Euphoria - very disturbing to me

[Nictuku]

Euphoria (Series on Netflix - Wrong, it is on HBO Max! sorry about that) has got my stomach all tied up in knots.

I know it has been around for a while, but I've not watched it before. The description about teenagers dealing with what life has to deal them just didn't really interest me, but a friend of mine mentioned she liked it and so I thought I would give it a try. (I'm usually more of a Sci-Fi fan)

I'm a 60 year old Woman. I grew up in a totally different time. Yeah, in the 70's and 80's, (sex, drugs, and rock N roll) I was considered quite a wild child. I mean, I was a teenager, in Hawaii. We had our friends, we went cruizing, we went out the window at night and went skinny dipping, and I won't even get into the drugs of the 70's and 80's), and of course there was sex and peer pressure. But there was no social media.

It was nothing like what our teens have to deal with today. We did not face the intense kind of peer pressure our teenagers of today face. I just can't.... imagine... how I would feel as a teenager today. I would probably commit suicide if I was. My heart is breaking for the next generation.

It is brutal out there. Other kids are so mean. Yeah, they were mean back in my day, but we didn't have all this social media to deal with, and there was a big Peace and Love movement still going on.

I'm only on episode 3 of this series. I'm not sure I can make it through more. It is just so disturbing, so heartbreaking. These young people don't stand a chance. What is the next generation going to be like?

Do I sound like an old lady screaming 'Get off of My Lawn'! I hope not. I know every generation is considered to be reckless and out of control by the elders.

I consider myself fairly open minded. But if what I am seeing in this series is anything like reality for the teens of today, it just wrecks me. I don't know how they cope.

I think this series is useful, to bring to light what all is going on, maybe start up some conversations (like this post). Much of it is the same (Girls are either Whores or Prudes in this series is not much different than girls are either Good Girls or Bad Girls, as my grandmother would say).

I think it is useful that it might open the eyes of some of the older people like me, to help realize what the youth of today's America faces. (So we can help them). I don't want to see the series banned or anything, but I also hope they are not just making money off of sexualizing teens. Not all boys are so disgusting, not all girls are either. But these kids in this series freak me out. So ... callous, hateful, hard, empty, loveless, confused.

I don't know what the point of this post is. Just curious to see what anyone else might feel about it. (and I'm glad that I don't have any teenagers, I would want to take their phones away and keep them protected from all this garbage (which I know is wrong), and would probably yell at them, not to stay off of my lawn, but to put the god damn phone down).

-sadness

[jcgoldie]

1. I don't think kids are that different

Yes social media adds some permanence to the mistakes they make and I’m glad it wasn’t around when I was a teenager. But teaching HS kids for 20+ years kids aren’t so different as they have been since we were their age. I think its a combination of your perspective having been away from that subculture for awhile and that show dramatizing everything… thats why people watch noone wants to see safe people who are always happy on tv…

[Nictuku]

2. Very true

I guess it just seems to me that our society is broken. Instead of nurturing these young minds, there is a barrage of pornography and murder, doing nothing at all to engage their youthful energy towards Good. There was a good point made in the series I think in Episode 1, where the only exposure young males have to sexuality is pornography, which lacks tenderness, intimacy. There was a lot of sex in the 70's and 80's, but we still had that. I would hate to think that young women today think that that is what is expected of them. It seems like there is no place for Love.

/rant off Thanks for commenting.

[jcgoldie]

3. thanks for the thoughtful post

Just wanted to add the kids I see everyday are bright and hopeful and kind and funny and full of surprises and they keep me a little bit young. For the most part they do not seem maladjusted sexually or any other way. Yes there are also kids with social and emotional problems and I don't mean to take those unseriously, but hasn't there always been? If they are doomed they certainly don't see it that way! But then again part of me is glad I'm not their age facing this climate crisis!

[Nictuku]

4. I'm glad to hear this

Thank you for what you do. I know that teaching seems a thankless task. I'm all for doing better in how we treat our educators. It must be very difficult at times. Keep the faith, and thank you for helping me to keep it too!

[JanMichael]

5. I think it is on HBO not Netflix. That said the mean is 24/7 now

We used to go home to escape the nuttiness or bullies. Now it follows kids from waking up in the morning to going to sleep at night.

I do not think I would have handled that very well.

24 hour stress cannot be healthy.

[Nictuku]

6. You are right - I corrected my initial post

No kidding about the 24 hour stress. /I/ am stressed out about so many things in our current events, (fascism in America, climate change, Russia, China, Joe Rogan, Inflation... the stock market...) but not about any of this kind of thing the teens deal with in today's society. Maybe in some ways, it will make them stronger....

I'm just glad that they didn't have the ability to post to the world stuff I did when I was a teen (skinny dipping in the High School pool, for instance - sheesh. What was I thinking?).

[captain queeg]

7. I really would not want to know what other kids thought of me.

I didn’t have any illusions about it, I talked about other people too. But when I was out and about people kept a lot to themselves. To hear what others thought at that age would have been very hard on me I think. It was bad enough the way it was.

[iemanja]

8. Save yourself the stress

Don't watch any of that stuff. It's not like it's Shakespeare and necessary to be an educated person.

[Irish_Dem]

9. When my father was a teen he was a tail gunner in a small plane flying the Burma Hump.

Exceptionally dangerous place to be during WWII.

When I was a teen, boys were being sent to Viet Nam and coming back in body bags.

Every generation has challenges.

[ymetca]

10. The show is trying to shock

but it's not really as representative of today's High School kids as it might appear. The angst is ratcheted up to Level 11. The roles are caricatures, almost automatons, really. The dialog is cold, dull and thin, on purpose I think. Everyone is a weirdo, right? That's kind of the gist.

But it has a plot, buried underneath lots of anti-coolness coolness vibe in the music and visuals. Clearly something's gonna blow up soon, right? Cops and handcuffs looming just over the horizon, seems inevitable.

It's almost like a dark, humorless remake of Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

[AlexSFCA]

11. the objective of this show is to shock

This is purely entertainment for those who like to see things taken to extreme. It has no relation to real life whatsoever. It’s dark, gritty, and focuses nearly exclusively on bad qualities and deeds of every character. S1 has some cool innovative cinematography which grabs your attention. But I always feel like shit after watching an episode.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

12. Ma'am this is a fictional TV show.

[Fiendish Thingy]

13. I'm 64, and a retired therapist who worked with teens, and I was shocked

I watched the first episode a few days ago.

Despite being artfully filmed, and with a talented cast, the writing and story are poor, and nothing more than a series of graphic, gratuitous depictions of sex and drug abuse. In that first episode, I counted 4 incidents of sexual assault against teen girls, plus significant drug and alcohol use, self harm, and serious mental illness. With one possible exception, all the male teen characters were portrayed as rapists-in-waiting, and the girls all desperately seeking the boys attention and approval.

The show’s creator. Sam Levinson, said he was inspired to make the show because of his own problem with addiction as a teen. If so, then why are all the main characters teen girls? With the exception of the female lead character’s addiction issues, most of that first episode is focused on the sexual experiences of the girls.

I worked with at risk teens from the 80’s until I retired in 2019. Ten years of my career was specifically focused on treating substance abuse. Of an average case load of 30-40 teens, I might have had 3-4 at a time with the combined addiction, mental health and trauma issues depicted as being ubiquitous in this show. By comparison, the Netflix show “Sex Education” seems to take a more balanced approach to the sexuality and mental health issues of typical teens (well, it is a comedy as well).

This dark, voyeuristic show apparently has HBO’s biggest ratings, even breaking records set by Game of Thrones. It’s target audience is apparently 12-29 year olds. If this series were shown in theatres, it would absolutely be rated NC-17.

I worry that young people watching this series could be traumatized or at the very least, get the impression that these are normal adolescent experiences.

[Nictuku]

14. Thank you for your insight

I think you are right. The only good thing about it is that we are having a conversation about it. Even if only briefly.

I like and agree with your descriptions as well. And I have the same worries.

I don't think I'll be watching more of it. But now I know what it is about.