When my roommate told me I had to watch Euphoria, I was immediately a little skeptical. I have almost never really connected with teen dramas, because so many of them have seemed contrived and overly sentimental to me in their expression of teenage emotion in a way that seems out of touch. If I were to condense into a single word why I don't feel drawn to teen dramas it would be "artificiality". No one was more shocked than myself to find that Euphoria's stylistic use of artifice was actually what converted me into such a devoted fan that I am sitting here writing this today.
Every element of Euphoria is crafted through brilliantly artistic artifice, from the outdoor nighttime shots dripping with a foreboding glow shot on a sound set to the beautifully otherworldly makeup that the characters don. What Euphoria does, that I have seen no other show do, is make every shot into a visual X-ray of its characters' emotions; every light color, camera filter, outfit and makeup choice is perfectly reflective of the character's emotions at that moment. As such, the show takes on a very noticeable, specific visual tone that reads as a kind of ominous dreamscape, equal parts hellish and heavenly. But to this creative choice's credit, do dreams not refract the content of life in a way that speaks more to truth than reality?
When addressing critiques of his show's lack of true-to-life visuals, creator Sam Levinson stated that "I'm not interested in realism, I'm interested in an emotional realism." I find the single most interesting thing about Euphoria to be that its outlandish visual effects create an ultimate, pervasive feeling of emotional realism. It truly is a testament to how expertly crafted the show is that I find more fidelity in a show in which teenagers wear elaborate glitter makeup to high school than I do in shows that take pains to replicate a real-world environment. Sam Levinson has crafted his show's entire universe using pathetic fallacy, in which the emotional lifeblood of his characters bleed into their surroundings like watercolors, unmistakably shaping their environment in their image. Driving all of the show's bold creative choices is this fundamental understanding: being a teenager is a terrifying and exhilarating emotional odyssey from the personhood into which you were born to the new personhood that you fashion for yourself.
These competing and contrasting elements of the extreme pain and celebration of young adulthood are encapsulated perfectly in the original soundtrack, which Levinson told producer Labrinth to compose as if it were a combination of "Tim Burton and [Kanye West's album] Yeezus." For a show as visually compelling as Euphoria, it would only be fitting to incorporate diegetic and non-diegetic sound that's equally as impactful, and Labrinth's score was an unqualified success. The genius of Labrinth's score is that it's a perfect sonic encapsulation of the show's feel, of the emotional zeniths and nadirs the characters summit. A standout from the score, Forever, employs commanding, larger-than-life basslines to underscore the visceral, despairing vocals, creating a swirling, luminescent maelstrom of exaltation and despair. The song pulls off the incredible dual feat of displaying intimacy through Labrinth's haunting, wordless, siren-like vocals while being powered by a booming bass so evocative and dominating that it feels like a gut punch. In other words, the score is yet another testament to Euphoria's commitment to its submersion in the dissonance and discomfort present in adolescent life.
In the process of writing this piece I wanted to parse out exactly why Euphoria personally affected me to the extent that it did, which cannot be attributed solely to interesting makeup, captivating shots, or an evocative soundtrack. I've found the reason to be thus: through its exaggerated visual and aural creative choices, all made with the intention of displaying emotional realism, Euphoria's universe has given due gravity and deference to emotion itself. In the real world, emotion, and specifically teenage emotion, is not only delegitimized, but disparaged. The Internet Age has brought its own emotional challenges to its nascent generation; burning desire for real human connection has been quantified and commodified in the form of social media engagement, which alone will never sate the voracious young souls of those craving to belong. It is Euphoria's recognition of the importance and power of emotions themselves through tearing off its characters' emotional invisibility cloaks to visualize, and thereby validate, their emotional states through costume, makeup, cinematography, and score. Euphoria's characters are armored and empowered, not impeded, by the visual translations of their emotional selves. In a world that demands that emotions be neither seen nor heard, Euphoria's unabashed celebration of the chaotically kaleidoscopic adolescent psyche is a radical act of defiance.
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