Euphoria: Exploring the Boundaries Between the Progressive and Normative American Coming of Age Narrative In Sam Levinson’s Storytelling
After a hiatus lasting over two years, Sam Levinson’s Euphoria has made its highly anticipated return with its second season this week.
The show’s popularity among teens and younger adults alike, is mainly created by how Levinson constantly juxtaposes the ordinary dilemmas of American high schoolers with the overarching aesthetic of almost extreme artifice. This constant contrast sees the show’s characters test the boundaries of childhood rules and experiences in editorial make up looks and extravagant clothing.
Levinson’s use of exaggeration is self-aware and deliberate, ranging from the visual ode to the early 20th century golden age of neon signs, to the show’s title, which can be viewed as the ultimate nod to the intensified portrayal of teenage concerns and emotions.
In some ways, the defining aesthetic choices that make Euphoria such an entertaining visual experience are prioritised over the issues of gender, sexuality, drug use, mental health, and social media.
The neon hues, the elevated make up, and the intricate clothing remind the viewer of artifice, yet this has the power to simultaneously romanticise and downplay the serious issues that are being portrayed. The dual effect of such an overstated aesthetic comes to its peak in the carnival episode: the trivial and childlike joy of the carnival setting is arguably more all-consuming than how the dream-like atmosphere abruptly comes crashing down with Nate’s verbal and physical violence towards Jules.
The back and forth between the show’s flamboyant visual choice and the often-dark subject matter, creates an interesting new space for how coming of age narratives are presented on television. From a certain perspective, the extravagant costumes and props illustrate an ideal of self-expression; most characters’ freedom with clothing and make up embodies an ideal that most teenage viewers would aspire to. Considering that two of the show’s characters are members of the LGBTQIA+ community, self-expression is a particularly important trope to progress from narratives of heteronormativity and cisnormativity.
Specifically for Jules’ character, Levinson’s portrayal of her self-expression as a transgender woman is progressive yet evokes some issues of transgender representation.
Levinson portrays a daughter who is very close and strongly supported by her father. Their relationship dismantles the two common tropes in transgender representation: alienation from their families and cisgender men’s incomprehension to trans experiences.
Moreover, Jules’ character is one of the few trans women characters in mainstream television to be played by a transgender actress (aside from Laverne Cox in Orange is the New Black).
However, the show notably skips through Jules’ transition – she briefly evokes her childhood issues, but the development between her childhood gender dysphoria and her transition is absent. Although viewing her transition may not be necessary for the viewer to understand its importance, its absence omits the oppressive realities that shaped Jules’ individual and nuanced identity. Therefore, the audience is solely faced with the systemic violence she was subjected to as a child and continues to be subjected to by her peers as a teenager.
Jules’ experience as a transgender woman is portrayed by how others perceive her rather than how she has perceived herself along her transition journey.
