Euphoria: Zendaya defends the series after D.A.R.E. criticisms

Recently D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) came after the popular HBO series Euphoria by releasing a statement claiming that the show glamorizes drug use and that it “chooses to misguidedly glorify and erroneously depict high school student drug use, addiction, anonymous sex, violence, and other destructive behaviors as common and widespread in today’s world.” For those of us that watch the show, we know that simply isn’t the case. Euphoria is no happy tale and the series’ star, Zendaya, is coming out in defense of the show to express that very fact.

During a chat with Entertainment Weekly, Zendaya, who plays drug addict Rue Bennett on the show, defended the series by it “is no way a moral tale to teach people how to live their life or what they should be doing. If anything, the feeling behind Euphoria, or whatever we have always been trying to do with it, is to hopefully help people feel a little less alone in their experience and their pain. And maybe feel like they’re not the only one going through or dealing with what they’re dealing with.”

The idea that Euphoria glamorizes these situations still continues to baffle me. Nothing about what they’re doing looks cool. The majority of the characters are broken and in need of help. I won’t deny that SOME viewers are influenced by the things they watch but MOST viewers deserve credit for separating fact from fiction. The series is a living and breathing cautionary tale and perhaps its unwavering depiction of these situations can indeed help people who are going through similar things. It’s a powerful piece of art and it definitely doesn’t express that this kind of behavior is the right thing to do.

Euphoria is a look at life for a group of high school students as they grapple with issues of drugs, sex, and violence. It’s loosely based on the Israeli series of the same name and creator Sam Levinson based the series on his own experiences as a teenager, including his struggles with depression, anxiety, and drug addiction. While some critics were critical of the show’s depiction of teenage drug use, sex, and violence, most of them praised the show for its honest performances, visual style, and its unflinching portrayal of a subject matter involving teens that most would ignore or sugarcoat.