After four years of peace, Sam Levinson’s “Euphoria” has returned. The HBO series’ third season premiered on April 12, delivering its most shocking plotlines and disgusting visuals yet.
What started in 2019 as a coming-of-age series following teenage drug addict Rue Bennett (Zendaya) has devolved into a provocative drama featuring strip clubs, OnlyFans models and drug labs. More often than not, the show’s provocative storylines and imagery involve its female characters. With an uncomfortably long scene of Rue swallowing lube-covered drug balloons to one of Cassie Howard (Sydney Sweeney) selling photos of herself as a naked baby on the internet, season three of “Euphoria” has set X ablaze.
It’s impossible to talk about the women of “Euphoria” without considering Cassie. This season, she’s nothing more than a psycho sex object who runs an OnlyFans while vying for the approval of her fiance and high school sweetheart, Nate Jacobs (Jacob Elordi). In the season premiere, we see her dressed as a sexy dog, wearing an ill-fitting brown corset, tail and collar. In episode two, we see a montage of her taking hypersexual pictures for social media in a variety of revealing costumes. The Bottega Veneta-wearing Nate — who physically abused his ex-girlfriend Maddy Perez (Alexa Demie) in earlier seasons — has become the voice of reason, trying to rein in his insane fiancee.
It’s a complete character assassination. In season one, Cassie was complex — abandoned by her father twice as a child, she grew up with men sexually and emotionally using her for her body. At the end of season one, her then-boyfriend pressures her to have an abortion. Season two doesn’t dive into this trauma, and instead follows Cassie risking and ultimately losing her treasured friendship with Maddie by hooking up with Nate.
Cassie’s reliance on approval from men makes sense given her backstory, but it isn’t properly explored or explained. “Euphoria” season three is the final blow to her character. The issue isn’t that she starts an OnlyFans, but that we get no insight into why she makes that choice. Once again, the show writes Cassie off as a lunatic, and Sweeney portrays her as an embarrassing caricature with no light or emotion behind her eyes.
Sweeney’s nude scenes in season three are excessive and exploitative. Of course, nudity can be an important part of storytelling, but audiences should question if these scenes move the story forward or exist purely to fulfill male fantasies. Seeing Cassie pose naked for OnlyFans photos does not advance the plot, as characters could easily just have conversations about the photos. This especially applies to the disturbing image of Cassie dressed like a baby, wearing a diaper with her bare breasts showing, which we see in episode two. Although this may have been Levinson’s attempt to call out how the porn industry caters to pedophiles, the scene and its subsequent circulation on the internet fall right into that trap.
Cassie isn’t the only woman whose naked body has been featured heavily this season. For whatever reason, Rue is working at a strip club, meaning Levinson can sneak casual nudity into the show with even more ease. His use of women’s bodies creates a flashy but ultimately exploitative aesthetic, with nameless strippers often accompanying club owner Alamo Brown (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) and his henchman (Marshawn Lynch) as they sell drugs and weapons.
Levinson’s oversexualized portrayal of women isn’t shocking considering his past projects. In the 2023 TV show “The Idol,” pop star Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp) enters a complex relationship with Tedros (The Weeknd), a cult leader and domestic abuser. In one episode, Tedros beats her with a hairbrush in a nearly unwatchable bondage scene that borders on BDSM porn. But Levinson has been minimizing women’s sexuality for years, since teenager Kat Hernandez (Barbie Ferreira) became an online dominatrix in “Euphoria” season one. The following season, the show neglected to provide any insight on how being an underage sex worker impacted Kat’s psyche. This comes as no surprise, given that HBO confirmed that production didn’t consult any sex workers while developing the show.
Levinson loves the shock value and sexiness that come with sex work storylines and nudity, but he’s not interested in developing fleshed-out female characters or exploring the complexity of sex work. His hollow depictions of women prove that he prioritizes edgy aesthetics and social media buzz over coherent storylines and themes. Of course, men like Levinson should be allowed to write about women and sex. But they need to understand that their perception of these topics is limited and biased. The easiest solution is to consult diverse voices during the writing process, which clearly didn’t happen for “Euphoria” season three. Audiences must also question if the taboo subjects in the show are truly adding something valuable to the conversation, or if they’re just there to provoke and arouse.
Contact Annie Emans at [email protected].