Gunjan Nath on February 28, 2022
Euphoria, the HBO teen angst drama with generous proportions of sex, drugs, violence, and other tasty stuff, is something so many are tweeting about. From memes about who could “end Nate Jacobs” to reactions to Rue exposing Cassie, tweets about the current Euphoria episode flood the timeline and trend on Twitter.
According to the UK Addiction Treatment (UKAT) Group, Euphoria has led to an increase in young individuals seeking help for addiction issues. The HBO series’ second season ended Sunday night, and one of the main themes throughout its run has been drug addiction, as seen through the eyes of Rue Bennett played by Zendaya.
Despite the rise, the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program in the United States has previously criticized Euphoria’s portrayal of juvenile drug use, alleging the series decided to misguidedly glorify and erroneously depict such features. According to UKAT’s head consultant, there has been a minor increase in young people seeking addiction treatment since the show aired. Nuno Albuquerque told Metro.co.uk that the show is helping raise awareness in a big way.
“What shows like Euphoria do is to raise the awareness of young people and children experiencing and in some cases, struggling with mature life situations like drug misuse. Thankfully there has been a very small rise in the number of young people getting in touch with our support services asking for help and guidance. It’s naïve of society to believe that our younger generation don’t use and abuse substances, or to think that we can always protect them. If shows like Euphoria manage to encourage even one young person to reach out and ask for help, then that’s wonderful.”
Zendaya boldly defended the series, telling Entertainment Weekly: “Our show is in no way a moral tale to teach people how to live their life or what they should be doing. If anything, the feeling behind Euphoria, or whatever we have always been trying to do with it, is to hopefully help people feel a little bit less alone in their experience and their pain. And maybe feel like they’re not the only one going through or dealing with what they’re dealing with.”
Euphoria follows a group of high school students as they navigate identity, trauma, drugs, friendships, love, and sex. Even the Super Bowl episode “Thousand Little Trees of Blood,” which aired during the game, drew 5.1 million people on its first night. Euphoria has already been renewed for a third season by HBO.
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February 28, 2022 9:38 am
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