Scale of 1-10? The first episode and the previews of the rest of the season caught my interest enough to check out the rest of the show.
Well somebody dropped the ball here and it wasn't me. lol. Apparently we missed that Carla Gugino's New Crime Noir JETT featured her in a IR with Mustafa Shakir who plays her old partner in crime. There is no hint of it in the trailer. I seen this trailer on my TL on twitter as an promoted AD. Didn't think anything of it. But for those that planned on skipping EUPHORIA on the weekends you can check this out. I will watch the first episode maybe later tonight to see if this is any good. The trailer had the tone of a very Carla Gugino type project.
Nice, I always had a thing for Carla Gugino. According to Wikipedia though, Mustafa Shakir is only a recurring character.
From what I've read online the character & the actor IRL laying down next to Zendaya, in that top pic in @darkcurry's post, is a tranny. @Tamstrong Can you please delete that top pic from his post so we don't have to see that obvious penis bulge everytime we see that post in this thread. LOL.
Euphoria looks and sounds so meh to me because it seems to be so desperate to titillate and exploit a generally repressed sexual culture that produces an endless supply of porn-inspired drama. Also, I'm just not into watching kids graphically fuck each other.
(The actors aren't kids just for the record.) I guess it's of perception because that's not what I'm getting out of it I think Zendaya and the showrunner's explanation at the end of the first episode was accurate based on the first episode. I think certain people are making it the way you described more than anything. If you really think about it these kids have some of the same things in common with the kids from Sex Education, IT, Dope, ect. Are they exploiting it or holding up a mirror? In my opinion if they were exploiting it then they would've left out arguments and consequences. For example the argument Mckay had to his boys about his girl. I don't think that would've exist if they were exploiting it. The same with how they did their sex scene. The previews of the upcoming season seem a little deeper than that review. I'm going to check it out to see where it goes. Also: I don't watch porn that much so what is porn-inspired drama? You lost me there. Iol.
I meant soft-core porn inspired, i.e.the midnight fare of premium channels like HBO/Cinemax - though I believe HBO has scuttled that programing now. A few years ago I was seated at a wedding table with the agent of the writers for Game of Thrones and he implied that the more juvenile elements of the show (excessive nudity, graphic rape, etc.) and most other shows on the premium networks are contractual, both with the network and the actors. It's a quota. These programs are over-sexed and blocked with the same mandates as soft-core porn. An action show needs to have action sequences and sex shows need... "...exploiting or holding up a mirror?" Was N.W.A. exploitive or holding up a mirror while getting rich, calling women bitches, and describing the experience of young black males killing young black males? Probably, a little bit of both. There's probably an impulse somewhere in the Euphoria writing room that wants to discuss the lives of teenagers in a real way while there's another impulse that hired twenty-somethings whom look like teenagers to get butt-naked for their audience because...well, verisimilitude demands it! There are far more artistic and impactful ways to portray sexuality, passion, irresponsibility, etc than to simply drop trou and start grinding or inserting a trans person or the latest trend in sexual practice.
Again that's of the perception. I wouldn't compare rap music with this to differ because what do kids like the kind of kids this show is capturing listen to?(Migos, Cardi B, ect.) They listen to this kind of music that I believe some of it is exploitive because there is no message. For example EUPHORIA addresses drug use with the very real consequence of overdosing, addiction and the affect it leaves on love ones while most rap songs leave those consequences out. Like I said I believe the difference between exploiting life in art and imitating it are the arguments and consequences as I pointed out in those Mckay scenes. Causality. I see causality more in EUPHORIA than exploitation. But we are still going by one episode. Also you have to remember how children learn. They don't learn by what adults tell them they learn from what they see. If kids acting like this bothers adults then there is another hidden mirror in this show that will probably reveal itself later in the series.
I just watched the "Jett" series premiere earlier... Spoiler The killed him off at the end of the episode:
Funny thing is I worked with Mustafa, her love interest, ten years ago. We taught at the same program after college. I was lusting after Carla and then wham, this dude from way back appears as her love interest. Crazy. He was also Bushmaster on Luke Cage.
He is also Big Mike on "The Deuce" and he had a great guest turn on this past season's "American Gods". He is also a lead for the life action TV version of "Cowboy Bebop." He was the only thing that intrigued me in Luke Cage season 2. He's American and doesn't have a Jamaican accent.
NAILED It as "Bushmaster" on Luke Cage NAILED It as Baron Samedi on American Gods (so much so I would love to see him in a movie about The Barons.) And I have no doubt he'll NAIL it as Jet Black in Cowboy Bebop Underrated Great Actor flying under the radar right now that I think with his lead role in Cowboy Bebop will take off unless the show winds up not being any good. I have enjoyed his roles.
No accent. To my knowledge he grew up in Harlem and we taught together at a school on the upper westside near Columbia's main campus.