If you’re a teenager in 2022, there’s a very high chance that you’ve either seen or heard of Euphoria, a TV show on HBO Max directed by Sam Levinson. 

Euphoria follows the life of Rue, played by Zendaya, and several of her friends as they navigate high school and their lives, which deal with heavy topics such as drug abuse and mental illness. I think that Euphoria is a great show, but with every popular show comes a multitude of opinions about the occurring events and characters. There are lots of popular opinions, however, there are unpopular opinions as well, and today I will be discussing my unpopular opinions about the show. 

My first unpopular opinion focuses on one of the most controversial characters in the show: Cassie (played by Sydney Sweeney). In season 1, many people on Twitter said they grew a liking for Cassie and sympathized with her sensitivity and hopeless romanticism. However, in season 2 the tides turns when Cassie goes against her best friend Maddy (played by Alexa Demie) and starts dating Maddy’s on and off boyfriend, Nate (played by Jacob Elordi). When this happened the majority of viewers turned against Cassie, calling her a horrible person and one of the worst on the show. However, although I agree that Cassie did some awful things in season 2, she is not a horrible character and I still have a slight liking for her. Cassie, again, is very sensitive and a hopeless romantic, and I know that doesn’t excuse hooking up with your best friend’s boyfriend, but I think a lot of the viewers should understand that being a hopeless romantic can make you make dumb decisions. Making one dumb decision doesn’t make you a horrible person. Nate is also very abusive and manipulative toward Cassie and a lot of viewers of the show gloss over that. Nate says horrible things to her one second and then the next second tells her that he loves her. This can make a sensitive and vulnerable person, again, not think and just want to please the abuser and stay for the good moments, which is what Cassie does. She stays because she wants Nate’s attention because he dangles it in front of her like a worm on a hook. Nate is also a key part in keeping their secret relationship going and it shouldn’t be all put on Cassie. Additionally, there are multiple bad people in Euphoria. Not just Cassie. A lot of people act like Cassie is the worst, but they forget other characters like Cal (played by Eric Dane), Nate, and even Jules (played by Hunter Schafer). Compared to these other people, Cassie barely makes the list of the “worst people in Euphoria.” 

My second unpopular opinion is about Lexi’s play. Lexi (played by Maude Apatow) is a character that, in season 1, is basically just a side character that plays the role of Rue’s ex-best friend, and doesn’t really make an appearance in the show. In season two, she gets more of the spotlight with her growing relationship with the character Fezco (played by Angus Cloud), her love for writing, and her play that she wrote from her point of view of life. Being from her point of view, a lot of the characters in the play are real-life people, and this was made obviously clear. Lexi includes her sister, Cassie, and other characters like Rue, Maddy, and Nate, and makes the actors portraying these people look exactly like them and do exact things that they did.  A lot of people on social media and personal friends love the play, and while I do agree that some of the characters in the show deserve what Lexi did, there are some scenes that are just downright inhumane to make fun of. For example, in the play, Lexi has this whole scene making fun of Nate and his sexuality. Nate is supposedly bisexual or gay, and Lexi creates this whole scene making fun of Nate for possibly liking men and in general, mocks the idea of being gay. Unlike a lot of people who watch the show, I think that this scene is totally unnecessary. Lexi could have chosen anything to make fun of Nate for, however, she chose to make fun of his sexuality. Something he wasn’t totally comfortable with yet. That’s probably one of the worst things that can happen to you if you are closeted. Why out him in front of the whole school and do it in a really humiliating way? I understand that Nate is a horrible person, but I wouldn’t wish what Lexi did on anybody. I think it was a horrible thing to do. There are also other scenes in Lexi’s play that are totally unnecessary. Lexi makes a lot of fun at Cassie, and while some of that was deserved, there were some scenes that are, again, sick to make fun of someone for. In season one, Cassie does something inappropriate on a carousel, and Lexi makes fun of it in her play. Lexi wasn’t even there when that happened to Cassie. So, isn’t this play supposed to be about her perspective of life? Why make fun of someone for something that’s completely personal to their life and has no relationship with yours in any way? At that point you’re not trying to tell your perspective of life, you just want to hurt people. Same with Nate. His sexuality affects Lexi in no way at all. The play is about your life, not making fun of people just for the sake of it. 

My third unpopular opinion is about the main character, Rue. Rue is a heavy drug addict and has done a lot of questionable things throughout the two seasons. She has turned on friends because they wouldn’t supply her with drugs, insulted her NA sponsor, threatened her mother and sister, and also ran from the cops after stealing jewelry for drug money. However, I still have a liking for Rue despite all the things she has done. My first reason for this is that she is an addict. Even though the things she has done aren’t okay, addiction can take over your mind and make you do things that you would have never dreamed of doing. A lot of the characters in Euphoria make bad decisions, but the difference between them and Rue is that they aren’t addicts. They are making their decisions with fully non-influenced minds. Rue, on the other hand, has had her dad die, and that can make you spiral and spiral into addiction. The bad things Rue has done are because she is addicted, not because she is a bad person. Another reason I don’t dislike her is because at the end of season two she decides to actually get better. A lot of times in the show she claims that she’s going to get better but she hasn’t because she has no motivation to. However, at the end of season two, she realizes how her actions have hurt the people around her and she makes a decision to actually heal. She apologizes to her friends, to her sponsor, and at the end of the season said that she stays clean for the rest of the school year. Not only does she get better, but she is one of the few people in the show to actually progress and grow for the greater good. The other characters who have done bad things keep doing bad things. However, Rue decides to get better, and she stays with that decision. 

All in all, every popular thing comes with unpopular opinions. However, despite those unpopular opinions, Euphoria is still one of the most entertaining and interesting shows made for the new generation. If you’re still reading this and you enjoy drama and dark topics, you should go turn on your TV and take a look at Euphoria. I bet you’ll like it, and have unpopular opinions of your own as well.