When Euphoria first glitter-bombed its manner onto our screens in 2019, jaws collectively dropped. Created by Sam Levinson, it was an audacious melodrama that cracked open the x-rated lives of suburban teenagers with giddy digicam work, sparkly eye make-up and hormonal meltdowns. Specializing in teenage drug addict Rue, performed by Zendaya, and her boundary-pushing adolescent friends, it was daring in each manner: unflinching in its exploration of habit, abuse and violent crime, unafraid of full frontal nudity and graphic intercourse and prepared to take artistic dangers just like the gorgeous musical quantity that ended sequence one. Watching it was usually exhilarating and generally exhausting.
However the place as soon as Euphoria was some of the talked about exhibits on tv, the information this week that its third season will shortly start filming has been met with a blended and muted response. When manufacturing resumes – in January, in accordance with current feedback from HBO’s Casey Bloys – it will likely be three years for the reason that premiere of season two and certain one other yr (no less than) earlier than new episodes make it to viewers.
For a present that made its identify by depicting lovely messiness, there may be an irony that it’s the behind-the-scenes messiness which may be its undoing. The lengthy wait between sequence has been peppered with headlines about artistic variations, character clashes and script rewrites. The place Levinson was as soon as one in all TV’s most fun skills, he’s now tainted by the catastrophe of The Idol, his catastrophic 2023 sequence that starred The Weeknd and Lily-Rose Depp. Not solely was it a crucial and industrial flop but additionally the topic of a damning Rolling Stone investigation that alleged a poisonous work atmosphere.
Teased by HBO Max as a darker and much more risqué Euphoria, The Idol adopted troubled pop star Jocelyn (Depp), who finds herself within the “sleaziest love story in all of Hollywood” with sordid cult chief Tedros (The Weeknd).
With nameless claims to the outlet evaluating Levinson’s new story to “torture porn” and alleging the set’s atmosphere was chaotic and poorly managed, the director was put beneath scrutiny once more.
In an announcement despatched to The Impartial responding to claims about The Idol, HBO mentioned on the time: “The creators and producers of The Idol have been working arduous to create one in all HBO’s most fun and provocative unique applications.
“The preliminary method on the present and manufacturing of the early episodes, sadly, didn’t meet HBO requirements so we selected to make a change.
“All through the method, the artistic crew has been dedicated to making a secure, collaborative, and mutually respectful working atmosphere, and final yr, the crew made artistic adjustments they felt have been in the very best curiosity of each the manufacturing and the solid and crew.”
Again at Euphoria, there have been comparable sad murmurings over Levinson’s autocratic method – rumours that he and Zendaya had fallen out and controversy over Barbie Ferreira whose character barely appeared in season two and who subsequently introduced she can be leaving the present (claiming the choice was “mutual”). There have been vast stories that Levinson’s concepts for the third sequence (which apparently included Rue changing into a non-public investigator) have been poorly acquired by its star and by HBO.
