Euphoria TV Specials [2020]: An Exploration About Mental Illness Issues and Being Young

At the end of the first season of Euphoria, which consists of 8 episodes, HBO decided to release two special episodes of this teen series. Partly because of the incredible hype it had at the time (summer 2019), but this time in the winter of 2020. These stories focused on the two main figures of the previous season: Rue and Jules. Both brought to life the vicissitudes that every young person goes through during such a turbulent period in a human being’s life. Rue, with her desire to commit suicide and continue consuming substances, and Jules, who feels that no one deserves to love her, in addition to struggling with her identity as a transgender girl.

Believe me, I’m doing this review as someone who is 32 years old. Not as part of the Euphoria fandom, which is real and biased. Both special episodes take place right after the events we see in the season finale. Rue returns to the vicious spiral, but since it’s Christmas and she’s completely alone, she calls Ali and they have what I would describe as a masterful screenwriting lesson for a mainstream series. And that is something that is still a mystery to me. The same person who made the mess that was The Idol is the same one who made this brilliant series and these two episodes that are pure gold.

Deep dialogue without disconnecting from the adolescent context. A perspective between adulthood and that anguished, impulsive, tormented view that every kid has at 16 or 17 years of age... In addition, the tone of this episode, which for the sake of pragmatism I will call “Rue’s episode,” left me pleasantly impressed. I confess that I had already seen the series at the time, but while reading about Zendaya’s career, I realized that on IMDb this episode (which I had no idea existed until that moment) has the highest rating of the entire series...

And not to mention the second episode, “Jules’s episode.” Here we witness what a clinical psychology session looks like in real time. Jules openly and honestly experiences what she has decided to keep at the bottom of her humanity. She struggles to understand that the harshness and that search for perfection she longs for is simply impossible. I was also able to see the anger that has accumulated inside her thanks to her mother’s abandonment in a psychiatric institution when she was a 9-year-old girl... As a mother, that confession affects you differently, without a doubt...

Performances in both episodes more typical of theater than of a highly mainstream series. There is no joy or jubilation that spreads through the wonderful score composed by Labrinth. Just two hours (each episode is one hour long) where we see real damage, pain, and the reasons behind those actions that we later comment on and gossip about after watching an episode on Max. Honestly, I have to give credit to Zendaya and Hunter Schaefer for delivering such performances, but above all for transmitting their emotions and feelings in such a genuine and authentic way. You know you have seen something wonderful when you feel it as your own... And this is evident and majestic in Euphoria.