If there’s one genre of tv show (or any other media, for that matter) that is an almost instant turn-off for me, it’s high school dramas. Some of them can be good; “American Vandal”, for instance, was stupid and charming and it balanced wit with good storytelling in a way I found enjoyable. But for every one of those shows, there’s a “Daybreak,” or a “Thirteen Reasons Why,” and I cringe just writing the name, a “Riverdale.”

I don’t know what the obsession with putting high schoolers into situations out of their league is. The stories almost never come across as convincing. Sure, there are real world situations where young teenagers are forced to deal with death and grief or are pushed outside of their comfort zone, but on screen it just becomes a bunch of actors who look way more like college students sitting in grade-school classrooms. It’s not appealing. 

“Euphoria” should, on all accounts, slot into that genre. But based on a recommendation from a friend who rarely gives me bad movie suggestions, I decided to give it a shot, and now, midway through the show’s second season, I find myself tuning in to HBO Max every Sunday night to catch the latest episode. 

And honestly, I’m still struggling to figure out why. Set against the backdrop of a modern day high school, “Euphoria” follows the lives of a group of teenagers as they explore romance, sexuality, and drugs. So basically everything I just complained about. But it’s kept me engaged thus far, and I think a lot of that is owed to just how close the show is to falling apart at any second. The writer, Sam Levinson, reportedly will show up to shootings with no idea what to do. Actors do a lot of heavy lifting on set, and thank god for that, because early scripts of the show are beyond cheesy. On all accounts, the show should be hot trash.

But it isn’t, not entirely, and this is largely in part to some phenomenal character development. The cast is huge, and Levinson can’t balance them episodically to save his life, but every character is so marvelously fleshed out that you can’t help but want to keep up with them. Rue, the show’s main character, is a drug addict who can’t process the death of her father. Jules is a transgender girl struggling with her identity and Rue’s codependency with her. Cassie’s crippling need to be loved sounds boring, but is anything but, and Nate’s inner struggle over his sexuality has created a beautifully rich antagonist that is just super punchable (even if some of his actions go a little beyond the realm of believability.)

If you read that cast list and wondered if “Euphoria” is a show with a message, don’t bother looking into it. Levinson sure doesn’t know. There are too many characters and the show bounces between them so often that it’s impossible for the show to fit into any current dialogue. This is more akin to watching a sitcom, something to watch brainlessly, but it just happens to have a lot more grit baked into it. As of this week, the show has reached episode five of its second season, which was an interesting episode but did almost nothing to drive the plot forward. The episode before it was probably the best one so far. It’s a constant gamble as to what you’ll get each week, and that’s part of the fun in watching it. The suspense in wondering whether the next episode will be an absolute masterpiece or completely tank the show is all part of the process.