Euphoria: Season Two Review
Mar. 17th, 2022 08:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rogueslayer452I have gone back and forth with my thoughts on Euphoria's second season as a whole, and I think my general honest feeling is that while it was good, it could have been executed better. In comparison to the way the first season was structured at least, season two felt rather disjointed and uneven, like there was an interesting setup of some things but it didn't quite land the way it probably should have or felt incomplete in certain ways, and there was a lot more focus on some character arcs over others when it should have been equal across the board. Of course, I know there was some behind-the-scenes issues that were revealed which most definitely would have affected how the final product turned out.
With that being said, there were certain things this season that I found quite intriguing.
For starters, right from the jump visually the season is very different from season one. It had a starker color palette instead of the vivid and bolder colors that defined the show in the first season, which is quite jarring but tonally it makes sense with the narrative that the season was going for. While the show never shied away from difficult and heavy subject matter, it definitely aimed to go darker in the second season. At first I wasn't quite sure how I felt about the palette shift, since again, I think for most people who watch the show the bolder colors were aesthetically pleasing for a number of reasons, but thematically it makes sense, at least from my observation via the visual storytelling. I think the biggest example is where we see Rue's episode this season, we've known that she's yelled and fought with her mother before, but only through flashback montages in the first season. Here, however, it was absolutely raw. No music, no montage, nothing to distract us from the seriousness of what was going on.
And I think that is perhaps the biggest takeaway from what separates the two seasons. While the show still has it's own artistic style, the change in its aesthetic tone is very telling about the narrative direction the season was heading towards, less in the clouds and more grounded. If season one was visually very much of the Instragram-esque aesthetic, season two was something akin to a Polaroid photograph with no filters and stark lighting and more candid.
In fact, when you look at Lexi's play, the stark lighting of the spotlight, the season is definitely a reflection of that when you look at it that way.
It actually makes me curious to know what season three is going to be like, visually.
Now, when it comes to storylines and arcs, I do have a lot to say about specific ones, but I tried writing it all out and I cannot condense my thoughts into something that doesn't look like an essay and I wanted to make this review more just my thoughts of the season overall instead of focusing on individual characters and arcs. So I'll be saving those thoughts for a separate post. With that being said, something I actually love and appreciate is how many of the characters parallel and mirror each other, like so many of them overlap with being foils to one another. It's just so fascinating seeing how they connect and contrast, it's something that I'm going to examine further in that separate post but one of them that really intrigued me were the similarities that Rue and Cassie shared this season, especially when you look back at the season as a whole and how their storylines played out.
Yes, there were storylines I wished could have been expanded more, things I wished had been further explored or continued on from the previous season that I'm disappointed never was addressed, and some that I felt were shafted entirely. I know that Kat's storyline wasn't complete because the actress got into an argument with the director about it, so that's one explanation, but I felt like Jules also got a bit sidelined this season especially since I thought we were going to have more expansion of what was revealed in her special episode.
Random little notes:
** Episode five was absolutely brutal, in a good way of course, but very difficult to watch. Zendaya deserves all the standing ovations for her performance.
** Maddy is my girl, I love her so much and she deserves better. She deserves the world.
** Lexi and Fez weren't what I expected from this season, but they were adorable. I knew it wasn't going to end well, knowing this show, but still, their sweet moments made me smile all the same. And I love that they got their time to shine, both together and in their respective storylines.
** I love the theme of the show about questioning yourself, whether or not you're a good person because of the decisions you've made or continue to make, and how can you get out of that rut if you're down a destructive path, if there's any hope for you, etc. It's such a great message, too, because many people are lost and do wonder whether or not they're a good person based on something they've said or done, and we tend to be our own worst critics and beat ourselves up over it and it becomes a vicious cycle of finding that little joys to make up for feeling like shit, and once you overcome that obstacle, of just believing that you can try to be a good person to become one, that's the first step of breaking that self-destructive cycle. I don't know, it's just great. In the end, whether or not Rue does find a way of keeping clean and staying as she claims, I liked that message in the finale for her.
Overall: While season two wasn't as strong as the first season, it was still entertaining for the most part and I liked a good portion of it. With the show being renewed for a third season, I do hope that whatever issues that happened behind-the-scenes can be resolved and adjusted before filming.
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Date: 2022-03-18 02:14 pm (UTC)Still, as you pointed out, there were some great moments. Zendaya deserves all the awards and I loved Lexi and Fezco so much.
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Date: 2022-03-18 09:30 pm (UTC)Season two wasn't bad necessarily, it just felt like something was just off-kilter, and with the behind-the-scenes problems which definitely attributed to some of the way the season came across, I do hope that season three will be better structured.
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Date: 2022-04-04 02:16 pm (UTC)As I said in my other comment, I pretty much just watched the show without looking anything up online, whether opinions or news, so I didn't even know about any behind-the-scenes issues, I only found out about them from your post. It sure explains a lot about how uneven this season was sometimes, and now I'm quite curious what they were? (Assuming there's something from official or official-ish sources - I'm not really interested in rumors, in general.)
Also fuuuuuck what happened to Fez and Ash. :( Like, I didn't expect anything good necessarily, but I didn't expect this either. (I'm not at all upset at the show for doing this, it was just heartbreaking, k.)
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Date: 2022-04-05 03:18 am (UTC)It's not rumors, as several actors came forward with their accounts of what happened behind-the-scenes, there were concerns about nudity (several actresses came forward talking about how uncomfortable they were and asked to have those scenes reduced or taken out entirely), and the actress who plays Kat had arguments with the creator re: her storyline, which is why Kat's arc this season didn't really go anywhere because whatever was originally planned had been scrapped. Those were the notable ones that I'm aware of, but overall it just seemed like the filming environment was rather awkwardly tense with a lot of disagreements with the direction of the story, especially with particular character storylines, which isn't good.
I'm not at all upset at the show for doing this, it was just heartbreaking, k.
Oh, I'm right there with you. It's all about the heartbreaking tragedy of it all, of there being the possibility of a happy ending for certain characters, only for the consequences of certain actions coming back to haunt them and bite them in the ass. :(