I’m a crusty old Millennial.
Not really. I’m actually right on the cusp of Millennialism. I was born in 1996, which most people contend is the cutoff. Generational divides are fairly fluid, but in general, Millennials are among those who came of age at the turn of the millenium, who remember a time before high-speed Internet, smartphones and Spotify. We grew up in front of Dell PCs, called our friends on the home phone and burned CDs onto iTunes.
Millennials are sometimes (rarely) called Generation Y, or sometimes have other monikers (the Me Me Me Generation, Generation Why, the Burnout Generation.) Hence, their “successors” are Generation Z, or Gen Z as we typically refer to them. Gen Z was born after 1996 and before 2010, making most of them mid-to-late teenagers right now. (It boggles my mind that someone born in 2000 is turning 20 this year. But I’ll live with it.)
Gen Z are also called The Digital Natives, since most of them probably don’t remember a time without smartphones or the Internet. They snap their friends on Snapchat, dance off on TikTok and play games on Nintendo Switches.
And according to HBO’s Euphoria, they do a lot of drugs.
Not that that’s a blanket statement for all of Gen Z. At least, I hope not. But something struck me when I began watching this 8-part series, streaming now on HBO’s platforms. Why the depravity? Why are these kids partying like there’s literally no tomorrow? Why do they seem to have no outlook toward the future and sometimes no self control?
A few things might play into this. Here are my observations.
Euphoria is about teenage drug addiction.
This isn’t a new thing. According to the National Institute for Drug Addiction for Teens, 40% of surveyed 12th graders said they had used at least one drug (2008.) According to the National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics, this number is down to 24% in 2020, meaning it’s possible Millennials were more heavy drug users in high school. We all know that teens are especially susceptible to peer pressure because of the heightened social consciousness that comes with high school.
Euphoria follows Rue (Zendaya,) a high school junior who overdosed over the summer and went to rehab. She returns to school feeling like a pariah and an outcast–especially since she’s still using, even though she attends NA regularly to appease her mother. Rue isn’t your casual drug user–she spends money she doesn’t have on designer drugs from her dealer, Fezco (Angus Cloud.) After she takes a nearly deadly dose of Fentanyl, Fez decides he’s done. When your drug dealer doesn’t even want to sell you drugs, you know you have a problem. “I’m not going to watch you kill yourself,” he tells her as she tearfully bangs on his door.
Teenagers will be teenagers.
Many of the show’s main actors were born in the early Gen Z. Zendaya is just on the cusp, born in September 1996. Jacob Elordi, who plays star quarterback and controlling boyfriend Nate Jacobs, was born in 1997. And Hunter Schafer, who plays Rue’s best friend Jules, was born in 1999. So you could classify these actors as Gen Z, even though they’re older than their characters.
Does the nihilism of Euphoria simply speak into the nihilism of teenagers in general? Teenagers are often depicted as wild party animals in media. Whether or not that’s true is beside the point–it can be boiled down into the fact that teenagers don’t necessarily live by the rules. “I’m envious of your generation, you know,” says Cal (Eric Dane,) who we later (embarrassingly) find out is Nate’s father. “You guys don’t care as much about the rules.”
That’s the essence of Euphoria–teens not following the rules and making mistakes they’ll probably regret for the rest of their lives. Nate fully stalks his ex-girlfriend’s fling and beats him into a bloody pulp in his apartment. Kat (Barbie Ferreira) finds out she can make quite a bit of money doing unseemly things on the Internet. And Jules puts herself in dangerous situations to meet the guy she’s been talking to online. Is it nihilism? Maybe. Is it a series of poor choices? Absolutely.
If I remember being a teenager clearly enough, I remember feeling like death was far away. Even growing up seemed like a foreign concept. That’s why I think teenagers seem to have a wanton sense for trouble–mortality is a foreign concept. The first time a student at my high school died in a car accident, I could barely sleep. Another friend of mine died in an entirely freak accident. That’s just not supposed to happen.
Granted, Rue has looked death in the face. Her sister Gia (Storm Reid) found her unresponsive in a pile of her own vomit. Her overdose scare still doesn’t seem to phase her. Her empty voiceovers set the tone for the series–she’s simply chasing the next high. And so it seems are all of her classmates.
Is Gen Z that depraved?
Calling Gen Z the original nihilists is probably a bit much. Most teenagers in any generation could be considered nihilistic, especially regarding their devil-may-care approach to death. However, Gen Z has a lot on their shoulders. They’ve been told since they were young that the world is going to end because of climate change in their lifetime. They’ve never known a time when the US wasn’t at war with someone. They witnessed a recession, a divisive political election and now a pandemic, and they’re barely even into their twenties. Scary headlines take a toll on young minds.
No, Gen Z is not depraved. Euphoria is a highly inflated account of what it’s like to be a teenager. However, these teens are grappling with difficult situations. Rue lost her dad to cancer when she was eleven. Nate’s dad is secretly gay. And Jules has had great tragedy over the course of her life. Others in the show, like Kat and Cassie (Sydney Sweeney,) simply give into peer pressure because they don’t know any better. Most teens grapple with something. (Gen Z was also raised by the oft-rebellious Gen X, if that tells you anything.)
Euphoria deals with heavy topics that teenagers around the world face: drug addiction, peer pressure, domestic abuse. Growing up is hard. This show may highlight the nihilism of those teenage years, but growing up is a process we all go through in our own ways.
Just don’t do drugs, kids.
Euphoria is rated TV-MA for drug abuse, language, violence and sexual situations.
Audrey D. DeBoer 