TV

People Are Roasting The Latest ‘Euphoria’ Episode For Turning Into A Glorified Music Video

Director Sam Levinson should just pivot to music videos.

by Millie Roberts  2 February 2022
Euphoria Music Video

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In Season 2, episode four of Euphoria, not much happens. The filler is a slow burn sliced with its signature lengthy aesthetics and a discordant soundtrack — a 55-minute music video, if you will.

— Warning: Spoilers for Euphoria ahead. — 

‘You Who Cannot See, Think of Those Who Can’ follows Nate’s dad Cal as he comes to terms with his sexuality and how unhappy he is in his personal suburban hell, shared through a drunken monologue after pissing in the hallway of his family home. Cassie continues to buckle under the weight of her secret love triangle with Nate and Maddie, who aren’t back together — yet — giving Lexi ample material to write into her faux Oklahoma amateur theatre production.

Frustrated by the mismatched sexual drives of herself and Rue, Jules releases tension in a steamy tryst with Elliott, and despite somehow missing all the obvious signs that her girlfriend has been tweaking for weeks, also learns that Rue has relapsed again and is constantly under the influence of multiple drugs in her presence.

Nodding back to the iconic Season 1 finale — which was a music video for a remaster of Labrinth’s 2019 song ‘All For Us’ — director Sam Levinson brought their go-to composer and music collaborator back for Monday’s episode, on-screen this time. Labrinth makes a cameo during a performance of his new release ‘I’m Tired’, embracing Rue in a gospel church as she slips further and further into a hallucinogenic high bordering on overdose purgatory.

Fans can’t help but notice that the show is falling down a slippery slope from abstract art into a visual album akin to Beyonce’s Lemonade — a mixtape with stunning cinematography and scant plot. Montage scenes of Kat and Ethan in a car floating through the darkness, chased by Cassie confronting herself in a vanity while flowers unfurl from the ceiling, are part of Levinson’s unusual strategy that would do very, very well turned into a GIF on Tumblr with some Lana Del Rey lyrics slapped on top.

Naturally, it’s been roasted to hell and back.