Euphoria is not a series that can simply be dismissed as just another drama about today’s teenagers. From the start, it is a much more intense, stylized, and uncomfortably accurate look at what can happen to anyone. And that is when adolescence mixes with addiction, sex, shame, loneliness, violence, queer identity and a desperate need to be finally truly seen by someone.
At the Lascivní.cz editorial team, we’ve been watching this series for quite a few years now, so we’ve formed our own opinion on it with some hindsight, and we’d like to share it with you now. And the currently airing third season has helped with that :))
The strongest aspect of this series is that sex and drugs aren’t just used as an attractive backdrop. In Euphoria, they are tools through which pain, chaos, a hunger for love, a need for power, and a desire to switch off one’s own mind for a moment are revealed. And that is precisely why the series doesn’t come across as merely provocative. It functions more as an emotionally shattered but very intense portrait of young people who are trying to survive themselves.
Petr, Editor-in-Chief
“From the start, it wasn’t just the nudity, drugs, and shock value that drew me to Euphoria. What struck me most was how precisely the series captures that state where you no longer even know if you’re doing something out of desire, out of pain, out of habit, or just to feel nothing at all for a moment.”
Natálie
“What I love about Euphoria is that it’s both beautiful and exhausting. It looks almost like a dream, but emotionally it’s often more of a nightmare.”
What Euphoria Is Really About
At the center of the entire series is Rue Bennett, a young girl returning from rehab, but it quickly becomes clear that her relationship with drugs, pain, and her own body is far from resolved. Through Rue, we also enter the lives of other characters, each of whom is broken in their own way, hypersensitive, hungry for love, or dangerously lost in their own roles.
Alongside Rue, Jules is key to the series—a fragile yet elusive character who brings tenderness, chaos, and a different approach to identity and the body to the story. Surrounding them are other distinctive characters such as Nate, Maddy, Cassie, Lexi, Kat, Fezco, and Ashtray. Each brings a different kind of shame, desire, control, or self-destruction to the series.
This, by the way, is one of Euphoria’s greatest strengths. Although Rue is naturally the central figure, the series manages to create the feeling that almost every major character carries their own universe of pain, fantasies, and defense mechanisms.
Series Review
Euphoria currently has a rating of ČSFD 82% based on more than 10,000 ratings and on IMDb 8. 2/10 from approximately 304,000 votes. On the Czech scene, it is thus among the highest-rated series, and it is clear that it resonates with both domestic and international audiences.
Years of Individual Seasons
Season 1
The first season premiered in 2019.
Special Episodes
Between the first and second seasons, two special episodes were produced, which aired in December 2020 and January 2021.
Season 2
The second season arrived in 2022.
Season 3
Season 3 premiered in 2026 and, according to current reports, is the final season.
Main Cast
The series is led by Zendaya as Rue Bennett. Other standout cast members include Hunter Schafer as Jules Vaughn, Sydney Sweeney as Cassie Howard, Jacob Elordi as Nate Jacobs, Alexa Demie as Maddy Perez, and Maude Apatow as Lexi Howard. The series’ broader cast also includes Angus Cloud,& nbsp;Eric Dane, Barbie Ferreira, Storm Reid, Nika King, Algee Smith, Austin Abrams and Javon Walton.
Where to Watch Euphoria Right Now
In the Czech Republic, Euphoria is currently available to stream on HBO Max.
JustWatch lists HBO Max as the current streaming service for the series as a whole, as well as specifically for Season 1, Season 2, Season 3 and also for special episodes. According to JustWatch, a free viewing option is not currently available.
Season 1
Shock, style, and the feeling that everything is too much
The first season packs the biggest punch, like a crash. Not just in terms of plot, but also emotionally. From the very first episodes, the series feels like it’s throwing the viewer into a world where everything is over the top. Emotions, physicality, music, anxiety, makeup, lights, arguments, first loves, and first big screw-ups.
Rue serves as the narrator here—she’s smart, cynical, wounded, and at the same time totally unreliable. And that’s exactly what makes it great. Thanks to her, the series doesn’t feel like a sterile social drama, but rather a subjective, fragmented stream of emotions in which reality, memories, hallucinations, and pain often merge into one.
Jules is, first and foremost, something like a light, but one that is never truly safe. She isn’t just “the new girl.” She is a character through whom Euphoria explores the desire to be wanted, seen, and loved, but also the question of what a person is willing to do to feel that closeness at all.
Petr
“The first season really got to me mainly because of how quickly you realize this isn’t a show about teenage awkwardness. This is a series about what chaos looks like when it has beautiful lighting, good music, and a completely shattered interior.”
Natálie
“What worked for me about Rue and Jules in the first season was mainly that there’s not just romance between them, but also immense fragility, instability, and fear. And that’s exactly why it’s not a simple love story, but something much more painful.”
How the First Season Deals with Sex and Intimacy
The first row is incredibly powerful in how it deals with sex. Not as a reward or a climax, but as a space where shame, power, performance, the need for acceptance, and complete disconnection from oneself all intertwine.
With Cassie, Kat, Maddy, and Jules, it’s beautifully clear that sexuality in Euphoria isn’t uniform. Each of these characters experiences it differently, uses it differently, and also takes it away differently. That’s precisely why the series doesn’t come across as one big provocation, but as a more complex and much more painful map of everything that can be hidden behind desire.
Rue and Jules as a relationship that is both tender and dangerous
This is one of the strongest foundations of the entire series. Not because they are an ideal couple, but precisely because they are not. Their closeness is beautiful and yet so fragile that from the very beginning, you can feel how easily it all could break.
Nate as the embodiment of control and shame
The first season very quickly shows that Nate isn’t just a school bully. He is a character seething with suppressed anger, fear, violence, and an extreme need to have everything under control. The more the series reveals about him, the more uncomfortable it is to watch just how deep this decay goes.
The Season 1 Finale and Rue’s Downfall
The season finale works exactly as it should. Not as a dramatic cliffhanger, but as a painful reminder that neither the most tender connection nor the strongest emotion is ever enough to overcome addiction and inner emptiness.
“The first season of Euphoria is like a party that looks gorgeous, but from the very first minutes, you know it’s going to end pretty badly.”
Special Episodes
When Euphoria Falls Silent for a Moment
Between the first and second seasons, two special episodes were produced, focusing specifically on Rue and Jules. It was here that the series demonstrated it could work much more quietly, intimately, and without constant visual overload.
I love these episodes precisely because they pull Euphoria back from an ecstatic image to a human level for a moment. Rue is suddenly not just part of a big, stylized ride, but a girl sitting in an interview, in pain, in thought, in unresolved addiction. And Jules, in turn, gets space to be more than just a projection of Rue’s emotions.
Natálie
“I enjoyed those specials because suddenly everything fell silent and you could hear more clearly what the characters were really feeling. Without all that intoxicating framing, they were perhaps even sadder.”
Season Two
Less intoxicating, much more broken
The second season no longer relies so much on the viewer discovering a new world. They already know that world. And that is precisely why it can delve deeper into the consequences. Into decay. Into what addiction, obsession, shame, and the need to be loved do to a person who has nothing left to give.
Rue is even more self-destructive here, and in her case, the second season is much less cool and much more physically and mentally unpleasant. That’s a good thing. Euphoria stops being just a stylish sensation here and starts to really hurt.
In the second season, Cassie evolves into one of the most powerful and, at the same time, most painful storylines in the entire series. Her desperate need to be loved and chosen is so extreme that at times it’s hard to watch her. But that’s exactly why it works. Cassie isn’t just a hysterical character for effect. She’s a pretty accurate portrayal of what happens when a person confuses value with attention.
Lexi, on the other hand, brings a different kind of strength to light. A quiet, observant, long-overlooked one. And Nate and Maddy continue to maintain one of the most toxic dynamics in the entire series.
Petr
“The second season stopped being sexy to me almost entirely. Instead, I felt like I was watching the breakdown of people who can no longer distinguish desire from addiction, love from obsession, and closeness from the need to possess someone.”
Natálie
“Cassie really hurt me in the second season. Not because she was innocent, but because you can see how desperately she wants to be wanted and how destructively she’ll go about getting that feeling.”
Spoiler alert for Season 2
Ruein’s Escape and Breakdown in Front of Her Family
This is one of the most powerful moments in the entire series. Not because of its spectacle, but because of how brutally it reveals what addiction does to the body, the voice, the family, and what remains of one’s dignity.
Cassie and Nate as a relationship built on desperation and control
Their dynamic works precisely because it is so clearly wrong. Not as a forbidden romance, but as an emotionally toxic spiral in which both tend to bring out the worst in each other.
Lexi’s Game as a Mirror to Everyone Else
One of the smartest moves of the second season. Not only dramaturgically, but also thematically. Euphoria turns itself inward and shows just how much all those roles, gestures, and poses are at once ridiculous, painful, and tragic.
“The second season of Euphoria isn’t a party anymore. It’s a hangover where you finally see everything you broke during the night.”
Season 3 (currently on HBO)
Or watch it with us—as of this writing, it hasn’t all been released yet, so there will definitely be no shortage of surprises! :))
Adulthood as Another Kind of Hangover
The third season is most interesting in that Euphoria no longer deals solely with the chaos of high school. Instead, it focuses much more on what remains of these people once the adolescent backdrop fades and adulthood sets in. But adulthood here doesn’t function as a cure. Rather, it’s a different kind of sobering up.
The third season feels less like a wild rollout and more like a reckoning. The characters are no longer just in the immediate chaos of adolescence. The consequences of their decisions cast a longer shadow, and you get the distinct sense that the series doesn’t just want to shock again, but also to wrap things up
Here, too, it’s still clear that Euphoria hasn’t lost any of its stylization, erotic tension or pain. It’s just that the whole thing no longer feels like the initial ecstasy, but rather like the slow resolution of everything that has been building up beneath the surface for years.
Petr
“What I enjoy most about the third season is that it no longer relies solely on the chaos of puberty. Suddenly, it’s more about what adulthood does to a person, when you bring into it exactly the same holes within yourself as you did a few years ago.”
Natálie
“The third season feels less like ecstasy and more like a slow reckoning to me. And that actually suits me, because Euphoria was never a series that was meant to end comfortably.”
Spoiler alert for Season 3
Rue and the feeling that redemption is still not free
Even where things briefly seem like hope or a new beginning, there is always a sense in Euphoria that nothing comes without a price. And that is exactly what the third season has maintained so far.
The Shift from School to Consequences
This isn’t a single specific plot twist, but an important emotional shift in the season. Less teenage drama, more gravity. Less initial shock, more consequences.
Safety in Euphoria Is Always Only Temporary
Even when the series briefly offers the illusion of reconciliation or peace, it very quickly disrupts it with something. And that is precisely why it remains tense even in the final season.
“The third season of Euphoria isn’t about what growing up is like anymore. It’s more about what it’s like when you carry all its wounds with you into the future.”
What Euphoria Does Exceptionally Well
An atmosphere that engulfs you
Euphoria’s strongest point is still the atmosphere. The series has its own language—visually, musically, and emotionally. It can be beautiful, repulsive, thrilling, and anxiety-inducing all at once. And that is precisely what captures something that is quite accurate for adolescence and young adulthood. People often experience everything at once and to the extreme.
Characters You Can’t Simply Love or Reject
When Euphoria is at its best, it’s not just about themes, but about the people who carry them. The protagonists aren’t just representatives of some issue. They are characters in whom pain, desire, shame, and ego are mixed so impurely that they feel more alive than in many more conventional dramas.
Sex and Intimacy as a Space of Power and Vulnerability
Euphoria does not portray sexuality as unequivocally liberating or as unequivocally destructive. It portrays it as a space where power, self-affirmation, self-punishment, performance, manipulation, and a genuine desire for intimacy all play out. And it is precisely because of this that the series is much more than just “bold.”
Petr
“What I like about Euphoria is that sex in it is neither a romantic escape nor just a shock for the viewer. It’s more of a place where it’s easiest to see who feels powerful, who is afraid, and who is completely broken inside.”
Natálie
“In my opinion, this series isn’t powerful because of what it shows, but because of what lingers in the air after a scene. Silence. Awkwardness. Longing. And the feeling that none of these people actually know how to be at peace with themselves.”
Where Euphoria Might Lose Viewers
It’s fair to admit that Euphoria isn’t for everyone. Some will love it precisely for its stylization, exaggeration, and emotional intensity. For others, it will eventually become tiresome. At times, it really does seem as though the series knows all too well how beautifully it can film decay, and doesn’t want to deny itself even a single extra powerful image.
For some viewers, then, Euphoria may be too fixated on its own style. And that’s not an entirely invalid criticism. But at the same time, it’s true that precisely this exaggerated, opulent style is part of its identity. If it were more restrained, it might be more down-to-earth, but probably also much less memorable.
Who Euphoria Is For and Who It Isn’t
Euphoria is best suited for viewers who enjoy psychologically complex relationship dramas, stylized storytelling, darker portrayals of sexuality, and series that aren’t afraid to be both beautiful and repulsive at the same time.
It will work for those who want atmosphere, emotion, physicality, shyness, a queer dimension, trauma, and characters who are sometimes unbearable but impossible to look away from, in addition to the plot.
On the other hand, anyone looking for a low-key and restrained series about coming of age may quickly lose interest in Euphoria. This is not a decent social drama. This is a glittering, painful, and at times self-destructively intense ride.
Where to go deeper down the rabbit hole?
Topics such as first sex, shame during sex, sexting, nudes, digital intimacy, toxic relationship, emotional manipulation, dominance and submissiveness, consent, body image, queer sexuality, sex as performance,& nbsp;the influence of porn on sexuality, drug addiction, or sexuality and trauma.
Final Rating
The first season of Euphoria was a shock. The second was a breakdown. And the third, so far, feels like a painful reckoning for everything the characters have long refused to admit. As a whole, it’s a series that may occasionally overdo it, but precisely because of that, it manages to capture something very true. Just how deeply intertwined sex, addiction, identity, shame, and the longing for love are at a young age.
This is definitely not a series that wants to reassure the viewer. It wants to engulf them, unsettle them, and leave them sitting with emotions that aren’t comfortable. And that’s exactly why people still talk about it.
Petr
“For me, Euphoria isn’t a series about how today’s youth are lost. It’s a series about how, when pain, sex, drugs, and the need to be loved collide too soon and too intensely, few come out of it unscathed.”
Natálie
“What fascinates me most about Euphoria is that it can be both beautiful and terribly sad at the same time. And maybe that’s exactly why it’s so hard to walk away from it.”
And what about you, our readers?
How do you like this HBO series? Did its original premiere and the very raw themes surrounding chemsex, addiction, as well as the exploration of boundaries and sexuality move you? Should we discuss this within the editorial team on the Lascivní podcast?
Let us know in the comments! :))
Photo and video sources: Photo © Home Box Office
