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Season 3 of Euphoria is back after four years, and the mood has shifted from hot, chaotic and a little dangerous to something slower, heavier, and unsure of itself.
This was meant to feel like a return. Instead, after a four-year gap, early reviews are circling a different question. What exactly this version of Euphoria is trying to be, and how far it’s drifted from what made the TV series work in the first place.
Some critics think it works. “Euphoria is never not entertaining,” writes Variety. And The Daily Beast hits a little alliteration in their praise, calling it “tawdry and titillating… and yet also, somehow better.” Others aren’t buying it.
AwardsWatch says the wait “doesn’t feel particularly worth it,” while BBC argues the show has “very little to say, none of it very audacious or compelling.”
“The show has lost its zeitgeisty edge.”
And that’s where the split exists. Some prefer the high school adolescent vibes of the first two seasons, while others think it’s not so bad that they’re all grown up.
But that doesn’t mean it’s good either. Euphoria Season 3 is currently sitting at 42% on Rotten Tomatoes, with a 56 Metacritic score.
Forbes already flagged it as feeling like multiple shows stitched together, “none of them felt like Euphoria, and neither did the final package.” Variety says it’s no longer “tethered to the grounding ballast that kept the first two seasons on the rails.” While Collider goes further, arguing the time jump “strips it of its central thesis… making it difficult to pinpoint why Season 3 exists at all.”
If they’re not in high school anymore, why are we still here? Rugrats All Grown Up made it work with babies. This doesn’t.
AwardsWatch sums it up best: “If the first two seasons… were the effects of drugs, the third is the hangover that follows.”
“Like an examination of life after high school for someone who peaked while they were there.”
Not everyone thinks it’s a step back. Consequence calls it “a relief… to find that age has mellowed out both the show and the chaotic adolescents it was once about.” RogerEbert.com counters that point, suggesting the show now feels “more uncertain of what it’s doing or saying than ever before.”
But if you ask IndieWire, it just makes Season 3 “spiritually hollow.”
Then there’s also the tonal whiplash.
There’s a bizarre, Tarantino-esque opening that AwardsWatch reckon’s needs to be seen to be believed. The New York Post compares it to “Breaking Bad meets Looney Tunes.” And then you’ve got multiple references to Westerns layered over what used to be a suburban coming-of-age story. Showrunner Sam Levinson is clearly pushing the style, but we’re not sure it’s connecting.
Speaking of which, the issue around misogyny connects itself once again to Sydney Sweeney’s Cassie, who is pushed into increasingly explicit territory: OnlyFans, fetish content, performative sexuality.
Some critics still think it works. Slant says Sweeney “stands out… with a mix of glassy-eyed self-importance and pitiable self-doubt.” But even they concede Season 3 is “every bit as visually arresting and stomach-churning as the first two.”
Across reviews, there’s a recurring discomfort around her situation. The material leans into spectacle, then steps back and judges it. Sometimes in the same scene. Are we meant to look down on her? Or lift her up despite her choices? That contradiction keeps coming up.
But what about Zendaya? AwardsWatch calls her performance “one of the finest on television.” The Hollywood Reporter says she’s delivering something that’s both “broad and quietly nuanced.” RogerEbert.com goes even further, calling it “the best thing about the season.”
That’s great for her. But when every takeaway leads back to one performance, it usually means the rest isn’t pulling its weight.
So why does Season 3 even exist? Collider points out that once you remove the high school setting, the show’s original idea becomes harder to pin down. AwardsWatch is more direct, saying “there isn’t much that makes sense… this will hopefully be the show’s last outing.”
Euphoria at 40, anyone? Probably not. As the BBC points out, “Fans… may find that catching up with its familiar characters is satisfying enough.”
And we have to agree. Because after four years, “good to see them again” probably isn’t what HBO was aiming for.
There are still flashes of what made Euphoria work. The visuals. The performances. The occasional moment that hits properly. Emphasis on occasional.
But when the audience starts asking why this season exists at all, the comeback conversation is already over.
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