Rue, a 17-year-old drug addict, has her life followed by Euphoria HBO’s drama series, which released season 2 last Sunday, 27th February.
Euphoria: almost 100% increase in viewers in season two
Starring Zendaya, the production became the most talked-about series on Twitter this decade. According to the social network, Euphoria’s Quotes increased by 51% in the four first episodes compared to the first-year engagement. In all, the episodes were mentioned in over 30 million posts.
As expected, the second season of the HBO drama series is close to doubling its ratings since the first season was released in June 2019. Variety data exclusively revealed that the first chapter, currently airing on HBO’s channel, recorded 13.1 million viewers while the first year all episodes averaged 6.6 million during summer 2019. The data shows an audience increase of about 100%.
Drug use and the Gen Z
Euphoria reflects the Gen Z youth, which cannot record a world without social media and the internet, and they represent around 20.35% of the US population. However, the series brings some exaggerations that do not represent life outside the HBO screen. In the past 20 years, teen drug use has gone down substantially.
According to 2018 Findings on Adolescent Drug Use published by The National Institute on Drug Abuse revealed that the use of alcohol, cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens, amphetamines and tranquilizers dropped by 20% in the past 20 years.
HBO’s drama series highlights the drug use problem between teenagers starring Rue, along with multiple mental issues such as depression, anxiety, ADD and OCD. The anti-drug organisation Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) said to TMZ that the show “chooses to glorify and misrepresent drug use, uncommitted sex, violence and other destructive behaviour towards young people.”
Zendaya wrote on her Instagram that the HBO’s drama series is for mature audiences, and some scenes “can be triggering and difficult to watch.” She added, “only watch it if you feel comfortable.” During the first season debut, in 2019, the actress also shared a post on her social media saying that the drama show carries an “honest portrait of addiction” and “there are scenes that are graphic, hard to watch and triggering”.
