Euphoria Season 3 Review: HBO’s Teen Drama Outgrows Itself In New Episodes

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Despite significant challenges, Euphoria is returning for another season. It’s been four years since the show’s second season ended, and during that time, stars like Jacob Elordi, Zendaya, and Sydney Sweeney have achieved major success with Oscar nominations and blockbuster movies. Getting everyone back together seemed nearly impossible due to scheduling conflicts, and the cast themselves weren’t sure if the show would ever continue.

After a few years off, the latest season of Euphoria feels familiar – still captivating and chaotic. The show has always explored the struggles of modern teenage life, focusing on how those challenges impact mental and physical health. It’s a bit of a rambling series, blending dark humor with serious themes of addiction and spirituality. With its unique visuals and emotionally charged music by Labrinth, Euphoria quickly became a cultural phenomenon, sparking lots of conversation and becoming one of HBO’s biggest hits.

However, the third season of Euphoria feels quite different. The familiar music of Labrinth isn’t featured, at least in the initial episodes. The characters have moved on from school and are now focused on their careers, and they’ve drifted apart from each other. Without the shared environment of high school, the show relies more heavily on its characters, which unfortunately highlights a potential weakness: the creator may not have fully understood them in the first place.

The TV show Euphoria doesn’t focus on characters who are inherently ‘good.’ Its first two seasons depicted teenagers experiencing or causing both emotional and physical harm, set against the backdrop of a California high school filled with sex, drugs, and violence. While the show hasn’t changed its focus on flawed characters, it also doesn’t seem to have a clear central theme. In fact, the show’s official description – ‘a group of childhood friends wrestle with faith, redemption, and evil’ – is remarkably broad and unspecific.

Euphoria Outgrows Itself In Season 3

The new season of Euphoria jumps forward in time, showing the characters grappling with the challenges of adulthood at a breakneck pace—think pregnancies, weddings, financial struggles, and complicated relationships. The significant time jump gives the show’s creator, Sam Levinson, free rein to change the characters however he wants, even if it doesn’t feel realistic. Some characters, like Nate Jacobs, are almost completely different, leaving viewers to wonder if it’s due to the passage of time or if the show never fully understood these characters in the first place.

The show occasionally offers sharp, funny moments – like Nate in a Cybertruck or Maddie bumping into someone from her past – but those are fleeting. It’s always been more about style than substance, and it still is. The series has always looked like a movie, with strong visuals and fashion, and Season 3 takes that even further. Filmed partially on VistaVision, the cinematic quality is immediately apparent, starting with the opening scene of Zendaya’s character, Rue, smuggling drugs.

While the new episodes catch us up with the characters, the show’s dramatic visual style can’t quite manage the complicated storyline. The shift from the intense world of high school to adulthood – though Euphoria rarely feels truly realistic – makes the show’s strong emotions seem less genuine. Euphoria has always existed in a space between reality and fantasy, but in season 3, the creator seems to be grounding the story more in the real world.

The third season of Euphoria brings up important political and social issues but doesn’t explore them deeply. Instead, it comes across as self-satisfied rather than thoughtful. The show portrays Hollywood as overly liberal and suburban life as rigidly conservative, which feels simplistic instead of nuanced. This lack of genuine exploration is also evident when the series moves on to topics like OnlyFans, sugar dating, and strip clubs, handling them with similar awkwardness.

Just because the show jumps forward in time doesn’t mean it’s necessarily become more mature. Euphoria seems to be trying to move past the shocking and sensational moments that defined its first two seasons, but it still relies on them—whether through crude humor, violence, or sexual content. For example, a violent scene near the end of the third episode is treated as comedic relief, and the storyline involving Cassie and Maddie’s exploration of OnlyFans feels more like a deliberate attempt to shock viewers than a genuine exploration of the topic.

Beyond the world of high school, the show Euphoria feels like it’s run out of things to say. The characters barely connect, and it would be more truthful if they simply didn’t interact, rather than being forced into weak relationships. Euphoria always felt intense and urgent, and even when earlier seasons tried to cover too much, it was still engaging. But now, by attempting even more and aiming for even greater emotional drama, the show is ultimately weighed down by its own high expectations.

Euphoria season 3 premieres April 12 on HBO.

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2026-04-08 20:08