Press got an early look at the first three episodes of the third (and likely final) season of HBO Max’s Euphoria and the overall verdict is ‘unhinged disaster’ yet ‘pretty uneventful.’

The first two seasons of Sam Levinson’s drug-fueled drama were beloved by critics and audiences alike, but season three has scored a dismal 53 percent approval rating (out of 19 reviews) on Rotten Tomatoes.

New York Post’s Lauren Samer called the continuation, which has a five-year time jump, ‘Breaking Bad meets Looney Tunes.’

‘In the first two seasons, the show’s strength was how it dug into these characters’ lives. The plot got wild, but it was anchored by human drama,’ Samer wrote.

‘Now, as we find them as adults, it would be more compelling to see them struggle because of their flaws. Instead, many of them struggle because random criminal henchmen are after them.’

TV Guide’s Lyvie Scott said Euphoria’s use of the American West as an aesthetic touchstone was ‘actually really effective, if only because it embraces how tacky and bleak this show has always been.’

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Press got an early look at the first three episodes of the third (and likely final) season of HBO Max’s Euphoria and the overall verdict is ‘unhinged disaster’ yet ‘pretty uneventful’

The first two seasons of Sam Levinson’s drug-fueled drama were beloved by critics and audiences alike, but season three has scored a dismal 53 percent approval rating (out of 19 reviews) on Rotten Tomatoes

‘The act of moving west to become an influencer, as so many beautiful girls did at the top of the decade, is framed as a modern-day Manifest Destiny; the OnlyFans boom is likened to the California gold rush,’ Scott wrote.

‘Are those dated references? Incredibly — but Levinson is coming in hot with a vintage aesthetic that reorients us with the state of the world circa 2020, rehashing the shock of pandemic lockdown and the fury of the Black Lives Matter riots in one breath and relishing in gaudy nods to Graceland and Old Hollywood in another.

‘He can’t claim to be original, but when the look of one’s entire show up to this point is allegedly stolen from photographer Petra Collins, a fresh perspective — even a derivative, kitschy one — feels like a wise move.’

 Zendaya and Sydney Sweeney lead stars at Euphoria season 3 premiere

The BBC’s Caryn James gave it two out of five stars, writing that ‘Euphoria has become a series with very little to say, none of it very audacious or compelling.’

‘Based on the three episodes, of eight, that HBO made available in advance, it is a strained attempt to make the closed circle of friends it follows, now in their early 20s, somehow the same only different,’ James concluded.

Indiewire’s Ben Travers gave it a C-, writing that it ‘grows old and boring’ while squandering the talents of Zendaya, Jacob Elordi and Sydney Sweeney ‘on repetitive, obvious character arcs.’

‘The pace is less frenetic, which emphasizes the tedium and makes the nauseating moments (s*** and pi**, from animals and humans, are recurring motifs) feel even more contrived than in past seasons,’ Travers wrote.

‘Maybe the pain is the point: Maybe a whole generation of teens entering adulthood feels like they have nowhere to go in a country with declining career opportunities and decaying morals.’

Variety’s Alison Herman was aghast at the oversexualization of many of the characters since ‘all of them are involved in sex work, crime or work that’s adjacent to both.’

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New York Post’s Lauren Samer called the continuation, which has a five-year time jump, ‘Breaking Bad meets Looney Tunes’

TV Guide’s Lyvie Scott said Euphoria’s use of the American West as an aesthetic touchstone was ‘actually really effective, if only because it embraces how tacky and bleak this show has always been’

The BBC’s Caryn James gave it two out of five stars, writing that ‘Euphoria has become a series with very little to say, none of it very audacious or compelling’

Indiewire’s Ben Travers gave it a C-, writing that it ‘grows old and boring’ while squandering the talents of Zendaya, Jacob Elordi and Sydney Sweeney ‘on repetitive, obvious character arcs’

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Variety’s Alison Herman was aghast at the oversexualization of many of the characters since ‘all of them are involved in sex work, crime or work that’s adjacent to both’

Vulture’s Roxana Hadadi called it ‘completely airless’ and ‘its characters are arrested in high-school thinking, caught in the same holding pattern and narrow worldview as before’

THR’s Daniel Fienberg wrote that as Euphoria’s ‘characters leap into young adulthood, the series leaps closer to flashy irrelevance’

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The eight-episode third season of Euphoria – premiering this Sunday – also stars Hunter Schafer, Maude Apatow, Alexa Demie, Sharon Stone, Rosalía, Marshawn Lynch, Kadeem Hardison and the late Eric Dane (pictured

‘Rue’s (Zendaya) recovery is no longer the driving force of Euphoria, even as the show is still named for the high she’s chasing with drugs,’ Herman wrote.

‘And three hours in, it’s still not clear what so compels Levinson about the exchange of intimacy for money that he’s made it the new focus of the show, besides (optimistically) an ambition to make sweeping social statements about America under late capitalism or (cynically) a desire to pose Sweeney in various skimpy outfits.’

Vulture’s Roxana Hadadi called it ‘completely airless’ and ‘its characters are arrested in high-school thinking, caught in the same holding pattern and narrow worldview as before.’

‘Levinson loves to write a woman he can turn into a sex worker, costume in a thong, and position as the focus of a Terry Richardson–style soft-core-porn shoot,’ Hadadi wrote.

‘Is Euphoria critiquing violence against women and how they are treated first like dolls and then like trash, or is it merely perpetuating and parroting the pattern?’

THR’s Daniel Fienberg wrote that as Euphoria’s ‘characters leap into young adulthood, the series leaps closer to flashy irrelevance.’

‘Heightened ideas that played as gloriously melodramatic and precariously edgy expressed through high-schoolers barely count as “ideas” when run through a 20-something prism,’ Fienberg mused.

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The 41-year-old showrunner did not receive any acclaim co-creating his last project – HBO’s The Idol – with The Weeknd and Reza Fahim in 2023

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Some forget Levinson is the nepo son of director Barry Levinson having acted in three of his famous father’s films before co-writing his HBO film The Wizard of Lies in 2017

‘Characters on Euphoria are selling drugs (and therefore death), sex (and therefore death) and death (and therefore somehow real estate) — but mostly they’re all selling their bodies and souls as part of the promise of an American Dream that is no longer available without a cost, an idea Levinson seems to have just discovered.’

The eight-episode third season of Euphoria – premiering this Sunday – also stars Hunter Schafer, Maude Apatow, Alexa Demie, Sharon Stone, Rosalía, Marshawn Lynch, Kadeem Hardison and the late Eric Dane.

The 41-year-old showrunner did not receive any acclaim co-creating his last project – HBO’s The Idol – with The Weeknd and Reza Fahim in 2023.

The five-episode pop star drama – starring Lily-Rose Depp, Troye Sivan and Jennie – earned an abysmal 19 percent critic approval rating (out of 106 reviews) and a 41 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Some forget Levinson is the nepo son of director Barry Levinson having acted in his famous father’s 1992 fantasy comedy Toys, Bandits (2001) and What Just Happened (2008).

The two-time Emmy nominee then co-wrote the 84-year-old Oscar winner’s HBO film The Wizard of Lies in 2017 before launching his solo career creating, writing, producing and directing his remake of Ron Leshem’s 2012 Israeli series Euphoria.