The Big Picture

• HBO's hit show "Euphoria" has faced criticism for its sexualization and brutalization of young female characters.
• Characters like Maddy, Cassie, Kat, and Jules are subjected to excessive abuse, exploitation, and objectification.
• The show's creator, Sam Levinson, has been accused of exploiting young women under the guise of critiquing society and dismissing criticism.

Now that both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes have officially come to an end, HBO has announced several of its high-profile shows won't return to our TV screens until 2025. This includes some of their biggest hits like The White Lotus, The Last of Us, and Euphoria, the most popular teen drama as of late. With the various controversies stirred up by writer-director Sam Levinson's latest series The Idol, which was canceled after its first season, criticisms regarding the treatment of his female characters have been of major discussion again. Some have taken issue with the excessive nudity and objectification of the canonically underage female characters in Euphoria, as well as their frequent subjection to sexual violence. When a Rolling Stone article went viral in March detailing the behind-the-scenes chaos and disturbing sexual content that was ultimately scrapped from The Idol, viewers were apprehensive about tuning in, and the series would go on to become the worst-reviewed show in HBO history. Looking at the first two seasons of Euphoria and The Idol's pilot episode alone, it's hard not to notice a pattern in Levinson's exploitative depictions of young women under the guise of critiquing our misogynistic society, while at the same time snubbing his nose at those who criticize him.

'Euphoria' Sexualizes Underage Girls

Euphoria is the most popular teen drama at the moment and became the second-most watched HBO series of all time behind only Game of Thrones. Following the lives of an eclectic group of California teenagers, there's plenty of drug use, violence, and above all, nudity. It's essentially the Gen Z version of Skins with striking cinematography, expensive needle drops, and makeup and wardrobe that have inspired an untold number of Halloween costumes. Based on an Israeli series of the same name, Euphoria was created by Levinson and served as a star vehicle for Zendaya as she shed her Disney image in favor of more mature roles. Levinson wasn't a particularly huge name at the time of Euphoria's release, so a good percentage of its initial viewership likely tuned in to see Zendaya prove herself as a serious actress.

And that she did, becoming the youngest winner of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 2020, winning the same award again in 2022. Levinson drew inspiration from his own experience with addiction in creating Zendaya's character Rue, so it's not surprising that hers would be the character written with the most care and depth. But aside from Rue, almost all the young women in the show's main ensemble are over-sexualized or brutalized in some way.

All of Euphoria's characters have difficult lives, but the storylines established in the pilot episode alone include most of the girls being sexually exploited, whether it's through revenge porn, statutory rape, or slut-shaming. Obviously, these are very real issues that teenage girls face today, but the show's heavy-handed commentary and graphic depiction of characters who are canonically underage (though the actors are all adults) is one of the show's most glaring problems. The four characters who most fall victim to this are Maddy (Alexa Demie), Cassie (Sydney Sweeney), Kat (Barbie Ferreira), and Jules (Hunter Schafer).

Maddy Goes Through Excessive Amounts of Abuse and Exploitation

Maddy is the confident, popular girl whose abusive, on-again off-again relationship with popular football player Nate (Jacob Elordi) is the main focus of her story arc in Season 1. She's topless the first time we ever see her on screen, she doesn't particularly enjoy the rough sex she has with Nate, and her backstory reveals that she slept with a 40-year-old man when she was 14, a moment where the narration states that "she [Maddy] was the one in control." Nate physically and emotionally abuses her throughout the first season, in often quite brutal scenes that are hard to watch. Depictions of intimate partner violence can be important when done well, but Maddy is far from the only character who experiences such blatant sexualization and violence.

Why Did Barbie Ferreira Leave 'Euphoria'?

Kat's storyline is perhaps the most uncomfortable and downright baffling one of all. The only plus-sized character in the show, Kat begins Season 1 feeling insecure that she’s the only one of her friends who has yet to lose her virginity, leading to her having sex with a guy she just met at a house party. Unbeknownst to her, he filmed their whole encounter and shared it online. She manages to dispel the rumors at school that it’s her in the video but soon discovers it’s been uploaded to a porn website. Initially horrified, after reading the comments, she realizes she could make money being a cam girl. While it's important to tell these kinds of stories of plus-sized girls coming into their own and gaining self-confidence, having an underage girl find empowerment through online sex work probably isn't the most responsible way to do so.

Though her journey to empowerment was problematic, her storyline in Season 1 was an interesting one to follow. But this changed dramatically in Season 2 as Kat had far less screen time before Barbie Ferreira revealed she would not be returning to the show for Season 3. In Season 1, Kat is confident and snarky but shows a softer side as she starts to fall for an actual nice guy, Ethan (Austin Abrams), but she does a complete 180 in Season 2. She becomes selfish and manipulative as she suddenly loses all interest in Ethan and unceremoniously tries to dump him by telling him she has a terminal brain disorder. The news of Ferreira's departure came among claims that she and Levinson butted heads over the direction of her character, even reportedly walking off-set multiple times. Though Ferreira has not elaborated much on the matter, it's disappointing to see Levinson tarnish her character in Season 2 leading to Ferreira's departure.

Cassie Is the Most Oversexualised Character on 'Euphoria'

This isn't the first time we've heard stories of Euphoria cast members pushing back on Levinson's writing, with Sydney Sweeney telling The Independent in 2022, "There are moments where Cassie was supposed to be shirtless, and I would tell Sam, ‘I don’t really think that’s necessary here.’ He was like, ‘OK, we don’t need it’." She made it clear that she was never uncomfortable on set filming intimate scenes, but this does speak to Cassie's over-sexualization, in particular. Cassie is the character we see nude most often on Euphoria and a big part of her character revolves around her sexual activity and the slutshaming she is subjected to at school and online. In the pilot, the first real introduction we get to her character is through a scene where a group of teenage boys makes sexually degrading comments about her while swiping through what's essentially a slide show of Cassie's nude photos and videos (all of which are shown on screen).

Cassie craves validation from men and likes being submissive to whoever she's in a relationship with, which makes her first sexual encounter with her Season 1 boyfriend McKay (Algee Smith) a bit disturbing. Goaded by his friends, McKay almost immediately initiates rough sex with Cassie and begins to choke her, with no warning or explicit consent. Keeping in mind that her character is underage, Cassie is shaken at first, but then tells him not to do it again... "unless she asks him to." Cassie is by far the most objectified character on the show and has consistently terrible relationships with men, which escalates in Season 2 to her "relationship" with Nate, who she watched abuse Maddy for the entirety of Season 1.

The Ups and Downs of Jules's Characterization on 'Euphoria'

Aside from Rue, Euphoria largely revolves around Jules for the majority of the first season, only to be sidelined in Season 2 and undergo a dramatic character change. Rue's enigmatic best friend (and later girlfriend), Jules' character offers a nuanced portrayal of a transgender teen, but this doesn't exclude her from the over-sexualization Levinson subjects the aforementioned characters to. Viewers were taken with Jules in Season 1, receiving praise from fellow trans women, and it is refreshing to see a trans protagonist whose gender identity is not the focus of their storyline. We also get to see what goes into Jules' complicated journey with her gender identity, including scenes that show her receiving hormone injections, but also her struggles with how her pursuit of femininity has been motivated by the male gaze, particularly by men who fetishize trans femmes.

Jules' character is at her most captivating when Levinson lets actress Hunter Schafer take the reins in Euphoria's 2021 special episode "Part 2: Jules" or "Fuck Anyone Who's Not a Sea Blob." Co-written by Schafer, the episode takes place during the winter holiday between the first and second seasons, as Jules speaks to a therapist after running away from home in the Season 1 finale. It's a beautiful character study that gives us a better understanding of her childhood trauma and intense feelings for Rue, but she had to suffer quite a bit in Season 1 before she could get there.

Despite her trans identity not being the focal point of her character, she still experiences transphobia from Nate and fetishization by Nate and his dad. Nate's character is clearly an extension of his father Cal (Eric Dane) in that they have both lived their lives plagued by sexual repression and have their eyes set on Jules. Her pain is used as a touchpoint between Nate and his dad to highlight how similar they are, both hurting Jules in the process. Jules has rough, painful sex with Cal in a motel room, and he films the encounter without her consent. Nate catfishes Jules into falling in love with him and sending him nudes only to blackmail her with them later. So, despite all the soul-searching and character development that took place in her special episode, Jules' pain is used as a plot device to further develop two of the show's most abhorrent characters.

Like Kat, Jules was also sidelined in Season 2 despite the success of her special episode, including some abrupt character changes. After Jules gives an eloquent explanation to her therapist about not being attracted to men and not wanting to center her life around them anymore, Season 2 brings Elliot (Dominic Fike) into the picture, creating a twisted sort of love triangle between Jules, Elliot, and Rue. Rue and Jules' relationship was already fragile to begin with, but her cheating on Rue with Elliot totally disregards where we left her character in the 2021 special episode.

Euphoria presents itself as progressive but uses graphic nudity and sexual violence enacted on its teenage girl characters for the sake of depicting the realities teenagers face today. It seems more than a little excessive to include three separate plot lines involving (and showing on screen) leaked nude photos/videos of teenage girls. Levinson's filmography shows that he has a propensity to write about women experiencing intense suffering because the Euphoria girls are put through the wringer, but so are women in his two films, Assassination Nation and Malcolm and Marie, and the protagonist of his latest series, The Idol.

Was Sam Levinson Making Fun of His Critics With 'The Idol'?

Considering the media firestorm that ensued following the Rolling Stone article and the mixed reactions it received after its debut at Cannes, The Idol tried to justify its existence in the first 20 minutes of the pilot episode. It opens with Jocelyn (Lily Rose-Depp) in the midst of a photo shoot for her upcoming album donning just a silky red robe, and as the shoot progresses she lets it slip to expose her bare chest. Though she doesn’t appear uncomfortable with the situation, the intimacy coordinator on set steps in to pause the shoot, as Jocelyn is only allowed to expose certain parts and angles of her breasts per her nudity rider. Despite Jocelyn herself insisting that she feels comfortable with nudity, there's a required 48-hour waiting period after updating the rider in order to restart the shoot. It's indicated that it's hard to get Jocelyn on set on time in the first place, so this hiccup leads to immediate pushback from her manager, Chaim (Hank Azaria), who argues with the intimacy coordinator and ends up locking him in a bathroom so that the shoot can continue.

One way to look at this scene is to read the big fuss made about the nudity rider as an example of Jocelyn's overbearing management team who are willing to sacrifice her comfort and emotional wellbeing for the sake of a successful photo shoot. But considering the criticisms directed towards Levinson for excessive nudity and objectification of his female stars (and his reactions towards that criticism), it seems like an intentional middle finger to these critics by mocking the very idea of intimacy coordinators and nudity clauses. These contracts and policies are meant to protect performers from being pressured into nudity in the spur-of-the-moment, as the intimacy coordinator tries to explain, but it becomes an aggravating back and forth meant to make it look like the intimacy coordinator is actually taking away her agency. Though he may have been genuinely attempting a critique on Jocelyn's domineering managers, the context of Levinson's former projects and the chaos that reportedly took place on the set of The Idol, it's hard not to read it as him telling his detractors to just get over it.

What's Next for 'Euphoria'?

The WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes have set back a number of high-profile series across streaming platforms but shows like Euphoria and Stranger Things, whose protagonists are supposed to be teenagers, will likely be most visibly affected by the time their new seasons are released. While the main child ensemble of Stranger Things has grown up before our eyes throughout the series' run, most of the cast of Euphoria were in their early twenties during Season 1 and will be nearing their thirties by the time Season 3 is set to air, though a rumored five-year time jump could resolve this. Season 3 will also need to address the fate of Fez's character after the tragic death of Angus Cloud in August.

Aside from former child actress Zendaya who has been famous since her Disney Channel days, Euphoria has launched several of its cast members into stardom. Though she had several brief but significant roles before Euphoria, Sydney Sweeney has starred in several films following the success of Euphoria, like Reality, The Voyeurs, and the upcoming romantic comedy Anyone But You alongside Glen Powell. Jacob Elordi appeared in two high-profile films in 2023 alone, Priscilla and the upcoming Saltburn, and Hunter Schafer stars in the upcoming The Hunger Games prequel, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. With their careers taking off, returning to Euphoria for Season 3 almost seems like a step backward, especially considering the show's decline in quality from the first season to the second. It's also unclear whether Season 3 will be Euphoria's final season, but with the potential time jump and the fact that several of its stars have seemingly outgrown it, it probably should be.

Euphoria is available to stream on Max.

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