Euphoria; Realistic Or Not?

Ashlin Morris, Staff Writer

Is the popular HBO Max show “Euphoria” realistic to the high school experience? In my opinion, the show is in some ways realistic to the high school experience. I think maybe there are things that I have seen while at school or heard about that could be relatable to the show. But I also feel that the show is just a little bit more exaggerated in some aspects of how high school is. 

Though those are my thoughts, an article I found called Girls United titled “What Euphoria Gets Right About High School”, says that the show actually is a good deception of the Gen-Z high school experience. When reading this article I found that I could agree with some of the points the article was making, for example, a good point that was made was about mental health and how the show portrayed that greatly. I can agree with this because  I do feel like most teenagers in high school can go through mental health issues and they can all go through them differently. So I do feel that the show did a good job in making that something high school students can relate to or did a good job on what it can look like to go through mental health issues or episodes. 

While also researching to find what people think and their opinions on the show I found an opinion I can agree with greatly. It talked about how “Euphoria” shows various real-world issues but in an exaggerated version. I really feel like this can explain my opinion on the show perfectly. I think that the show does have positives and can have relatable content for people. But for being in high school I do think that the show does overdo some topics about how high school is going to be or is supposed to be. 

Moving forward from that I do also have an opinion on what age group this show could be relatable for. I personally think that for a freshman in high school this show wouldn’t be as relatable compared to a senior in high school just because of the things that some of the characters experience in the show. I say this because after seeing the show I can say that I wouldn’t expect a lot of freshmen to be able to find everything on the show relatable. Not saying that all kids my age don’t or can’t relate to the show but it would surprise me for the majority to be able to find all the content relatable on the show. Although, I wouldn’t find it as hard to believe because they are older and have been in high school longer which means that they have got to have many more experiences compared to a freshman. 

So, to end it off I don’t find the show very relatable to me but I can understand how it may be for other people and I can see why “Euphoria” can be considered the Gen-Z high school experience.