There is so much Euphoria that is psychologically true. It exposes the grit and despair of life through the lenses of addiction, grief, abuse, and other difficult topics in a way that’s so painfully aware it’s cathartic. Still, there’s a lot about the show that isn’t real at all: from how they dress at school, to how anyone is passing class, and so much more. Even as they depict situations that a lot of teens can relate to, often the characters act or in situations more relatable to people a little older. The biggest break with reality, IMO, however, besides Rue running from the police like she was in a Bugs Bunny chase scene, has to be how a high school in an economically challenged area was able to put on such an elaborate stage play with sets and production to rival Broadway.
Does it even matter if Euphoria is realistic?
Art is a way to depict and talk about big truths in a way that we can’t when we try to speak directly. The act of acting is a way to mirror reality by bending it. When acting strikes a nerve with the audience, it can even seem more real than real life. This was one of the points being made by the stage show that wove us in and out of fiction seamlessly.
So much of the storytelling of Euphoria was done through narrative devices that put us in a dream-like state before they made the choice to turn the storyline into a meta stage play. The first episode of Season 2 felt like a dark gangster comedy inspired by the Cohen brothers, Tarantino, and The Sopranos. The story often weaves out of reality into the hazy world of memories, fantasies, and drug-induced states.
The unreality of Euphoria is also part of what makes it feel so real. The dramatic cinematic segments, the hallucinations, fantasies, and memories are all part of how our minds process information and the events of our lives. We perceive life on some level as linear, but much of our lived experience is happening inside our brains in a more chaotic state. Many people harbor fantasies of turning their life into a movie or a play, but most people lack not only the talent to do so but also the resources. Giving Lexi so much power and agency to pull off something this absurd was a bold move, but an important one. And it worked in the context of the show because it was so layered and well done. It doesn’t have to make sense practically, because it made sense psychologically.
It also gave the audience a chance to watch the main characters see themselves mirrored through the mind of someone else and have to confront being “seen” in that way. It’s fun for them to watch scenes about other people, but once the scenes reflect on them, it’s incredibly painful (except for Suze, who is joyful seeing a parody of herself acted out even though what’s being portrayed about her is incredibly dark.)
How much would the Euphoria playset cost to set up?
The cost of building and engineering the sets for Lexi’s play would be astronomical. $250,000 would be an extremely low number, the actual cost of constructing these sets might be more likely to be in the millions.
