‘Euphoria’ Returns: Trashier, Sexier—and Better—Than Ever After four years, Euphoria is back, as tawdry and titillating as ever. And yet, somehow, better. With its first two seasons, Sam Levinson perfected a particular brand of high-gloss trash, cramming every possible scary, sleazy, screamy, sexed-up teen issue into a multipronged story that was dialed to 100 and pitched as the most pretentious show in television history. The creator/writer/director never met a young girl he didn’t want to droolingly ogle and/or put through hell, and with his HBO hit, he lustily indulged in goofy, inane, exploitative maximalism. Yet for all the grating posturing, its self-conscious over-the-topness occasionally resulted in bracing drama. The show was totally phony, lurid, gross, and look-at-me ridiculous, except on those intermittent occasions when it was startling, invigorating, and real. That push-pull between the affected and the authentic remains intact in Euphoria’s long-awaited third season (April 12), whose protagonists, now out of high school, find themselves navigating a modern world where sex is the most valuable commodity, and selling it is the quickest, easiest, and best means of achieving their dreams. Levinson’s series, you won’t be surprised to hear, is happy to sell it too, in great, sensationalistic doses. More than before, though, his plotting is rigorously streamlined and his characters piercingly defined, making this eagerly anticipated return (at least on the basis of the three episodes provided in advance to press) its finest to date. Euphoria gets off to an adrenalized start in the Chihuahua desert, with Rue (Zendaya) operating as a drug mule for Laurie (Martha Kelly), who didn’t let her previous faux pas with a suitcase full of drugs slide.#sam_levinson #euphoria #zendaya #martha_kelly #adewale_akinnuoyeagbaje
