Euphoria Season 3 Review: Zendaya Carries A Show Drowning In Its Own Misery

Remember when Euphoria was a show about teenagers making terrible decisions?

Season 3 looked at that version of Euphoria and decided everyone needed a lot more trauma.

After years of delays, Euphoria finally returned for its final season, and expectations were sky-high. This wasn't just another HBO drama making a comeback, it was the show that turned glitter tears into a cultural phenomenon.

The first thing viewers noticed was how dramatically the series had changed: a five-year time jump meant goodbye to school corridors and teenage drama.

These characters were adults now, or at least trying very hard to pretend they were. On paper, it was an exciting idea. After all, audiences had spent years watching these characters self-destruct. Seeing them deal with the consequences felt like the natural next step.

Sometimes that worked brilliantly.

Other times, it felt like the show had wandered into a completely different genre.

There were episodes that delivered the emotional intimacy and raw character work. Then there were episodes that felt determined to become crime thrillers, tragedies, and psychological dramas all at once. The season constantly swung between brilliance and excess, often within the same episode.

No matter what was happening around her, Zendaya remained the show's greatest strength.

Her character Rue was older, more exhausted, and carrying years of emotional baggage, but Zendaya never allowed her to be defined solely by her suffering.

The problem is that Season 3 often seemed more interested in making viewers miserable than helping them understand its characters.

A little misery is expected from Euphoria. That's part of the deal. This is a show where happiness usually lasts about three minutes before disaster strikes. But this season became so obsessed with tragedy that it started feeling repetitive. Every relationship was broken. Every conversation was heartbreaking. Every decision led to another catastrophe.

Much of that comes down to Sam Levinson's storytelling instincts.

Levinson deserves credit for refusing to play it safe. Unfortunately, bold choices aren't automatically good choices.

The season frequently confused escalation with development. Bigger drama replaced deeper character exploration. More trauma replaced meaningful growth.

And nowhere was that more obvious than with Cassie.

Poor Cassie. Or perhaps more accurately, poor Sydney Sweeney.

For three seasons, Cassie has been making increasingly questionable life choices, but Season 3 pushed her into entirely new territory. The issue wasn't the performance. The issue was that the character often felt trapped in an endless cycle of humiliation.

At times, it genuinely felt as though the show was more interested in punishing Cassie than understanding her.

This is where one of the season's biggest criticisms becomes difficult to ignore. Euphoria has always faced questions about its treatment of female characters, and Season 3 reignited that debate in a major way. Several of the women spent much of the season enduring pain, embarrassment, manipulation, or emotional devastation. While the show clearly wanted viewers to sympathise with them, there were moments when their suffering felt less like character development.

The criticism isn't that Euphoria hates women.

It's that Euphoria occasionally seems to love watching women suffer.

Maddy, for example, emerged as one of the season's highlights because her storyline actually allowed her to grow. Alexa Demie brought maturity and confidence to the character without losing the sharp edge that made her iconic. Unlike some of the other characters, Maddy felt like a person moving forward rather than running in circles.

The frustrating part is that the season never gave her enough screen time.

The same can be said for Jules and Lexi, who often felt sidelined despite being among the show's most interesting characters.

Then there's Nate Jacobs. Or as Season 3 presented him: Nate Jacobs Lite.

In the earlier seasons, Nate was shown as a red flag. He was manipulative, terrifying, and impossible to predict. This season attempted to show a more vulnerable side of him.

However, it sometimes felt like the show had removed the very qualities that made Nate compelling. Jacob Elordi still delivered a strong performance, but the character often seemed adrift. 

The result was a version of Nate who was more sympathetic but somehow less interesting.

The biggest issue with Season 3 is that it often forgot what made Euphoria special in the first place. The show's early seasons resonated because they found emotional truth beneath the chaos. No matter how outrageous things became, there was always a sense that the characters felt real.

Season 3 lost that balance.

Then came the finale episode, which tried to capture everything good and bad about the season.

Rather than offering redemption or closure, the season ended on a note of grief and loss. The finale doubled down on the idea that actions have consequences and that not everyone gets a happy ending. Some viewers will appreciate the honesty. Others will argue that the show confused pessimism with realism.

In the end, Euphoria Season 3 didn't go out as a masterpiece. Nor did it go out as a complete disaster.