try to parse out conflicting emotions I have about the show. I might try to watch it a second time, but other stuff might take precedence.

Please let me know if I need to spoiler box any of this post. I’ve done a bit, but I’m happy to do more. I’m highly spoiler sensitive, so I get it.

Others have described the show’s POV and working methods, and those takes are in line with what I see. It’s a highly stylized teen melodrama with deep empathy for its characters. There are drugs, parties, sex, relationship drama — all at levels more intense than many other series. This is the kind of show I imagine would have caused an undue stir among church youth groups when I was a teen.

Levinson is executing in precisely the way he set out to, and I commend and admire him for that ability. He commands lighting, story, editing, and more at a high level. The actors, for the most part, do excellent work. Yes, Zendaya deserves a shoutout.

But I find myself right on the line of loving and hating the show. Each episode pulls me in both directions. I deeply admire the empathy and respect each character is portrayed with. There’s no reductive judgment of their problems or failings. We see and feel each character’s pain. I’ve been surprised by the way certain characters break convention, especially
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Nate’s dad.
These things pervade every episode, and I think they’re what make Euphoria worth watching. The show lets us understand the world from the perspective of another person, and it gives us the opportunity to see ourselves portrayed in an honest, nonjudgmental way. We have a chance to feel less alone. This kind of approach is vital, the kind of thing the best art does.

I’ve also been surprised at how bored I’ve been, given how much the show tries to grab its audience’s attention. The storylines are predictable, their life taken primarily from the show’s empathy. Even the visuals are predictable for me, something I associate with the reels of many young DPs out there today. It’s incredibly well done but doesn’t do the job for me in this context. Maybe if the show went further with its embellishments, deeper into the realm of the
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musical it briefly becomes
then I might find it more interesting.

Or perhaps the opposite, if it were stripped of all the flourishes and given only the simplest tools to get the job done. Maybe not to the extreme of Dogme, but something that forces it to focus on the scene and the characters in a simple way. What the show would be like without such striking visuals and big camera moves? If all that was left was its empathy for its characters and a predictable story. What would it be like? I don’t know, but it would be interesting to find out.

I’m glad the show won the poll, and I’m happy that several here take a lot from it. I’m excited to see where the discussion goes and if my opinion shifts along the way.

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Never Cursed
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Re: Euphoria S01 (Sam Levinson et. al., 2019)

#48 Post by Never Cursed » Tue Jan 25, 2022 3:01 am

Hey, a well-thought-out post is welcome regardless of the stance you ultimately take on the show (certainly you don't have to worry about seeming like someone who only seeks out negativity)! The first thing I should say is, given what you wrote, if you haven't seen the first special episode (Trouble Don't Last Always), I recommend that you see it post-haste. Stylistically it is very much the thing you're asking for at the end of what you've written: it's a deep dive into a single conversation between two characters that sheds all of the show's expressive established visual language in favor of a powerful economical simplicity (it is essentially a filmed play, and it could be adapted to the stage with almost no changes). I can't do better than TWBB did in the dedicated thread in describing its power (some spoilers in that post), but I cannot recommend it enough if you want to test that hypothesis of yours. Alternatively, the second special episode has moments that swing fully into the sensory realms that you describe in that second spoilerbox (particularly in its opening-credits sequence and in an elaborate middle setpiece set to a collage of two or three separate pieces of music).

I'm interested to hear a bit more about what you mean by the predictability of the storylines and particularly the visuals or compositions. One of the things I (subjectively) appreciate the most about the show is how frequently I felt it upended our main characters' goals and desires through their own emotive states without resorting to clichés or the plain stupidity of those characters. Things like
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Nate sincerely falling for Jules and reconfiguring his pursuit of her into a blackmail strategy in response to rejection, or Kat's strange journey from the sting of sexual embarrassment to the derivation of false empowerment through that pain to her ultimate rejection of that empowerment, or even Jules' discomfort with the responsibilities she feels as a result of her relationship with Rue
struck me as deliberately subversive and surprising to the point that
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the path of the Rue-Jules relationship ultimately leads into a criticism of "shipping," of the arbitrary desire for two fictional characters to be together for the edification of the viewer.
I agree, as I think you sort of state, that empathy can't be the only path towards engagement with the show or its characters or its narrative, but that isn't the only way I found them to be moving or verisimilitudinous.

In the same vein, I'm surprised to hear that you found the visuals predictable or particularly similar to the work of most younger or more independent cinematographers. Certainly I think the show could do with less rapid dollies-in (definitely the most obvious influence of Magnolia represented) and it could sometimes do with a different color palette for daytime or school-set scenes, but it overwhelmingly fails to resemble, well, most contemporary film or TV to my eyes, between the lack of coverage used in filming, the expressive lighting, the phantasmagoric color palette of nighttime and party scenes, and the occasional changing of filmstocks mid-episode. I agree that some of it has a neon-lit demo reel mood or vibe to it, but even then, I thought the show did a great job at finding an internal use for that mood.

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Mr Sausage
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Re: Euphoria S01 (Sam Levinson et. al., 2019)

#49 Post by Mr Sausage » Tue Jan 25, 2022 10:56 am

Episode 1
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The narrator announces that she is unreliable, but there's a question of how her narration really functions: does it base itself on the images, a describer and contextualizer of what we see, or are the images also part of her narration and subject to her consciousness? Does what Rue say generate what we see, or vice versa? In particular, when the filmmaking in this episode makes certain connections, is this the filmmakers' understanding of Rue' character? Is it how Rue chooses to understand herself? Both? The instance that caught me came early, a summarizing of Rue and her generation by having her literally born on 9/11 to parents who spend their maternity stay in hospital watching tv in shock that quickly turned to numbness. As a near allegorical description of a generation, this...almost explains things away. It's apt and pointed and done wryly enough to avoid bathos, but it's also facile and reductive. And there we go: how seriously do we take this as a commentary on a generation vs. a commentary on how a generation sees itself vs. a knowing parody, and what do we do with the fact that the commentary is both candid and open-eyed and, well, ridiculous and inadequate, without resolving that tension?

This gets to a wider impression I had watching the first episode, that the show constantly risks ridiculousness in its manner and yet doesn't seem to view its subject as worthy of ridicule. How to reconcile that impression? I mean, there's already the most torrid, contrived melodrama, with the new girl inadvertently hooking up with the dad of the school's hulking psychopath mere hours before having her own melodramatic confrontation with him. But then there's a level of vulnerability here that's striking and far from my own generation's basic ethos. For example, Rue's big speech to the drug dealer has an immediate openness and vulnerability I did not expect from such empty, anhedonic people. Rue's trauma and mental health struggles, the loss of her dad and origin of her panic attacks, are related as context rather than revelation. They are not the hard-won personal details earned by achieving a certain pitch of emotional intimacy with someone. They are a basic part of identity and shared therefore with friends as contextual details in a story in which they are not the ultimate point. Or, speaking of Jules, the melodramatic scene with the knife. Because of course she cuts herself. She tells Rue later that it was better than getting a fractured cheekbone, ie. it's easier to hurt oneself than be hurt by others. That's not facile, and we see immediately her staged dramatic gesture is also an open admission of her own wounds and her capacity for self-destruction (as a means of self-preservation!). An in-your-face moment of vulnerability in a scene about aggressive power dynamics. The hulking psychopath is more what I expected, someone who hides his vulnerabilities behind simpler emotions that he projects outwards. Less so people who wear their vulnerability as identity or armour or whatever else.

This is the show as it's set itself up for me: a play of extremes, the ridiculous and the moving, a hard shell of aesthetic stimulus where the internal world of the characters only nominally exists but in reality is transformed into surface and aesthetic effect--and yet this style is trained on characters who externalize their traumas and mental health and addiction issues into their outer social identity. The show seems less interested in diving deep within than bringing up everything to the surface. Which may sound like a distinction without a difference, but does have a slightly different effect on the viewer.

No idea if I like this or not, or if this is truly representative or not. But I'm intrigued.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Euphoria S01 (Sam Levinson et. al., 2019)

#50 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Jan 25, 2022 2:24 pm

Insightful thoughts, as always- and this gets at a discussion question regarding the narration's function I was going to PM you but struggled to frame into coherent thought (likely because, as you keenly observe, the narration is ambiguously broad in its relation to its intention or service), but here it goes:

'How does Rue’s voice as omniscient narrator engage us as an audience as she narrates other people's stories? Is it true omniscience, fantastically entering the core of these characters' vulnerabilities in friction with obstacles rooted in the characters' relationships with their external milieus and internal psychologies barring that entry in 'reality', subjectively fusing us to them with unconditional empathy? Or it is a ruse, and actually a distanced perspective of projected perceptions forged from information that may be passed on (hypothetically) through school-hall gossip and formulated into a skewed narrative (or, is it a reductive self-imposed narrative based on that characters' own intangible grasp on their psychology, spoken through a third party in Rue's voice)? Does the narration find a middle ground between these two extremes- that which recognizes the fantasy necessary to achieve this linkage with outsiders and also the impossibility at truly grasping one's essence subjectively? Does this service then validate that which cannot be validated outside of artistic intrusions, and, going from that, is this a celebration of art's ability to mechanize empathy as well as a depressing surrender to the burdened futility in achieving true empathic knowledge or harmonic bonds outside of this audience-subject relationship? Is this unique to gen z, or a hyper-realized acute amplified extension of the 50s melodrama i.e. Rebel Without a Cause (which I think is the informal precursor to Levinson's previous feature that allowed this series to be greenlit)?'

I think a lot of what your post and this question graze is Levinson's empathy for the restricted access toward intangible supports/platforms to issue and receive vulnerable information- ironic given the flood of mass tangible access via social platforms- this generation has to announce themselves and be seen with liberation from overwhelming constraints (in social media, relentless judgment and expectations, the alienating distancing ironically born from coddling parental styles post-9/11, etc.) -which, by externalizing into thick aesthetics and reductive tangible assets, empowers this access. I already spoke at length about Levinson's intricately reflexive approach and stretching of this core idea to the ledge of its extremes and beyond in Assassination Nation, and I think he's doing something very similar here.

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