Euphoria season 3 has premiered to considerably weaker reviews in comparison with the acclaim the show received during its first two seasons. The Rotten Tomatoes rating for the season to date sits at just 42%. For comparison, the second season has a 78% rating, and the primary season has an 80% rating.
Why was there such a drop-off in critical reception? Read on to seek out out.
Euphoria: No Longer A Critical Darling
Euphoria is not any longer a favourite of critics as of its third season, with the Rotten Tomatoes consensus reading as follows:
“Euphoria returns with lower than the sum of its parts in a disjointed cavalcade of forced narratives that leave its talented forged stranded within the wind.”
Dominic Griffin from Looper believed that the show had “lost itself.” Reflecting on the show’s beginnings, Dominic said the primary season was “a novel and disruptive blast of energy into the 2019 television landscape.”
Nevertheless, Griffin believed the show’s decline had already began within the second season and blamed Sam Levison’s auteur tendencies for turning the show into something way more exploitative, stating that ending the show at that season’s end would’ve been a “mercy killing.” Griffin was not impressed by the revival of the series, as he believed it had to date did not live as much as its stated ambition to develop into a compelling story of maturity. As he put it:
“At times, the show appears like a Mad Libs filled in to maximise puerile imagery above all else, and throughout the creative goals of the brand new episodes, it’s all the poorer for it.”
Digital Spy’s David Opie was also underwhelmed by the third season’s attempt at raising the stakes. He considered the attempts to one-up the already intense storylines of past seasons to be inorganic, even going so far as to say, “Critics have long accused the show of prioritizing controversy for controversy’s sake, but this is likely to be the primary time the accusations ring somewhat true.” Nevertheless, Opie did end his review with the hope that the remaining episodes of the season might recapture the magic the show was once known for.
This Is Not Sam Levinson’s First Critical Dud
Euphoria’s third season shouldn’t be the primary time Sam Levinson’s work has been derided by critics. Most notably, his fame as a prestige showrunner took a large hit after the discharge of 2023’s The Idol. That show focused on an aspiring pop star, Jocelyn (played by Lily-Rose Depp), who fell under the spell of the egomaniacal self-help guru and cult leader, Tedros (played by The Weeknd).
The Idol holds a dismal 19% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the critical consensus stating the next:
“Every bit as florid and sleazy because the industry it seeks to satirize, The Idol places itself on a pedestal with unbridled style but wilts under the highlight.”
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