Having promised myself never to watch a trending Gen Z series, I am ashamed to say I did. And boy was it good
This series was filled with sex, drugs, parties, power, lowkey rape and some moments of bullying. The characters were very complicated teenagers. They were very burdened for 15-17 year old children and I don’t know if this burdensomeness was self inflicted or out of their control. It made me wonder if we were this heavy laden as teenagers. One thing I am sure of, I enjoyed disliking the characters in Sam Levinson’s Euphoria.
Let’s discuss Rue for a bit – who I dislike
I cannot let this piece end without discussing Rue, the main character *sigh* Rue was a lot.
She is an individual that is too within herself. Too mysterious. Too much of an addict. Too selfish. I don’t know how her mother didn’t give up on her sooner. She did not care too much. She fell unnecessarily deeply in love with her friend, Jules, which was also too much. My wish for her was that she could be less, maybe her life would be better. She is also quite untidy and reckless, too much. Reckless with her life and the lives of others.
And yes, perhaps she lost her father too early in her life. She watched him slowly wither away and die being taken away by a monster of a disease. That is too much for any child to experience. She was also a child who already had mental health issues. Her panic attacks were huge and it was hinted that she dealt with OCD. And in came strong, highly addictive medication to help her manage her illness. I wonder if doctors worry about what these drugs can do to people?
Rue went through a lot and she realises herself that she did not know what to do with it all – how to channel her grief and other deep emotions. Instead of dealing with it she let drugs consume her, leading to an array of events where she got people like Jules, Lexi and Fezco entangled in. Her sister Gia is also deeply hurt by Rue’s actions however Rue is too selfish to see any of this. Her beginning and end goal is drugs.
I don’t remember her parents sending her to therapy though. That plus less pills would have helped, especially after the loss of her father. It could also have been a matter of money or she perhaps became too much of a junkie to care about therapy, when she was older. I don’t know…
I really would have loved to see the story from the parents’ side. For all the characters, it would have been comforting to see that the parents are active in their children’s lives and that they are not just uninvolved bystanders letting underaged children control their own lives. Children are usually products of how they are raised – we see this quite clearly in Nate’s story…
Missblossoming 