Euphoria Season 3 review: 'The show has lost its zeitgeisty edge' ★★☆☆☆

Four years on, the provocative HBO drama is back, with Zendaya, Jacob Elordi and Sydney Sweeney all returning. Unfortunately, though, "it has become a series with very little to say".

Of all the twists you might have anticipated for Euphoria's third and (rumoured) final season, turning Rue's (Zendaya) story into a neo-Western – driving across a desert, walking by an actual tumbleweed, working for a boss in a cowboy hat who carries a golden gun – was probably not high on anyone's list of guesses. That's just one of the many turns that may make you say: "Huh? Why?"

When the show first appeared in 2019 it was provocative and zeitgeisty, notable for the matter-of-fact way it assumed that sex, drugs and gender fluidity in high school have become cultural norms. Since season 2 ended, four years ago, Zendaya, Jacob Elordi and Sydney Sweeney have become major film stars. And although all three return to their characters comfortably after this long delay, the show has lost its zeitgeisty edge. Euphoria has become a series with very little to say, none of it very audacious or compelling. Based on the three episodes, of eight, that HBO made available in advance, it is a strained attempt to make the closed circle of friends it follows, now in their early 20s, somehow the same only different.

It's easy to see why Zendaya has deservedly won two Emmys as Rue and her performance may be even more striking today because as her fame has grown we've become used to seeing the actress look polished and elegant in every public appearance, far from her rumpled, troubled character. Rue is still adrift, battling for sobriety in Mexico and working off her debt to Laurie (Martha Kelly), a drug dealer from the previous season. Zendaya makes Rue convincing even when navigating preposterous turns. She moves on to Texas and works for a man called Alamo (an amusingly sinister Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) who owns a chain of low-rent strip clubs advertised as "fully nude, always lewd."   

A very efficient club manager, she hands out drugs to the strippers and keeps tabs on money. Zendaya is wry and credible delivering ludicrous lines like "And that's how I became a drug mule". At times the show nods to old Western movies in its dialogue and gunplay, with a tone that is almost but not quite tongue-in-cheek. Sam Levinson, the series creator, writer and director, has explained the influence, saying that when young adults are finding their way "it feels like the Wild West". He didn't have to take that so literally. The show struggles to make Rue's story different from before, yet Cassie (Sweeney) and Nate's (Elordi) trajectory is too much the same, wasting the opportunity that the time jump offers. They are engaged and living in a gaudy mansion. He is more duplicitous than ever, struggling after taking over his father's construction business, but his character is the most underdeveloped in this season so far. Cassie is even more spoiled and shallow than she was, insisting on spending $50,000 on flowers for their wedding.

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Her mind-boggling plan is to be both a tradwife and a sexy influencer, and she spends her days producing internet content. The season takes one stab at staying culturally relevant by tackling the way adult sites like OnlyFans are becoming mainstream. "It's not porn, it's erotica," Cassie tells Nate about her videos. But the theme is not unique. Elle Fanning's series Margot's Got Money Troubles, premiering a few days after Euphoria, handles it with more flair and thoughtfulness.

Fans of the series may find that catching up with its familiar characters is satisfying enough. Lexi (Maude Apatow) is an assistant for a showrunner played by Sharon Stone, who pops up briefly in the first episode. So does Colman Domingo as Rue's AA sponsor Ali. Touchingly, Eric Dane, who died in February after being diagnosed with ALS, appears as Nate's disgraced father. Jules (Hunter Schafer), so central in previous seasons, went to art school and supports a luxurious life by sleeping with rich men. Her intense love affair with Rue is over but they cross paths again, so who knows? Wherever the next episodes go, the good news is that its many talented stars have much better things to do.

Euphoria Season 3 premieres in the US on 12 April on HBO Max, and in the UK on 13 April on NOW and Sky Atlantic.

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