EUPHORIA is Anything But: Why It’s Failing and What Audiences Really Want

Published: July 25, 2024

EUPHORIA is Anything But: Why It’s Failing and What Audiences Really Want

By Movieguide® Contributor

There’s a reason why shows like EUPHORIA and THE IDOL are rife with turmoil behind the scenes.

EUPHORIA is filled with severe pornographic sex and nudity, drugs, alcohol, homosexuality and mental health issues, all giving the message that these things are part of normal teen life. With gross immorality and an extremely skewed picture of reality, it’s bound to dangerously affect those who interact with it, especially its cast and crew.

“Stories about what was happening behind the cameras on EUPHORIA flowed, with analysis of every plot point and every hint of dysfunction,” The Hollywood Reporter observed. “Vulture ran a February 2022 article headlined, ‘A Timeline of EUPHORIA Obsession and Sam Levinson Hatred.’ The Daily Beast ran its story laying out allegations of a toxic set, with workdays that sometimes stretched from 15 to 17 hours…There were reports of actresses questioning why they had to be in the nude for certain scenes.”

EUPHORIA producer Kevin Turin and writer-director Sam Levinson were once very tight partners but had a major falling out. Turin suddenly passed on Nov. 12, 2023, from a cardiac arrest. Levinson and his wife, Ashley, were both banned from attending his funeral.

“In the months before his death, Kevin had lost not only his partnership with his close friend but his lucrative deal at HBO as well. (Despite the breakup, Levinson helped him get a favorable settlement, a knowledgeable source says.) Friends say Turen constantly felt under considerable financial pressure. He worked nonstop and neglected his health, but some of his loved ones thought the breakup had put Kevin under ‘inordinate’ additional stress for several months, ‘which took its toll,’ as one source puts it,” The Hollywood Reporter said.

“Levinson’s relationship with Turen wasn’t the only one that had frayed. Zendaya, once such a close Levinson acolyte that she frequently hung out at his house, had cooled toward the mercurial filmmaker,” The Hollywood Reporter said. “Another insider says that as she pulled away, Levinson began to resent her. And then there was the issue of Levinson’s wife, Ashley, who has taken on Turen’s duties but who brings a more aggressive personality to the work.”

In the first two seasons, the show ran late and costs went up — more than $6 million per episode.

“Every day was a fight,” one insider said.

Other SAG-AFTRA complaints included execs not allowing background extras to use the restroom and not providing meals within 6-hour stretches. Long days were made longer by Levinson’s egocentric directing — constantly coming up with things on the spot and making a lot of minute script re-writes — which led to a lot of turnover.

“I don’t think anybody was really happy to be there,” one actor said.

Several main actors also asked for some of the intense nude scenes to be scaled back.

Journalist and screenwriter Nick Bilton shadowed Levinson on EUPHORIA Season 2. He believes there were “legitimate grievances” on set, adding that Levinson’s agenda for his content is “bizarre.”

Outlets have praised the show, mostly for its daringness in depicting adults as teenagers doing explicit things.

But isn’t it also odd that one of the cast, 25-year-old Angus Cloud, played a drug dealer on the show, and then died from an overdose last July?

In 2022, a year before Cloud’s death, the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program said this:

“Rather than further each parent’s desire to keep their children safe from the potentially horrific consequences of drug abuse and other high-risk behavior, HBO’s television drama, EUPHORIA, chooses to misguidedly glorify and erroneously depict high school student drug use, addiction, anonymous sex, violence, and other destructive behaviors as common and widespread in today’s world.

It is unfortunate that HBO, social media, television program reviewers, and paid advertising have chosen to refer to the show as ‘groundbreaking,’ rather than recognizing the potential negative consequences on school age children who today face unparalleled risks and mental health challenges.”

Other organizations raised concerns after EUPHORIA first aired, but still, Levinson, Turin, cast and crew raced toward the second season.

The depravity of EUPHORIA’s content has so negatively affected the cast and crew to the point of death. Could Cloud have been saved, when the content he’s immersed in already glorifies drug use?

When immersed in a false reality where there is no God, these things happen. But that’s not what God wants for his creations. He wants a relationship with all of His children so that they don’t walk in alone and in sin, as the characters in Levinson’s shows do.

Movieguide® reported:

EUPHORIA missteps at every turn on the moral highway. The show glosses over the problem of sin, and operates under the assumption that this life is all we have. Without an acknowledgement of God or his moral standard, or a life beyond, it should come as no surprise the best the world can do is glorify sin.

How can a show be on the right side of morality when the best answer to a teen’s struggle with addiction is that there is no life after death? That in the end, what we do, and sin’s consequences, don’t matter?

If EUPHORIA accomplishes one good thing, it is a striking reminder that humans are in need of a savior. Whether intentional or not, its deceitful and destructive content shows us that when we operate without a biblical worldview, we are easily influenced by the world.

Now, there’s no room for backtracking. The show’s damage is done. News is out that there’s trouble behind the scenes. A series like this, full to the brim with issues on the screen and behind it, cannot succeed. Levinson’s other, equally morally absent drama, THE IDOL, also completely flopped, as it came right out of the gate with scenes that amount to pornographic masochism.

This depraved and corrupt entertainment is not what audiences seek, which is proven by box office results.

What they do need is God. They need moral values. They need hope and uplifting. And true hope can only be found through Jesus Christ — not by chasing temporary highs, false identity, relationships or lust.