REVIEW: HBO Max’s ‘Euphoria’ Highly-Anticipated Season 2 Premiere

It’s finally here. The highly anticipated season 2 of HBO Max’s Euphoria debuted on January 9 as fans tuned in from all over the world. 

Setting HBO Max’s Euphoria viewer count record approximately 2.4 million audience members sat in front of their screens on Sunday night absorbing in its cinematic, intense acting, and set design beauty, thus deeming the episode the most robust digital premiere performance of any HBO Max episode since its last premiere in May.

Emmy-Award-winning Actress, Zendaya graced audience members, picking up from the end of the first season as hopeful fans gasped in shock and awe as Rue’s heartbreak and Jules’s uncertainties were met within its shared complexities with brutal force.

Meeting for the first time after they depart from one another in the last season, Jules greets Rue at a bonfire set outside of the episode’s unique and iconic teen house-party setting. The storytelling and cinematic artistry of both the past and present between Rue and Jules provide the miscommunicated entanglement held amongst them. Still, it also branches their character development and stories in a prospective number of possibilities in this season’s future.

Episode one presented us with an over-the-scope visit to the past as our favorite endearing, and Mac Miller alike, Fezco’s complicated childhood was briefly explained.

The character’s plot was filled with domestic violence, drugs, and addiction, following a backstory of his beloved gangster grandmother. Opening the scene up with guns, strip clubs, and the mention of Fez being his grandmother’s ‘business partner.’ As highly emphasized throughout the opening, “he’s not a kid; that’s my business partner.”

Angus Cloud, our notable actor that plays Fez, provided warmth and coldness that balances between the life of Fez and his little brother, ‘Ash.’

One of the most delicate yet intriguing aspects of Euphoria is its purposeful use of character development, reflection, and woe that intensifies and places watchers with truthfulness that make up the life of these fictional teenagers and their surrounding community. It challenges thought and visual perception.

Euphoria comprehends the building blocks of being human and the restraints of self-acknowledgment, healing, and facing one’s most outstanding demons while intertwining personal obstacles each character’s backstory faces. Therefore it’s raw, authentic, and consistently pushing the limits in themes that depict friendships, relationships, addiction, loss, suffering, vulnerability, and more.

It is completely injected with teen anguish in Euphoria’s dreary dangerous world. An article from Vulture mentions,

“Every aspect of this season of Euphoria — the filmmaking, the storytelling, the acting — also brims with a hunger to push harder, go deeper, and uncork more emotion. After a more than two-year hiatus, aside from two one-off episodes released last year, Euphoria is coming out of quarantine hot, with an abundance of artistic confidence that makes it intoxicating to watch even when its young people are being put through some serious wringers.”

This is quite evident as Cassie (Sydney Bernice Sweeney) and Maddie (Alexa Demie) are faced with a situation that would essentially make or break their trust and friendship with one another. Therefore, prompting Cassie to mention to their ex-partner, Mckay (Algee Smith), that as they stated, they didn’t believe they were a “good person” or worthy of being a “girlfriend.” Quite fitting as it allowed Mckay to connect the dots of what exactly happened without Cassie explaining explicitly what had occurred. But, as you watch, the situation is quite teeth-clenching.

As the house party scene continues, brief moments of other characters are introduced, such as Kat and Ethan’s relationship (Barbie Ferreira and Austin Abrams) with a more established in-depth introductory conversation that is held amongst Lexi (Maude Apatow) and Fezco’s characters—showing a more vulnerable, relatable, and personable Fez as he enjoyed the house-party from the comfort of his favorite spot in any, the couch.

Angus Cloud’s performance and depiction of Fez seem to hold the richness, soul, and secret weapon of Euphoria. But, as the episode progresses, the tension and various characters’ decision-making and morals are questioned and fixed, thus prompting a scream-worthy reaction following the final scenes.

Musician Dominic Fike also makes an appearance, making a lasting debut impression as Elliot and allowing the audience to be hungry for more and the prediction that Elliot’s character may soon be critical to Rue and Jule’s complex relationship.

Euphoria’s season 2, episode 2, entitled “Out of Touch,” is scheduled for release on January 16.