By Gregory Brown, MD/PhD Candidate
The new HBO series ‘Euphoria’ which just finished season one takes a strong look at the Gen-Z culture. The show features a ton of sex and drugs along with the anxiety, back stabbing, and romantic crushes of high school.
Based on the graphic depiction of these topics, there is debate on whether this show (along with others like ‘13 Reasons Why’) can help or hurt teenager’s psyche.
On one hand the show depicts the trauma that can be caused by drugs. Centered on Rue’s (played by Zendaya) struggle with drug addiction. The show does not hold back on the damage (both physical and emotional) that the disease has on her, her family, and her friends.
But the show, draped in bright colors, highlights the seductive nature of drugs. In one-episode, Rue and her best friend, Jules, take a hallucinogenic drug that causes them to cry sparkly purple tears of joy. Rue also finds the numbing nature of opioids to be her only reprieve from anxiety. When life is clouded in depression, sadness, pain, fear, loneliness, sometimes feeling nothing can be the best feeling of all.
This goes for many of the high school tropes that ‘Euphoria’ races through with rapid speed: sexting, teenage pregnancy, abusive relationships, gender fluidity.
Actually, the gender fluidity part of ‘Euphoria’ seems to get it right, by highlighting the issues that non-binary individuals face, while empowering and humanizing them.
Still, many of the topics tackled in the first season seemed to be brushed aside with simple solutions. Rapidly being resolved and onto the next classic high school problem.
Maybe these quick plot resolution devices could be good for high schoolers. Life goes on, and these seemingly important problems (i.e. a friend ghosting you for 3 days) really is not a major problem. The characters in this show have much bigger problems, and they seem to get through it.
Maybe the show is more important for older generations. To highlight the struggles of Gen-Z. The constant presence of technology, smart-phones, and social media. The constant need to be “special” but included. The constant anxiety and loneliness, but also invincibility, of being 17.
The show could help older people understand the mentality of this generation. The way rumors can spread so rapidly. The fact everyone has a camera in their pockets.
Also, quite possibly, ‘Euphoria’ is just a television show. An exciting, fantastical world to tune into once a week. Graphic displays of violence, sex, drugs are riddled throughout pop culture. Just because this one includes teenagers and high schoolers does not change much.
It is important to recognize there are informative resources for teenage drug abuse (https://teens.drugabuse.gov) and ensure there is education on the risks of sex and drugs. But HBO shows have never been the source of such information. In the end, the show is entertainment, and the intensity and cinematography of ‘Euphoria’ is entertaining.