Colman Domingo and Zendaya in “Euphoria” season 3, which premieres on Sunday, April 12 on HBO Credit: Photograph by Patrick Wymore/HBO via TNS.
When “Euphoria” premiered in 2019, it quickly became one of the most talked-about series of its time, averaging 5.6 million views per episode, according to IMDb, and turning actors like Zendaya (Rue Bennett), Jacob Elordi (Nate Jacobs) and Sydney Sweeney (Cassie Howard) into overnight sensations. The HBO original series covers serious topics, including addiction, trauma, sexuality, toxic relationships and self-image.
More than four years later, the release of the series’ final season has not only received widespread attention on social media but has also highlighted how much its audience has grown since its premiere.
The series’ third season premiered April 12, and its eighth episode finale, “In God We Trust,” will premiere Sunday on HBO and Max, according to IMDb.?
As time has passed, much of “Euphoria’s” audience, who started out as high school students, like the series’ main characters, has entered adulthood — with new opinions and experiences about the series and its impact.?
Alex Koenig, a third-year in computer science engineering who first watched “Euphoria” in 2022 after the second season premiered, said, looking back, the aesthetic of the series made substance use seem less serious than it is in reality.?
“I thought it made [drugs] seem a lot more fun and a lot less risky,” Koenig said. “I saw the risk in the show and how it obviously had a major impact on the characters, but I knew they were still going to walk away, free from it.”
Now, four years later, Koenig said the series’ first two seasons romanticized substance use.
“There’s so much more danger to drug use, and I feel like it glamorized it a little too much with all the partying and makeup and the glitter — it made it seem too lighthearted,” Koenig said. “I feel like they didn’t show enough of the lasting impacts or how terrible it can really be.”
Beyond its plot, “Euphoria” was also popularized by its visual aesthetic of purple and blue mood lighting, unique outfits and make-up looks that incorporate glitter and rhinestones.?
Jesse Fox, a professor in the School of Communication who examines how technologies affect behaviors and attitudes, said these aesthetics greatly influence the emotions viewers associate with the series.?
“When you make it look beautiful and fun and sexy and so forth, people are going to get a more positive experience off of that, or have more positive associations with it,” Fox said. “They’re making it aesthetically pretty and engaging because they assume viewers might be on drugs while watching it.”?
Fox said watching experiences, in real life or in the media, affect people differently depending on their age.
“There’s a lot of reason to believe that the things we observe when we’re younger, and still developing, ingrain themselves more,” Fox said. “That’s why it takes more effort when we’re older to counterbalance that.”?
Throughout the series, viewers see the different mental health challenges characters face. Fox said portrayals of mental health in television series can often have a positive impact on audiences.?
“It’s good to have representations that are more authentic to what mental health is like,” Fox said. “It can be educational for people who need a better understanding and more sympathy towards people who are experiencing these things.”
Apart from its portrayal of substance abuse and mental health struggles, “Euphoria” also focuses on toxic relationships and self-image. In both seasons, viewers see the abusive relationship between Maddy (Alexa Demie) and Nate and, later, Cassie and Nate.?
Fox said seeing these onscreen depictions, especially at a younger age, can have a significant impact on how fans perceive their own relationships.
“Seeing these toxic portrayals of relationships, whether they be domineering, physically abusive, verbally abusive or corrosive control, the more that’s normalized, the more people get these expectations that that’s what relationships are like,” Fox said.
The series lost multiple cast members during its four-year break, spanning from Feb. 2022 to April 2026, according to Vanity Fair.?
Angus Cloud, who played Fezco, died of an accidental overdose in 2023 before production began for the final season, according to a BBC article. Koenig said the loss of Cloud led the series to have a greater impact on her.?
“It does kind of make it feel more real,” Koenig said. “It feels more serious because it’s someone who was actually struggling with this, and they were on the show and experienced the bad parts that can happen.”
Although the final season found a way to include Cloud’s character, Fox said the death of an actor can largely affect how viewers consume a series.?
“You can’t disentangle the artist and the art, so it can sort of ruin it for you,” Fox said. “Once you make [a series] dark and heavy, or you have something like that happen, there’s sort of a little sadness that’s carried in that makes the experience never quite the same.”
