I went to the Euphoria premiere hosted by HBO with the main cast members and the writer/creator doing a Q&A following the showing. It took place at the Paramount theater in downtown Austin which is absolutely beautiful. I bonded with two women that were waiting in line with me, over how much we were all sweating since we were in the only sunny spot. Thank god for those fans they gave out in the festival bags.
We sat together for the premiere, and let me tell you, Euphoria is an awkward show to watch with people you’ve just met.
I really and truly REALLY wanted to like it. I’m all about shows that make you think even if they’re disturbing. But this was a little too much for me. Let me back up…when we sat down, the cast sat down on the other side of the theater from us (of course), and the woman next to me said “OMG, it’s McSteamy!!” Obviously since I knew about the Greys Anatomy panel, I thought he would be here for that, but nope, turns out he plays a very creepy disturbing character in Euphoria. I kept looking around trying to find him, and even after frantically reaching for my glasses to put them on so I could see, I still didn’t recognize him. So to first see how much he’s aged made me sad (but hey he still looks good!). Second of all, to see him in this really disturbing and graphic scene in the first episode…that is something you cannot unsee. It gets burned in your memory in the worst way. Oh and also, to warn you, you see him completely 100% naked and I’m 99.99% sure it wasn’t a body double—and that was way more of him than I ever needed to see. ANYWAY.
Let me just say this, that first episode really rubbed me the wrong way. I know what they were trying to do in capturing “what really happens” to kids in high school, going through sex and drugs and partying. But this is like the worst version of what happens to kids in high school, very extreme. The woman sitting next to me had teenage girls and after that showing she was like…”that was too much…um I need to text my kids now.” Anyway, describing what the show is about is kind of difficult to do. Even when the creator and cast members were asked this, they couldn’t really sum it up other than a very real version of what high school kids go through..? I guess?
In summary, I MIGHT give this show another chance. The acting is truly incredible, I have to admit that. And you can tell it’s an incredibly powerful show. My suggestion? If you can’t handle full on nudity, drug use, sexual violence in a show, this might be too much for you and just barely crossing the line of discomfort. If I do decide to give it another chance with the other episodes, I’ll of course let you know.