Review: Euphoria, "Andale" | Season 3, Episode 1

Welcome to Episodic Medium's coverage of the third and final season of Euphoria, which—fun fact—has not aired new episodes in the four years of this newsletter! As always, this first review is free, but to join the conversation on the show's conclusion, consider becoming a paid subscriber to access all of our reviews as Emmy season picks up steam.

The last time Euphoria was on the air felt like a lifetime ago. It was early 2022, only one year into the Biden presidency and at the height of the Omicron strain of COVID. Its actors had become either emerging or established stars after the show's flawed yet compulsively entertaining first season in 2019 launched them into the spotlight. And though the second season was much less satisfying and focused than its predecessor, it functioned as both a fertile meme machine and a fun hate-watch that everyone online corralled around to pick apart each week. Since then, the maximalist HBO teen melodrama has encountered a series of setbacks in its development for a third and final season: multiple reports of behind-the-scenes chaos, scheduling conflicts among its ensemble, the 2023 writer's strike, the tragic deaths of actors Angus Cloud and Eric Dane and producer Kevin Turen, the enfant terrible creator Sam Levinson's pivot to making the much-maligned The Idol, and a rumored falling out between him and Zendaya.

Much has also been said about how pointless continuing the Euphoria saga would be now that its cast has all aged out of high school and are all extremely busy starring in other projects. But ever the undeterred provocateur, Levinson decided to keep the show going and offer it a proper conclusion, thrusting his characters in a five-year time jump but keeping them in the same heightened, salacious world as before. As a longtime intrigued yet skeptical viewer of Euphoria (and someone who finds Levinson's whole vibe to be deeply off-putting), I went into the season 3 premiere, "Andale," with the lowest of expectations, knowing I was in for another serving of visually gaudy, narratively messy debauchery. And that's pretty much what it gave, even with the introduction of a few new characters, a widened aspect ratio, a neo-Western epic tone, a Hans Zimmer score, and yet another Kodak stock invented just for this show.

As expected, Levinson's fetishism for retro aesthetics, analog tech, and Tarantino-tinged needle drops is on full, unabashed display in the episode. He was never a deft dramatist nor does he have a particularly strong ear for dialogue—weaknesses that are still glaringly apparent in "Andale"—but what his writing lacks in subtlety and depth, he (somewhat) makes up for with a rich visual pallette, courtesy of cinematographer Marcell Rév. Aside from a few self-indulgent shots, the premiere is packed with gorgeous, cinematic vistas of sprawling mountains, glowing cliffside homes, and garish, candy-coated interiors. It's part of what makes Euphoria equally appealing and frustrating: Levinson provides a compellingly stylized spectacle to gaze at, but struggles to anchor his vision in anything particularly meaningful or propulsive.

One of the images that encapsulates this very tension appears in the decent, mostly silent opening sequence, where Rue, who now works as a drug mule for the deadpan kingpin Laurie, drives across the U.S.-Mexico border to deliver a package, but gets stuck trying to get back over to the States. Her rusty old car teeters precariously back and forth on the border wall, forcing Rue to abandon it and find her way back to California on foot. Such a shot made for a pretty apt analogy in regards to "Andale"'s wayward nature, as the episode (and the series as a whole, really) dips its toe in potentially meaty material before deciding to just go its own way.

Rue paying off her now-multi-million dollar debt to Laurie is certainly a way to resolve one of the few open-ended plotlines from season 2. It could also work in the narrative long run by pushing Rue to temper her addictive personality, especially as the job involves her swallowing multiple balloons of cocaine (an action displayed in a grotesque montage). That trajectory changes, though, once Rue ventures to carry out a drug deal and meets a new kingpin named Alamo, whose seductive lifestyle, entourage of scantily clad women, and embrace of the American ideal of self-reinvention act as an attractive way out from Laurie. Rue also finds herself drawn to Christianity, an interest stoked by both her former sponsor Ali and the religious, off-the-grid family she briefly stays with while en route back to LA. Although that idea aligns with this season's overarching theme of redemption, its exploration in the episode feels just a bit muddled, especially as it manifests mainly in an awkwardly written conversation with Ali about gay sex in the Bible.

Similar to Rue's ascent in the drug dealing world, it makes sense for Lexi's arc to focus on their ascent into Hollywood, considering all the delectable details and directorial rigor she put into her metatextual play back in season 2. She now works as an assistant on a nighttime soap, bringing in Starbucks orders and attempting to get noticed by her boss Patty (a game Sharon Stone). Though Levinson seems to be drawing a loose parallel between Hollywood and the narcotics business as unstable ecosystems riddled with corruption and ego, there's a whiff of lame condescension in Levinson's rendering of a TV writer's room that undercuts his satirical impulses, what with their overly approving finger-snapping to Stone's speechifying. Euphoria's humor has always been a bit funky, occasionally offering some amusingly absurd respite from the intensity of its theatrics (e.g. Cassie's iconically breathless, teary-eyed bathroom monologue in season 2), but in most cases, particularly this one, the comic relief comes off inelegant and flippant.

That tonal clunkiness especially pertains to Cassie and Nate, who are now living together in a massive, suburban mansion and are attempting to earn enough money to throw a lavish wedding. I honestly found their whole storyline laugh-out-loud ridiculous, particularly with that audacious opening shot of Cassie's butt as she poses as a dog (?) for Instagram content (?) and Nate's announcement of his venture to build a retirement home for baby boomers (??) because one "dies every 15 seconds" (??). The whole thing rang almost like a humiliation ritual for Jacob Elordi, who delivered great, lived-in performances in Frankenstein and Priscilla but seems to be phoning it in a bit here, as if aware this setup between these characters is just too silly to take seriously.

The same goes for Sydney Sweeney, whose sex-symbol appeal on the show has often bordered on voyeuristic and now has gone full-tilt into a porny tradwife fantasy. Cassie and Nate's quarreling provided some clear tension in season 2 when the two were hooking up behind Maddy's back, but now that they've settled together into a proper courtship, their new dynamic is just not nearly as engaging. Cassie's desire to launch an OnlyFans could reactivate Nate's control and rage issues, which seemed to have marginally softened now that he's embraced domesticity (or perhaps Elordi is just downplaying those tendencies out of sheer embarrassment for where his character has ended up). Either way, the stakes for this plotline—Nate tells Cassie she must hide her face while making erotic content—don't quite rouse as much curiosity about where it will go, as it feels pretty inevitable that some drama, whether induced by Cassie, Nate, or someone else, will disrupt their nuptials.

Naturally, "Andale" also ends on a relatively airless note. After one of Alamo's girls overdoses on the drugs Rue deliver, Alamo forces Rue to stands with an apple on her head as he aims to shoot it off her, William Tell-style. Again, the craft of the scene is strong—some really solid close-ups of Zendaya's petrified face and clean, sharp camera movements—but there's no real tension undergirding the moment since it wouldn't make much sense for Rue to die or be injured in the first episode. The apple, predictably, gets shot off of her head and Rue cheers, celebrating that she's been spared once again. Even with the shift from the turmoils of high school to the ones in the real world, Euphoria still seems to be locked in the same aesthetically glossy yet dramatically rudderless limbo it came from.

Stray observations

• I didn't get a chance to discuss Maddy as much, but she doesn't have much screen time to begin with, as it's briefly established that she works as a talent manager for influencers and actors. It feels a tad narratively convenient in trying to keep her close to Lexi's subplot, but also feels somewhat fitting to her go-getter, power-player disposition.
• Lexi's note to have Dylan Reid deliver a kiss before his line was... bad, right? Am I the only one who thought that the initial direction for Dylan to deliver the line before the kiss was better?
• I suppose having Fezco end up in prison was the quickest way to address the absence of the late Cloud and probably made the most sense story-wise given his character's trajectory, but still made me a bit sad that that was his ultimate fate.
• No Jules this episode, but it's mentioned that she's a sugar baby. I highly doubt Levinson will treat this thoughtfully, but I'm curious to see how Hunter Schafer will fare in reprising her role with this subplot.
• Rue's sister Gia is also absent, which was expected—Storm Reid mentioned she won't be returning for this season. At least it's nice to know she's at the top of her class and doesn't have to tearfully witness Rue's unruly behavior anymore.
• Another omission to this season: the show's signature gospel/hip-hop-inflected score by Labrinth. The composer lambasted the show after Levinson decided to replace him with Hans Zimmer, and though Levinson allegedly wanted to find a new sound to match the change in the show's scope, Euphoria definitely doesn't quite hit the same without Labrinth's touches.
• Hi everyone! I'm excited to dig into this season. Full disclosure: I didn't receive screeners for this season, so these reviews will be more first-reaction than exhaustive. I'll do my best to articulate my thoughts at this more expeditious pace, but hopefully, that'll leave some room for more expansive conversation in the comments!