Euphoria
- Thread starter hondo
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Regan MacNeil
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Regan MacNeil
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So...we’ve been here before with art like this - Kids, Skins, Ken Park, Doom generation, thirteen - and a lot of times, shows like this come down to, OK, beyond the prurience, what’s the essence of the story? Where’s the conflict, what potential resolutions are there, and how, if there aren’t many resolutions, is the art dark (and ultimately contemplative) and not merely hateful and exploitative? Just no way to know for sure until 3-5 episodes of it.
And hatefulness comes in many art forms. Girls on HBO wasn’t at all hateful. Angry? At times. Never hateful.
And hatefulness comes in many art forms. Girls on HBO wasn’t at all hateful. Angry? At times. Never hateful.
That's quite a stretch from me complaining about spoiled rich kids who seemingly have no purpose in life other than to get laid and get high to accusing me of being in favor of segregation.
Regan MacNeil
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If only that's what I was doing ...
The only dollars most of that generation got was from Mommy and Daddy Baby Boomer giving it to them. That and student loans they're never going to pay back.
Regan MacNeil
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There's one for every occasion!
I think the segregation response is a bit much.
Oddly, hondo's take on show...is more the underlying critique, in theory - thought it's too early to make that critique - than the obvious one, which is that the show revels in decadence and debauchery, using teenagers of underlying just how serious its worldview is. (Doing all this with adults just leaves the audience judging the adults, like we do, for example, in Savages. Doing it with still-developing teenagers indicts the viewer, nay, America. And many Americans love ****ting on their own country.)
Shows like this - well, almost every show on the planet - is made by and typically for upper-middle-class people. Euphoria's creator is the son of Barry Levinson. Now, however hard that kind of life was, I damn well know what it probably wasn't...a life of poverty.
One reason Moonlight was so good is because Barry Jenkins didn't grow up with **** in Liberty City, grew up in chaos, is someone who damn well knows the value of goodness...because they haven't seen nearly enough of it growing up. Which is why Moonlight ends with, essentially, two scenes of forgiveness, even as we know the longterm story may involve more addiction, even death. It's a wise story that way.
Regan MacNeil
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I wasn't saying hondo was pro-segregation.
I was saying the broad criticism of "Millennials" is just as ridiculous as the broad criticism of Boomers, even though Boomers wrecked the planet.
I was saying the broad criticism of "Millennials" is just as ridiculous as the broad criticism of Boomers, even though Boomers wrecked the planet.
As a parent of soon-to-be teens, I hate-watched at first but then couldn't look away. This doesn't seem like a series about whining teens; more like how they navigate a post-9/11 world. The part about porn really hit home, how everyone watches it, how it's almost always rough and violent, and boys assume that's what girls want (and vice versa). My kids and their friends idolize Zendaya (lead actress) so I anticipate some tough conversations ahead.
The series seems to indicate that all kids are behaving this way. If you want to level any criticism about painting an entire group with a broad brush, this show is it. I think it's a slap in the face for kids who are going to class, staying sober and trying their best to be good citizens. I saw one kid who seemed to have a conscious and he wound up treating his girlfriend rough ... and after she said stop, she offered the hint that she might like it under certain circumstances.
Yeah, that's the part I was referencing. Made my heart drop. And then the scene with the hotshot kid's father (Eric Zane?) having brutal anal sex with the teenage transgender new girl, and her reaction as it was happening, and how she then blithely got on her bike and went to the hotshot kid's party ...
I like to think my kids are decent, smart and have been raised to make good decisions, but those scenes are brutal. Obviously meant for shock value but I think there's a lot of real life moments in them.
I must have missed something. At what point was there an indication that the girls was transgender? I've seen a couple of references.
Cosmo
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I thought the first two episodes of this show were a little ... over the top. But I stuck with it, and it gets very good. The last two were quite compelling.
Smallpotatoes
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I watched the first episode. I just lost interest after that.
Cosmo
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Yeah, I doubt I'll be able to convince anyone who really hated the first two episodes to continue watching, and I understand that. I was about to give up but gave episode 3 a shot and it started to become less about "ooh, look, kids party!" to an examination of issues. The show is really well shot, I'll give it that.
outofplace
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She is transgender.
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I just watched Sharp Objects and one of its minor themes was teen debauchery, i.e. casual drug use and sex. One of the characters roller skates and at one point it kind of struck me as similar to some 1970s movie about wild youth, like Matt Dillon's first movie. That connection changed how I viewed the depiction of the teens; that it shouldn't be taken as unique to this moment in time.
