Straight Nonsense: We don't need another season of Euphoria

In the column Straight Nonsense, columnist Moises Mendez II takes a queer eye to the insanity of straight culture.

A day we never thought would arrive finally came: A trailer for Euphoria's third season dropped this week. The whole gang (minus Angus Cloud, RIP) is back together again for some shenanigans. These crazy kids are now grown, thanks to the time jump, and trying to live as full-fledged adults. As the first look at the new season, cycled through all the storylines and characters, I just had one thought in my head: I'm not as excited about this show as I once was, like at all. And that's for a couple of reasons, but the biggest being that I just haven't missed it being on my TV after the stain the show's creator, Sam Levinson, and Sydney Sweeney have left on it in the years since the last season premiered. Thank god, this is the last season.

If I'm being 100 percent honest, I didn't miss the show on my TV screen. There are seasons, where at the end, you feel an emptiness in the pit of your stomach — now that you don't have that show to look forward to anymore, but you have a hankering for more. I could rattle off a list of shows where I've felt that. But that just isn't the case with Euphoria, at least not since 2023, when things started to fall apart behind the scenes.

When the first season of Euphoria came out, I was a fan just like almost everyone else I knew. I never missed an episode, and I engaged in the discourse on social media. But it was after the second season that the cracks in the show became hard to ignore. Barbie Ferreira, who played Kat Hernandez for two seasons, sparked rumors of tensions between the cast and Levinson after an investigation by The Daily Beast alleged that she walked off set after "butting heads" with the creator over the direction of her character's storyline. In retaliation, it's reported that Levinson allegedly cut her screen time.

The publication spoke with several people who worked on the production and said that Ferreira indeed walked off set, including once when she had to be carried off after slipping and falling twice, twisting her ankle during the infamous hot-tub puking scene. The actress has denied these claims on a podcast appearance, clarifying that she "never walked off set."

Then there was The Idol, which Levinson co-created — a disturbing portrait of the lack of agency a female pop star has in the sinister world of Hollywood. The same journalist who looked into Ferreira's alleged disputes with Levinson, Cheyenne Roundtree, broke the story on the show's controversial production. According to her exposé in Rolling Stone, the show was originally intended as a feminist look at how the entertainment industry treats women. But in 2022, the show was overhauled by Levinson after the original director, Amy Seimetz, had to leave the project for another due to contractual obligations. As he and Abel "The Weeknd" Tesfaye took over, one source described the show as a "rape fantasy" that "went from satire to the thing it was satirizing.”

There have been multiple instances where Levinson's more problematic views on sex were made public. In the story, Roundtree writes that at various points, "Levinson’s scripts contained disturbing sexual and physically violent scenes between Depp and Tesfaye’s characters, three sources familiar with the matter claim." She continued, "In one draft episode, there allegedly was a scene where Tesfaye bashes in Depp’s face, and her character smiles and asks to be beaten more, giving Tesfaye an erection," though this scene was never shot, sources say.

Levinson has also faced pushback for the arguably gratuitous sex scenes and nudity in Euphoria. Sweeney and guest star Minka Kelly have both pushed back against having to perform nude scenes on the show. The latter told Vanity Fair that the show's creator thought it would be "more interesting" if she disrobed in a scene. But, she told the publication that she pushed back: "That was my first day as a guest on this new show, and I just didn’t feel comfortable standing there naked," Kelly said.

Sweeney had a similar situation with Levinson, but emphasized that she never felt pressured. "Sam [Levinson] is amazing," she said in an interview with The Independent. "There are moments where Cassie was supposed to be shirtless, and I would tell Sam, ‘I don’t really think that’s necessary here.’ He was like, ‘OK, we don’t need it.’ I’ve never felt like Sam has pushed it on me or was trying to get a nude scene into an HBO show. When I didn’t want to do it, he didn’t make me.”

Though Sweeney has left a sour taste in my mouth ever since the American Eagle jeans debacle, in which a commercial was accused of having white supremacist dog whistles — and naturally, it was praised by our president and vice president. The actress didn't denounce the transphobic fascists, as she worked with and hung out with her co-star Hunter Schaefer in the midst of the world "Republivestigating" her — yes, that's a term I just made up. Even when she had the opportunity to tell people she wasn't a Republican or that she wasn't accepting the endorsement of white supremacists, she just said that she "just did a jean ad" and that when she has something to say, she'll say it.

That's when I checked out entirely with her. It was a disgusting display of privilege that is only afforded to conventionally attractive, rich, white women. But now she's doing another season of Euphoria, where she'll continue to play Cassie, the terrible friend, sister, and girlfriend who oversexualizes herself for attention.

So the question remains: Will I be watching the new season of Euphoria? Yes, obviously because it's my job to stay abreast of all things culture. But that doesn't mean my point doesn't still stand, and that I'll be watching it with a smile on my face. I'm glad (most of) these actors got more work, but I'd argue that for some of them (Zendaya, mainly), their talents are being wasted on this awfully written show.

Moises Mendez II is a staff writer at Out magazine. Follow him on Instagram @moisesfenty.

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