Euphoria returns in an intriguing and solid season 2 premiere
The HBO drama starring Zendaya and Hunter Schafer is back after two-plus years and two stand-alone specials

The hit HBO series Euphoria, starring Zendaya, returns to HBO tonight for its second season after a three-year hiatus and two stand-alone specials. I enjoy the show, but ultimately reside in a gray area of love and hate when it comes to its exclusion and handling of its characters. I appreciated how the first season centered on a young Black girl with mental health issues experiencing a post-9/11 world out of her control (as a Black girl with mental health issues experiencing a post-9/11 world that’s out of my control), and the love story between Rue (Zendaya) and Jules (Hunter Schafer). These two threads felt the most personal and developed. However, the story throughout season one was often drowned out by the spectacle of gorgeous cinematography and camerawork.
These issues appear once again as we return to the world of suffocating suburbia for season two. The episode opens up with a montage about the childhood of fan favorite and Rue’s friend/drug dealer, Fez. Fez is a character who, thanks to Angus Cloud’s performance, has quiet sensitivity. Through Rue’s voice-over, we learn that Fez was brought up by his grandmother alongside his “little brother,” Ashtray (Javon Walton), and began to sell drugs at a young age as his grandmother’s business partner. It is evident in this montage that the skill set Fez has used to protect his grandmother and Ashtray has been extended to Rue.
Fez intrigues me, as he could be used to show how drug dealing is in many cases about circumstance and survival outside of one’s control rather than ill will. I want to know how Fez feels about dealing drugs for survival, but we don’t get answers to these questions in the premiere because this montage is all set to Rue’s voice-over. While I usually enjoy it, in this instance, Rue’s voice-over prevents us from learning more of Fez’s backstory. We don’t see what happened through his eyes.
After the title card, the premiere episode brings together the main characters at a New Year’s Eve party. Rue’s voice-over becomes much more scarce throughout the episode, which frees up the narrative to be less about how she sees everyone and herself. One of my problems with the first season and episodes involving the entire ensemble was that the entire cast of characters and storylines were either well balanced and interwoven appropriately or the various characters’ storylines were shown alongside each other with no connection to one another. Here, the characters are for the most part paired off and come together in ways that make sense, and everything intersects in a way that feels connected. Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) and Nate (Jacob Elordi) meet at a convenience store and he offers her a ride to a party. We catch up with Lexi (Maude Apatow) and Maddy (Alexa Demie) at this party, where Lexi eventually chats with Fez. Cassie and Nate arrive and begin to hook up before almost being caught by Maddy. Jules arrives with Kat (Barbie Ferreira)—and Kat’s boyfriend Ethan (Austin Abrams). Meanwhile, Rue is introduced to a new friend, Elliot (Dominic Fike), as the two share drugs.