EuphoriaThe long-awaited comeback was met with a lot of backlash due to a number of public – and controversial – scenes.
The HBO series, which debuted in 2019, has been known for pushing boundaries while following a young Rue (Zendaya) trying to stay sober after battling addiction.
While the first two seasons are set in high school, Euphoria finally introduced a time skip, allowing season 3 to explore the main characters as adults. But just because everyone was older didn't mean they made better decisions – while season 3 introduced topics like drug trafficking, sexual abuse and more dangerous situations.
Viewers, on the other hand, blasted the show for pushing the borderline episode into a violent – and sometimes provocative – episode. Creator Sam Levinson he stands by his vision of the show despite possible off-screen criticism.
“We have a motto: Repent or die,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in April. “We wanted to make sure we were changing things.”
He continued: “We're seeing them all over the world, all over the world, and we're allowing the actors to connect emotionally through the show as compared to the past, when we did it on camera.
Keep scrolling for a guide to all the controversial and poorly received season 3 scenes:
Drug Trafficking Scenes
In the season 3 premiere, Rue was rebranded after a five-year jump, reflecting her new life as a drug mule. Minutes into the scene, Rue and Faye (Chloe Cherry) uses lube to swallow many balloons filled with drugs.
After that they had to smuggle the balloons from Mexico to the United States without getting caught. Rue arrived home just in time to release the balloons, but Faye had an “accident” and poo was seen running down her leg before the dog tried to lick some of them off.
Cassie's OnlyFans Arc
Many viewers were not happy with Cassie's whole arc of trying to get success from OnlyFans with sex photoshoots. From nude photos to pretending to be a child or a dog, Sydney Sweeney's scenes are too close to shock for others. Only the fan creators, meanwhile, were not happy with the way their work was portrayed on screen.
A Nazi memorial
While Faye's love Wayne (Toby Wallace) was not meant to be a good guy, the many Nazi flags and memorabilia displayed in his scenes alienated viewers.
Introduction of Anna Van Patten as Kitty
After joining a dance club as a new dancer, Euphoria furthered Kitty's story by having Rue watch her have sex with several men in the club's sex scene. While Kitty agreed to the arrangement, she had to take ketamine beforehand and appeared to be in a panic after the sexual encounter, which indicated that she had been heavily intoxicated with a bottle of champagne.
