Euphoria is an amazingly realistic, compelling, and individual television show. It premiered as an HBO original in mid-June starring Disney actress, Zendaya. The television show scored an 83% on Rotten Tomatoes and averaged just under a million viewers for its series premiere.

This show focuses on the life of a drug-addicted teen living in the modern age of suburban America dealing with many real-life events and scenarios. Zendaya does a wonderful job of portraying the main character of the series, the audience gets to see Zendaya thrive at a role that is unlike anyone she has ever played before.

“The show isn’t here to tell people how to live their lives or what’s wrong and right, of course, it’s definitely not here to tell you what to do. But it is here, I think to showcase other people’s stories, these are stories that need to be told because I think somebody out there needs to hear it, I think this show will just allow people to not feel so alone,” Zendaya explains in an interview with HBO for Euphoria: Unfiltered.

While a few events may be slightly far-fetched and exaggerated, the show itself does an excellent job of getting the message across. Along with a well-written story line, the show has a phenomenally crafted soundtrack with the majority of songs created by Labrinth, and a few other artists’ songs making an appearance such as Billie Eilish, Lil’ Wayne, and Arcade Fire. Euphoria is unique in the sense that not many shows are willing to use true real-life situations that many of modern-day American teens find themselves facing daily.

Unlike many shows revolving around teen life, Euphoria does not sugarcoat or beat around the bush with anything, what you see is what you get. Euphoria is in a way the first of its type and many upcoming shows and series are sure to follow in its steps. However, while Euphoria is certainly unique, the only thing it can even be remotely compared to would be the predecessor of the same name; Euphoria Israel. The original Israeli version of Euphoria was released in 2012 and only had one season. HBO’s version has just been renewed for a second season which is unsurprising with how successful the first season went. If someone is looking for a show to get hooked on and binge-watch on a weekend, then Euphoria is the way to go.