Three years ago, in 2019, the show ‘Euphoria’ was released on HBO Max, causing a stir.

After impatiently waiting, fans celebrated as the season two premiere aired on Jan. 9.

In case you haven’t watched season one or need a refresher, allow me to help.

‘Euphoria’ is a show based on the life of the main character, Rue Bennett. Rue and her acquaintances, Nate, Cassie, and Maddie to name a few, are high school students navigating their way when it comes to friendships, relationships, identity, and life in general. But this isn’t any ordinary coming of age story; drama builds, and things get complicated quickly.

There are many well-developed characters that help make the show so interesting as well as a great soundtrack. I even ended up adding some of the songs to my own Spotify playlists.

The last time we saw Rue, she and her best friend/love interest, Jules, planned to run away, but Rue backed out, leaving Jules to ride away on the train alone.

And… Cliffhanger. Shocker.

Watching the season two premiere, titled, “Trying to Get to Heaven Before They Close the Door,” I was confused at the start, but quickly caught on and was immediately hooked.

It starts with the backstory of Rue’s drug dealer, Fez. Fez describes Rue as “family”, and he looks out for her. He sells her drugs but simultaneously encourages her to overcome her bad habits, but she has an addiction, and he has a business to run.

Being we didn’t learn too much about Fez in season one, it was nice to learn more about him in the new season.

Along with Fez’s backstory there is a good amount of violence in the first few minutes of the episode and throughout the show’s entirety. Personally, I try to avoid gore as much as possible, so at points it’s hard for me to look, but I know that in ‘Euphoria’, it’s pretty much unavoidable.

Most of the episode takes place at a New Year’s Eve party. I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but the plot had me on my toes.

Maddie is seen walking around the party trying to make Nate jealous, as usual. Rue is seen fiending for drugs, as usual. But Cassie is nowhere to be seen.

“Trying to Get to Heaven Before They Close the Door” shares the differentiation in experience of the night amongst Rue, Nate, Cassie, and Fez. It sounds confusing, but it’s surprisingly easy to follow. Eventually their stories all fall together, creating restlessness for the audience and raising questions on how the episode will end.

At the party we get to see Rue and Jules reunite. Being that time has passed since they last saw each other, there is suspense of whether or not they will be able to rekindle their relationship.

We also see growth in the relationships between Cassie and Nate as well as Cassie’s sister, Lexi, and Fez.

We meet two new characters, Faye and Elliot. Both are brought into the picture through a situation related to drugs. I am curious as to how Faye and Elliot are going to contribute to the show.

‘Euphoria’ is a show of intensity, there is almost never a dull moment. It is dramatic and touches on a variety of topics such as sexuality, gender, drug use among teens, violence and plenty more. This can be seen as controversial, but these are real life concepts that are important to be addressed and represented in the media.

For the next few weeks my Sunday nights are going to be dedicated to watching ‘Euphoria’. I am not a big TV or movie watcher, I have a short attention span when it comes to film, but ‘Euphoria’ keeps my attention with each episode and I look forward to the rest of season two.