“Wolf Wolf.” One line from Cassie, aka Sydney Sweeney, was enough to decree the final outcome of Euphoria’s third season: a disappointing commodification of the female body. Net of the fact that judging a series on the basis of a single episode is to be considered rash, if not unprofessional from a critical point of view, let’s make a recap of what led to the negative verdict of Sam Levinson’s series. According to some viewers, the TV show starring Zendaya and Jacob Elordi would be too sex-centric, with scenes discrediting women. The offending scene would be the one starring the blond bombshell Sweeney, whom we see in the debut episode as an erotic content creator for a digital adult platform. Wrapped in a sexy corset and wearing dog ears, the bride-to-be of Nate, a.k.a. Jacob Elordi, gets tied up with a leash in a scene that many would have found annoying, too ses*ualized, explicit, humiliating for the female body.
But since when has Euphoria been a “gentle” series? Since the first season, the series has always stood out for being a punch in the gut, for being often raw and rough in many scenes of addiction and violence. Euphoria does not want to lighten our lives or give us hours of Emily in Paris relaxation, but it wants to make us think, move, even disgust. It brings to us reality for what it is. Beyond what may be an ethical judgment of what is right or wrong, it is undeniable thatcontemporarysesualityhas found a development in the digital, and that there are a great many men and women of all ages who are posting erotic contenton certain platforms. Euphoria presents it to us exactly as it is. So why so much scandal? Do we willfully ignore the explicit images that bombard our social media feeds and then unleash a storm if this same reality is portrayed in a TV series? And all this, based on just one episode? What can I say, we are officially in the age of superficial and, let us tell you, even hypocritical criticism.
[📷Courtesy of HBO / © Marcel Rev, Patrick Wymore, Eddy Chen; Instagram: euphoria]
