Several times throughout the first three episodes of “Euphoria’s” long-awaited third season, multiple characters express a sentiment akin to “I miss high school.” These pretty twenty-somethings with their whole lives ahead of them are filled with ennui about their post-grade school years and long for the convenience of their youth — even though they had anything but a standard experience.
This isn’t a particularly groundbreaking sensation for many who find themselves wayward after high school, so to creator/writer Sam Levinson’s credit, it’s among the more plausible character traits he’s given his vice-driven, Gen-Z creations.
However, the continued utterance of this surface-level nostalgia feels more directed inward on the HBO series itself, as it returns four years after Season 2 with a time jump, a bigger stage (Hollywood, here they come!) and a cast of stars who have only shined brighter since they last took a hit from Levinson’s narrative pen. But despite mega-watt talent and a chance to move beyond the house parties and homework (if they ever did it), Levinson still seems set on keeping to the same frustrating conclusion — ”I miss high school.” That’s evident in the fact that virtually nothing but the location has changed since viewers last saw these characters. They seem to have learned zilch from the death, destruction and drama that their decisions had wrought.
Traversing the US-Mexico border as a drug mule, Rue (two-time Emmy winner Zendaya) remains a pawn in an industry she somehow still knows nothing about, resourceful and charismatic as she may be. Attention-seeking Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) is still, in fact, seeking attention, only now with a fiancé in a rudderless Nate (Jacob Elordi) and a weirdly out-of-time mansion to fill her out her social media grid. Jules (Hunter Schafer), despite taking her creative talents to art school, still relies on her old ways of finding connection with older men who fetishize her trans identity for their own sexual satisfaction. Maddy (Alexa Demie) transplanted her bruising confidence to Hollywood, seizing a talent agent assistant job that didn’t exist before she demanded it, only to be pulled back into the bottomless pit of romantic grief with Cassie and Nate.
Even Lexi (Maude Apatow), who liberated herself but imploded the social scene in her high school with an autobiographical play that aired everyone’s dirty laundry, is back to living vicariously through others — this time a Hollywood producer played by Sharon Stone.
They are still kids, so being in a rut in your 20s can be forgiven. But the series makes the narrative and fantastical leap that these people would still surround themselves with the enablers of their worst impulses: each other. Aside from a few nameless new faces, these characters have made no meaningful relationships or friendships since graduation. They remain ensorcelled by each other, if not in person then by the lingering ghosts of their unfinished business.
If the message of Season 3 is that nothing has changed and the trauma these people faced as teens has stunted their lives, that is OK. It’s not an original take on a lost generation, nor is it a particularly engaging means of storytelling. But if that is the case, then it wasn’t necessary to put the show’s audience through a third round of this battering ram of a show to make that point. To ask people to sign back in, Levinson needs to prove to the audience he isn’t spinning his wheels. He has a stacked cast perfectly capable of taking these characters, battle scars and all, to the next level. But based on the three episodes of eight provided for review,, it looks like he’s squandering the stars that aligned their busy schedules for this on repurposed old habits from the past.
Nate is still entertaining lunches with his sexual deviant father, Cal (the late Eric Dane), who he turned into the police. Jules and Rue meet up only to talk about if they were ever good for each other. Several characters bafflingly put themselves through the masochistic punishment of Cassie and Nate’s wedding. It’s entertaining, but it isn’t new ground.
There are a few bright spots in the rough. Zendaya remains positively captivating as Rue, who finds herself volleyed between Laurie (Martha Kelly), the monotoned drug dealer to whom she owes money; and Alamo (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), a kingpin strip club owner and procurer of sex workers. Despite being able to confidently stride into some of the most morally bankrupt rooms in America, Rue seems content living from dusk til dawn at the Silver Slipper club, under the thorny wing of Alamo and the tenuous sense of purpose she finds among his women. Zendaya understands the submission with which Rue meanders through life, while still trying to feel as though she could someday be behind the wheel. But again, Zendaya has been magnificent at this since 2019, even if Rue hasn’t gotten wiser with age.
Early on, the most intriguing storyline is Maddy, whose self-possessed vision to harness the potential of her fellow digitally addicted Gen-Zers at least feels like the start of a character journey. She recognizes the possibility in the starry-eyed aspiring OnlyFans models who need guidance. But when she willingly tests the waters of a renewed friendship with Cassie for the ego boost of standing taller than her former bestie, Demie finds a vulnerability in Maddy and imbues her with a rarity among this cast of characters — the hint of desire to want more for yourself.
It’s hard to root for people who aren’t interested in rooting for themselves, and too few of these characters have been given the capacity for it. Instead, Levinson doubles down on the admittedly stylish but relentlessly bleak existence they carried with them out of high school. Maybe a change is coming. Maybe Season 3 will take a turn that shows all of this — or none of it — was worth it. But three episodes in, the four-year wait doesn’t make a strong case for why “Euphoria” came back.
You can miss high school, while still acknowledging the antidote lies in at least trying to prove it wasn’t your peak. But in its return, it’s hard not to feel like Levinson is convinced he and “Euphoria’s” best days are behind them.
“Euphoria” Season 3 premieres Sunday on HBO and HBO Max.