HBO's new Zendaya vehicle Euphoria isn't here to make friends, particularly if those friends are your parents. Reports from people who worked on the Drake-produced series seem to think it is one of the boldest and most graphic depictions of teen life ever brought to the small screen.
"There are going to be parents who are going to be totally fucking freaked out," Euphoria creator Sam Levinson told The Hollywood Reporter.
Descriptions of scenes in the show include a series-opening statutory rape scene that explicitly shows an erect penis and vivid depictions of overdoses. There are reports of a locker room scene that is curiously described as featuring up to 30 penises. [Laughs in Count Von Count]
The show was so intense that it led one cast member to quit in the middle of taping the first episode. Brian Bradley was replaced by The Hate U Give's Algee Smith after Bradley refused to shoot certain scenes. In spite of all this, HBO's programming president Casey Bloys says that the show isn't just going for gasps.
"It's not sensational to be sensational," Bloys said. "It may seem boundary-pushing, and the idea of putting them on TV may be, but somebody lived them."
Cast member Maude Apatow, 21-year-old daughter of the guy who gave us The 40-Year Old Virgin, shared that the show is a "good insight into how hard it is to grow up in this time."
The people behind the series believe that the show has something to say, avoiding the pizza slicer's fate of being all edge and no point. For the sake of everyone involved and HBO audiences, let's hope Euphoria is more than premium cable Skins.
