From the very first episode, Euphoria Season 3 just does not feel like the original Euphoria. The glitter is gone. The dreamy chaos is gone. The original energy is gone. One of the biggest things missing is the Labrinth soundtrack, and that absence is impossible to ignore. That music was not just background sound. It was the emotional bloodstream of the entire show. It carried the highs, the lows, the breakdowns, the beauty, the madness. Without it, this episode feels hollow. It genuinely feels like a different series wearing Euphoria’s face.
Rue’s storyline is intense right away, but not always in a way that works. Watching her engulfing huge balls of drugs and then the whole physical aftermath of it was just disgusting and uncomfortable. It was one of those moments where you are not shocked because it is brilliant, you are shocked because you are wondering if you really needed to see all of that. The body horror of it felt excessive instead of meaningful. Still, Zendaya is absolutely the one person carrying the emotional weight of the episode. Her acting is on a completely different level from everyone else. She feels like she is in full performance mode while the rest of the cast is just there.
Lexi already seems like she wants absolutely nothing to do with Fezco, which makes sense emotionally, but it also adds to the emptiness of the episode. Jules is mentioned, but she is not there. Maddie barely gets anything, which is frustrating because she is one of the few characters you still want to spend time with. Maddie looks like she is doing okay socially, at least on the surface, but that is clearly not the full story. And honestly, you want more for her because it is Maddie. You expect her to be sharper, stronger, more figured out than this. Instead, the episode barely gives her anything.
The absolute worst part of the episode is what they have done to Cassie. She is no longer messy in an interesting or tragic way. She just feels diabolically stupid, shallow, materialistic, and completely detached from reality. There is no subtlety to her anymore. Everything about her feels reduced to body, validation, money, and quick attention. Her first major appearance is basically her shaking her ass at the camera. That is the introduction. Then they push her even further into humiliation. She is dressed like a dog, eating dog food, drinking from a dog’s tray, pretending to be a dog. It is so bizarre and degrading that it stops feeling like character writing and starts feeling like the show is just trying to provoke people.
What makes it even worse is the way she talks to Nate about the wedding. The fact that she would rather sell her body to get the exact wedding she wants than accept something more realistic is insane. Nate is apparently trying to make her happy and make the wedding work in whatever way he can, and instead of meeting him halfway, she is willing to jump straight into selling herself for fifty-thousand-dollar florals. It is absurd. It makes her feel less like a real person and more like a cartoon version of a superficial blonde stereotype. At times, it almost feels like the episode is glamorising OnlyFans-style fast money in the worst and dumbest way possible.
And that brings us to Nate Jacobs, who somehow feels even more wrong than Cassie. He does not feel like Nate at all. Not even one percent. It honestly feels like Jacob Elordi has forgotten how to play him, or maybe the writing itself has forgotten who Nate is. He feels more like Heathcliff than Nate Jacobs. The menace is gone. The twisted unpredictability is gone. He is calm, composed, and somehow reasonable. That is the craziest part of the whole episode. We are actually agreeing with Nate. We are seeing him as the sane one. That has never happened before, because Nate was always the insane one, the manipulator, the one you were never supposed to trust. If the audience is suddenly nodding along with Nate Jacobs, then something has gone fundamentally wrong with the show.
Rue’s life, meanwhile, is still a mess. She owes dangerous people money, she is stuck in a terrible cycle, and her life is miserable. It seems like the season might be pushing her toward some kind of spiritual reckoning or search for God, but even that is wrapped in chaos. She finds herself with a new guy who literally shoots an apple on her head, which is one of those moments that is so insane you almost stop reacting to it because the show is already doing too much. That is the problem with this episode. Everything is extreme, but not everything feels earned.
The acting imbalance is also impossible to miss. Zendaya is acting like she knows she has to save the whole thing. Everyone else, especially Nate and Cassie, feels like they are either underplaying it, sleepwalking through it, or just disconnected from the emotional reality of the show. Sydney Sweeney is not being given a character to play here. She is being given a series of humiliating, hypersexual, shallow moments that make Cassie look more ridiculous than tragic. That is not compelling. It is exhausting.
This first episode does not feel like a natural continuation of the Euphoria we knew. It feels like all the same characters have been dropped into a completely different series. The visual identity is weaker. The soundtrack is weaker. The emotional pull is weaker. The chemistry is weaker. Even the tone is off. Instead of feeling intoxicating, painful, and beautiful, it just feels ugly, loud, and disconnected.
That is why the episode lands so badly. It is not just disappointing because it is weaker. It is disappointing because it no longer feels like the show people fell in love with in the first place.
I definitely want to see more of Maddie and Jules, and I do want to see where Rue’s story goes from here, because Zendaya is still giving this role everything. But based on Episode 1 alone, this season is not elevating Euphoria. It is dragging it down.