HBO’s Euphoria: director’s memories play into gritty addiction drama aimed at young adults

Euphoria creator Sam Levinson knows all about risky behaviour.

Hunter Schafer, left, and Zendaya in the HBO serial Euphoria, now showing on Foxtel.

Towards the end of yet another stint in rehab, a then 19-year-old Sam Levinson realised that if he were to die from drug use he would be remembered only as a pill-stealing addict who destroyed his ­family. It was not the gravestone he wanted.

“I felt like I’m a better person inside than my actions reflected,” Levinson recalls. Then the ­moment of clarity hit him: “Well, maybe you should stop doing drugs.”

Levinson cleaned up and 15 years later has used his experience as a teen addict to create Euphoria for HBO. Now showing on Foxtel, it is a dark and often graphic drama about a group of oversexed and self-medicating suburban high schoolers.

Euphoria doesn’t look like the typical teen drama.

Although there is no shortage of attractive people doing unattractive things, there is also an undertone of lost innocence and numbness that recalls Bret Easton Ellis’s 1985 debut novel Less Than Zero and Larry Clark’s 1995 film Kids.

Most teen shows today reside in hyper-stylised worlds, Levinson says. Euphoria, which also draws from an Israeli series of the same name, is grittier than what’s seen in most films and TV shows about high school, he adds.

HBO programming president Casey Bloys says other teen shows haven’t done a “bad job” exploring these subjects, “it’s just that there are obvious constraints on other platforms that affect how honest you can be.”

Euphoria is a departure for HBO. While no stranger to controversial and risque fare, HBO has primarily steered clear of young adult-themed content. But with programs such as Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why resonating with viewers, it’s an audience some ­analysts say HBO has overlooked.

“One of the things I have tried to do since starting over three years ago was to diversify the slate,” Bloys says. That includes reaching more young adults.

Euphoria is one of several new shows HBO is launching as it enters the post-Game of Thrones era. Creating more content is a priority for HBO parent AT&T, which is launching a direct-to-consumer streaming service next year and using the premium channel’s programming as the centrepiece.

Later this year, HBO will debut Watchmen, based on the graphic novel series. Shows in the works for next year include a drama about a family, The Undoing, starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant, and The Outsider, based on the Stephen King novel.

A Game of Thrones prequel is also in development.

Although Thrones may be impossible to replace, HBO has notched successes since last month’s finale. The miniseries Chernobyl, about the 1986 Soviet nuclear disaster, was a surprise hit averaging eight million viewers an episode. And the drama Big Little Lies returned to solid ratings in its season two premiere.

Euphoria portrays a slice of a generation addicted to cellphones and learning about intimacy from hardcore pornography, through the eyes of 17-year-old Rue, who is portrayed by former Disney star Zendaya. The show also throws in opioids, ecstasy and copious amounts of weed.

In the show, Rue has just returned from rehab with no real desire to change despite the damage her behaviour has caused her mother and younger sister. She quickly falls back into her old habits until they threaten her developing relationship with Jules, a trans girl played by Hunter Schafer, who engages in her own form of risky behaviour by meeting up with strangers online for sex.

The role pornography plays in kids’ lives is also a component of Euphoria. Levinson wanted to show how the prevalence of such content shapes perceptions and intimacy for teens.

Bloys says the drama is targeting adults 18 to 34 and “we’ll make that very obvious in the advisories surrounding the show”.

Levinson is aware that he may face criticism that Euphoria glamorises dangerous behaviour. “I’m sensitive to portraying addiction on screen because as someone who grew up loving film and television, I understand the power that an image can hold,” says Levinson, whose father is acclaimed director Barry Levinson.

Euphoria, he adds, “is not about the glamorising of something, it’s about how addiction wrecks your sense of life and self-worth”.

The Wall Street Journal