I’m friends with a lot of actors. My ex was an actor. My current girlfriend is an actor. I love actors. But the worst part of knowing actors — and one of the worst parts of being an actor — is that even the most talented actors end up in shitty projects. There are the ones that are truly bad — plays they’d never think of inviting people to, movies they don’t promote — but then there’s the stuff that comes so close to being worthy of them. So close that actors can almost be convinced they’re in something good.
This episode of Euphoria felt like ending up at your friend’s mediocre new play. You’re thrilled to see bestie Zendaya is the star, but God do you wish the material matched her talent. And the talent of her co-stars.
It begins with Rue’s mom yelling at her. She knows Rue has been doing drugs. Rue, in turn, yells at Gia, blaming her for telling about the weed. But Rue’s mom isn’t talking about weed — she’s talking about pills. And it wasn’t Gia who told — it was Jules.
Rue’s suitcase of pills are missing and she starts to frantically ask where they went. Rue’s mom says, “You’re not a good person,” which feels more in-line with Rue’s simplified negative self-talk than anything we’ve seen from Leslie Bennett. Then Rue tells Leslie that she’s a bad mom which is true in the sense that she’s a badly written one. Gia is screaming shut the fuck up shut the fuck up and when Rue reaches for her, Leslie slaps Rue.
Recently, a scene from season one between Rue and her mom circulated around Twitter. Supposedly, the moment was improvised which people first shared as a testament to Zendaya and Nika King’s talents. But this was followed by a wave of questioning why such a pivotal scene would be improvised. Improvisation as a technique isn’t inherently bad and there are plenty of talented directors who have used improv to varying degrees of success. But, personally, I wonder what these actors might do with a bit more structure. And I wonder how much more improv is being utilized in scenes with the Bennett family vs. the Jacobs family that Levinson knows so much better.
Two directors most known for the improvisational nature of their work are John Cassavetes and Mike Leigh. Except John Cassavetes didn’t use improv at all — his work just feels raw in a way people assumed was improvised. And Mike Leigh only uses improv as a workshop tool before taking these improv sessions and crafting them into a final script. Again, I’m not saying improv is wrong — I just think it works best when paired with good writing. And, frankly, Sam Levinson is totally out of his element in writing Rue’s family dynamics.
That’s a problem throughout this entire episode. I trust that Sam Levinson has experience with addiction. But how addiction might affect a Nate Jacobs and a Rue Bennett is different. I said this in an earlier recap, but I’m not sure Levinson really understands the stakes of casting Zendaya as his fictional surrogate.
Anyway, Rue is panicking asking what her mom did with the pills when Jules’ voice comes in from the kitchen saying that they flushed them. Rue’s energy shifts. Her mom asks if she’s embarrassed that Jules heard everything she just said.
Rue walks into the kitchen and sees Jules and Elliot. She says the cruelest things to Jules as Jules insists through tears that Rue doesn’t mean them. Jules just keeps saying, I love you. It’s a devastating scene. All the while, Rue’s mom is just hanging back listening. For all the chaos, it seems a bit odd that Rue’s mom wouldn’t say anything until Rue runs away.
Rue then cries to her mom and says she misses her dad and asks if her mom will take her to the hospital. As they drive away, Rue looks back at Elliot who is now outside smoking a cigarette. Rue admits to relapsing right when she got out of rehab and talks about wanting to kill herself. Then her mom slips that they’re taking her to rehab, not to the hospital, and so she jumps out of the car and runs away through traffic.
The title finally appears.
The over-reliance on improv — or writing that’s as scattered as improv — results in this entire first section feeling like rehearsals between talented performers rather than finished scenes. I really don’t know what to say except that Zendaya proves that she’s the best actor of her generation. She also proves that an actor with mediocre writing is still an actor with mediocre writing.
It’s nighttime and Rue goes to Fez’s. Nobody answers. Her next stop is the Howard house which provides this episode’s few moments of levity. Rue banters with Lexi and then Lexi’s mom about why she looks like shit — she has a cold, they don’t want a cold, she says it’s not contagious, they say colds are contagious — and then she goes to the bathroom to rifle through their medicine cabinet.
While she’s failing to find drugs and succeeding in stealing some jewelry, Lexi calls Rue’s mom. By the time she goes back downstairs Leslie is there along with Lexi, Cassie, their mom, Kat, and Maddy.
Rue says she can’t go to rehab because she can’t stay sober forever and Cassie in her very Cassie way suggests Rue just take it one day at a time. So out of spite Rue asks how long she’s been fucking Nate Jacobs. Chaos ensues! Everyone wants Maddy to postpone her reaction or take this outside but Maddy is Maddy so she does not! For a show that relishes in darkness, Euphoria is at its best when it’s a screwball comedy. Levinson wants to be the auteur genius behind a prestige drama, but his talents are better suited for run-of-the-mill teen TV. There are artists who could pull off his formal and narrative ambition — he’s, unfortunately, not one of them.
Somehow Rue’s mom gets distracted by these hijinks — seems weird but okay — and Rue slips out the door. She goes back to Fez’s and he lets her in. She begs him for drugs but he says he doesn’t keep anything at the house anymore. She tries to steal some of Fez’s grandma’s meds but Fez catches her and kicks her out.
Rue breaks into a random house where she’s met by a growling dog. This is the suburbs so she pets “Harold” and he quickly becomes adorable. Rue steals a bunch of stuff and then somehow guesses the safe code and steals even more. But then the fighting couple she’s stealing from come back early and she has to hide under the bed. Despite fully getting caught, she somehow escapes.
Rue is feeling very nauseous with withdrawal symptoms. She’s not doing a very good job hiding it and when some cops pull up and ask where she’s going, she pukes everywhere. They go towards her and she runs away.
We then get a very impressive chase for someone who is as ill as Rue. She froggers across a busy road, runs through a party, jumps on some cactus, and, finally, manages to escape by hiding in a trashcan.
She has reached peak desperation and this brings her to Laurie’s apartment. If you’re not good with names, Laurie is the former schoolteacher/current drug kingpin who inexplicably entrusted a teen addict with a suitcase full of drugs to sell. Rue gives her two thousand dollars in stolen cash and what she estimates to be a thousand dollars in stolen jewelry. Laurie says she can’t take the jewelry, says she’s never been mad, gives some background about her own experience with opiates, and then suggests Rue get into sex work to pay back the rest of her money.
Rue is desperate for drugs and Laurie tells her that she doesn’t have pills. She has Rue get in the bath and then she injects her with morphine. Rue sinks into the bathtub and it shifts into a fantasy/memory of her in the bath as a baby and then her giving a speech at her dad’s funeral.
When she wakes up, now desperate in a new way, Rue tries to escape through the window. It’s sealed shut. Then she tries to go out the front door past a big guy sleeping next to a gun, but the door is locked. Finally she manages to get out through another window where she drops two stories to relative safety.
I’m not sure what Sam Levinson is trying to accomplish with this Laurie storyline, but I do not like it! I’m not interested in having a conversation about how realistic it is for this character to exist let alone interact with Rue the way she does. Whether or not it’s real doesn’t concern me — even if it all feels false. My bigger issue is the way it plays into misconceptions about sex work and sex trafficking.
If Levinson wanted to take Rue’s addiction journey toward survival sex work that would’ve been one thing. It would have bothered me because as a little rich boy that was absolutely not something Levinson himself had to do and we don’t exactly need more mainstream stigma on sex work, but it would at least make sense. However, this heightened version where Rue is being groomed by Laurie is absurd. It’s using sex work — and specifically sex trafficking — in a way that reinforces this false misconception that suburban girls are getting kidnapped and sold. It’s this false misconception that leads to so many of the laws that make the lives of actual sex workers more challenging.
It also feels especially gross to go this route in the same season where it’s suggested that Rue is somewhere on the ace spectrum. I know there are people who are ace and still do sex work as a job. But it just feels like an attempt to put Rue through as big a nightmare as possible — or impossible — when the more common experiences of drug addiction would be traumatic enough.
Thankfully, the episode ends on a moment of relative hope. Rue has run away from Laurie’s. Leslie is at home. The sound of a door opens and Leslie says, “Rue?”
Last season, Euphoria was criticized for glorifying drugs. This felt like a pretty shallow criticism considering how even last year Rue’s drug use was mostly shown in a negative light. This episode seems designed as a response to those criticisms. Out of all the things Levinson was rightfully criticized for, why would this be the one he listened to? Well, because this allows him to get darker, to be serious, to put his characters through more turmoil.
Listening to the other critiques would’ve meant giving up power.
More Glitter:
+ This episode was once again written and directed by Sam Levinson.
+ I’m feeling for Gia! Why did her mom take her to drive Rue to rehab? Why did she have her in the car when driving around looking for Rue? And especially why did she tell her to get off her phone and do a better job looking?? Rue was right — Gia really does have to be perfect to make up for her.
+ I guess my main problem is Rue’s mom does not feel like a real person. Maybe if we’d spent as much time with her as we did Cal, this all would hit harder. But, again, Levinson knows how to write Cal Jacobs and does not know how to write Leslie Bennett.
+ One Sam to Rue thing I find interesting as well as frustrating is the idea that Rue is an addict because of her dad’s death. If we’re to read this autobiographically, we’re to believe that having a father who is absent because he’s a famous movie director is the same as having a father who is dead. Not sure about that one!
+ Zendaya really was phenomenal but when the writing doesn’t work to create an immersive experience, it becomes a detached sort of appreciation. I didn’t feel for Rue as much as I admired Zendaya.
+ The episode had this vibe:
I love swearing, and there tends to be a decent amount of it in my writing, but you gotta know when to pull back. Generally speaking, when every other word in what is supposed to be an gut-wrenching speech is “fuck,” it usually tells me the writer has no idea how to write actual emotion and thinks that more fucking swear words will fucking prove how fucking high the fucking stakes are. It doesn’t fucking work!
This episode did feel like a submission to the Emmy’s but I didn’t hate it. I wish we got more of Gia’s perspective because in all of the chaos, I really felt for her, the kid who truly has no control and no options or escape from it. Even her mother burdens her with things she shouldn’t have to deal with by forcing her to tag along the great Rue escape.
Rue becoming a parkour master while going through a terrible withdrawal was strange and hilarious because it was so ridiculous.
The best scene was the fight at Cassie and Lexies house (and I actually think it’s fine Maddy couldn’t control herself in that moment. She’s a teenager and it’s not like Nate was just an ex boyfriend. Maddy knows he’s abused her and it probably felt like a best friend choosing her abuser over her, which is much more serious than “you stole my boyfriend” or whatever)
I think Laurie’s plan was sex trafficking all along because what experienced drug kingpin gives a teenage addict $10,000 worth of drugs. I understand the complaints about Levinson writing this particular story, but if it gets dropped now (which the after show special gave me the impression it might be?), it won’t make any sense narratively, I mean the woman knows Rues full government name, not to mention the Fez connection. Rue is not hard to find again and she owes what like $12,000 now?
But also, I don’t think the story has implied Rue is on the ace spectrum. I think it might even be harmful to say that tbh because i dont think we need another narrative of asexuality being tied to trauma or abuse or temprorary states. Rue is almost singularly focused on drugs. And when she did have sex with Jules, she said she was too high to feel anything that was actually happening, I imagine that happens a lot with her high drug usage. We don’t actually know what a sober Rue is like because she relapsed as soon as the show started. I also think it’s important who that message came because Jules is presented as almost hyper sexual as a teenager, and that also seems to come from trauma and seeking validation through sex (her special episode).
Hi,
I take issue with your disregard for the simple fact that a scenario like that is a reality for many, many people. To say that was grooming puts it very lightly. If you actually know someone who has been in that situation, that was very very realistic. That was not a suggestion for survival sex work, that was an attempt at sex trafficking. Despite the stigma surrounding sex work, to blatantly ignore that a very significant number of people are participating in sex work against, or initially against their will is ignorant at best and offensive at worst. Many people are drugged and kidnapped for sex work, it happens every day. It seems a bit daft to suggest that acknowledging something that occurs every day somehow repudiates the legitimacy and humanity of survival sex workers. And then to say that sharing that story makes life harder for sex workers who work consensually is a both a stretch and very invalidating to the horrifying existence that hundreds of thousands of people live. Someone very close to me was kidnapped in that EXACT manner. Yes, it has happened to suburban girls. Guess what, it happens all of the time to people who grew up in the inner city, and happens even more often to people immigrating from desolate countries with the promise that they will be models and actresses only to arrive at a house very similar to Laurie’s. I understand that you want to be an ally to sex workers, but you seriously need to educate yourself to the not so bright side of sex work, there’s a reason there’s a word for it and a UN task force. Start there. Source: I did some secretary work to that exact task force.
Again, my issue is not about whether this situation is possible vs. impossible. It’s about WHY Levinson is choosing to tell this story and HOW he is doing it.
Ok that makes more sense.I interpreted it differently, but the why vs. how makes more sense. Obviously it’s an issue I’m passionate about, so I apologize for coming out so hot.
That’s okay! Honestly something I always worry about in writing these recaps is striking the balance between critiquing the show without undermining the lived experience of others.
I think of this as similar to the Jules problem. There’s certainly nothing wrong with everyone who is into Jules being bisexual but the way that was portrayed, especially in the first season, really seemed to add to this idea that anyone into a trans woman was gay and penis-obsessed. Which isn’t fair to bi guys! But also was Levinson really writing the show in a way that deserves this nuance or is he just playing into tired tropes?
So when I look at this storyline with Rue and Laurie, it brings to mind movies like Traffic and Requiem for a Dream. I would never say that someone who has had an experience similar to this shouldn’t share their story or that sharing their story is harmful. I am questioning why this story is so appealing to male filmmakers who do not have this experience and whether these male filmmakers are serving that story well or just adding to misconceptions around both that experience AND the experience of sex work at large.
Why shouldn’t he. He’s talked about how he spent his entire youth inside that kind of world. You don’t think he even once encountered a story like this? A lot of people with a history of drug use have. A lot of people with a history of drug use know drug dealers who run this same kind of operation. And this may not be his story directly but it’s a part of a world he was deeply involved and invested in. And his goal with this show was to explore a world he’s still processing having lived through and still feels a lot of pain about. And so far how he’s writing it is truthful.
And I say this as someone who has some issues with his writing. Namely his juxtaposition between Maddy and Cassie and his completely cutting Kat out of the story.
I will also say that as a person who grew up in a family with substance abuse issues all of this (except Rue playing Subway Surfers) rang incredibly true to point of being deeply triggering.
These Euphoria reviews are spot on, Drew! Another (deserved) evisceration of Sam Levinson – makes for cathartic reading after what he’s putting us through.
P.S. I think the drugs at Fez’s were his grandma’s not Faye’s.
Ah good catch! Let me fix that.
The thing about this episode that makes me so deeply uncomfortable (that I feel that Drew is circling around but not explicitly saying) is that Zendaya is Black, Rue is Black and Rue’s family is Black and the stakes are so, so different. Especially with Rue’s black parent being the one that is still alive. And black girls don’t get the chances that Levinson got. Black girls don’t get chased on foot by police for miles. They get shot. The erasure of Rue’s blackness (I recognize that Zendaya and Rue are bi-racial but, in my opinion, would get read as Black by cops) has become so much more obvious and so much more of a drawback as the show gets darker and Rue gets second chances and opportunities and near-misses that seem less and less realistic *or* understandable for a watcher (and a writer) actually factoring her race in.
EXACTLY another obvious reason why levinson should not be the sole writer/director of whatever the hell this is turning into
It’s his show man, let the guy make it, I would think it is a good thing to give a creative free reign on his creation. Isn’t that what we’re all for.
100%.
This also felt really blatant to me in Rue’s special episode. Obviously Zendaya and Colman Domingo are incredible, but an hour-long play about addiction and race needed a co-writer just as much as Jules’ episode.
this!!!
THIS!
I’m not surprised that reviews for this episode in all big forums do not mention this, and AS would be the place! We need your reviews, Drew! I also enjoyed this episode for what it’s worth, but we can not NOT mention this!
Your recaps are honestly incredibly rude and it’s very clear that you lack experience with and empathy for those who struggle with addiction. Please stop shoehorning your shallow reads on identity and race into works of actual substance. This is why I have zero respect for any content that comes out of AS that isn’t cheap jokes and sex toy reviews. Don’t quit your day job.
Joke’s on you this is my day job.
Sam, is that you?
Oh my God it has to be! This is incredibly unhinged and the accusations make absolutely no sense.
Good lord the entitlement dripping through this review, honestly that rawness in Zendaya’s acting was as real as it gets. This is coming from a sister battling heroin addiction her whole life.
I think take a step back and acknowledge the importance of this episode and how addiction is no joke.
Ah, Drew, yes! Thank you for the very warranted criticism of this episode. I was SHOCKED to see that AV Club called this the best episode of the season.
Talk about a boring hour of television. Literally the only thing this show has going for it is its unorthodox creative structure. Strip that away and you just have Zendaya acting her heart out as a miserable, self destructive character for whom its hard to feel any compassion or sympathy as a viewer. Call me crazy, but watching miserable characters be miserable and mean again and again with no remorse makes for bad and boring television.
Also, AGREED regarding the parents in this episode. Rue’s mom, who seems to perpetually not notice that her child is never home, glassy eyed, and presumably hasn’t showered in some days, not only doesn’t seem like a real person, but doesn’t even begin to act like a parent. While Rue yelled at Jules, her mom seemed to stay glued to stage left waiting for her cue to enter the scene. Not that Euphoria has ever been much concerned with reality, but as I watched this scene, I was so bothered that the adult in the room wouldn’t intervene while their daughter screamed in the face of a crying girl. These details speak to a real lack of awareness on Levinson’s part of how this scene would plan out in real life. And thus, as a viewer, I felt very emotionally detached from this whole episode.
Also, and this is nit picky, but YES, how is one to believe that Rue could parkour through LA, committing multiple crimes, evading a slew of cops, while in extreme opiate withdraw, and not be caught. Again, I’m happy to let go of reality when this show is making artful scenes come to life, but when it’s stripped of this, I can’t help but be bothered by the ridiculousness of it all. And was it just my 90’s heart, or was there a whole The Sandlot sequence in there with the running, the sneakers, the cake getting tossed…was this intentional or lazy writing?
All is to say, for me, Euphoria has proven to be a show that is neither relatable enough to be engaging from a narrative perspective, nor consistently creative enough to be engrossing as a break from classic narrative structure. Episodes like this seem to expose so many of Levinson’s weaknesses as you astutely pointed out, Drew.
I thought the episode was good, but after reading this I only may have thought that because Zendaya’s acting held up the entire episode and last week’s episode was a disaster.
I think this reviews is a big miss. I thought the writing was amazing, I’m 100% sure that HBO will send this episode for Emmy consideration not only for Best Actress in a drama series for Zendaya, supporting actress for King but also best writing in a drama series for Levinson.
I’m sure they will, but I cannot imagine anything will be won from this. For an episode written to be so emotion filled, it certainly was emotionless. Six minutes of Rue screaming is hardly watchable. Add on the misplaced humor of a juvenile and endless foot chase through town where consequences don’t exist and every sober adult is too slow to nab a withdrawing teen, and the episode is a downright snore. I was literally looking for the fast forward button like really…is this the whole episode?
What is the point of this show anymore? Are drugs bad? Good? The only tiny thread of narrative holding the show together? Looks like the later. And at this point not enough work has been done to push the viewer to care if Rue self destructs or not, it’s kind of par for the course. She’s a selfish, sh*tty person who is hellbent on hurting everyone around here with zero remorse. Soooo yea, not sure this episode is being awarded anything. Unless of course Sam Levinson turns out to be a real life creep, in which case jail time will be awarded.
I personally hope he will win although drama writing awards are now only meant for Succession, so hope he at least gets a nomination, he’s made something spectacular in my eyes. Your final sentence is pretty awful and says more about you than Sam Levinson.
I also thought this episode was amazing. Yes, very very hard to watch, but I guess that was the point?
Don’t really understand why you hate Sam so much? Yes he is a white cis het privileged dude, but he also could have made a show about a white cis het privileged dude, instead of giving us this very diverse (in every aspect) show which I really like, which makes me think, and feel so much. Plus is really nice to look at…
And this:
“One Sam to Rue thing I find interesting as well as frustrating is the idea that Rue is an addict because of her dad’s death. If we’re to read this autobiographically, we’re to believe that having a father who is absent because he’s a famous movie director is the same as having a father who is dead. Not sure about that one!”
Just because SOME stuff is autobiographical, doesnt mean 100% is. Also I guess her dad got opiates for his pain and …. that plus the missing him… for a girl struggling all her life, this can go fast I presume…
The last two years before her death, my mom had opiates as well, loads of them, if I had wanted to, I could have gotten them so easily… but fortunately, I dont even drink alcohol and have no intention of getting high ever.
I don’t want to diss you Drew, just don’t really understand the hate :)
I feel the exact same way. This review is so endlessly negative. And for what? Yes Euphoria has its flaws. Yes Sam Levinson obviously should have a writing team. But can just appreciate it for its good moments? I’ve had my issues with this season but I thought this episode was incredibly well written, edited, scored, lit, and acted by every single cast member. I cried nonstop for the first 15 minutes. The rest of it felt like a claustrophobic horror film, in the very best way. It was incredibly effective storytelling.
Yeah same! I can truly understand the upset with him not having a writer’s room, but as for the character Jules, pretty sure, him and Hunter “built” the character together, at least I read it sometime in an interview with them both.
But to what Bunny Brown said, I agree he would benefit from having more writers and especially black women writers. But who knows… what and where he gets input. Just because the end credits only say his name, doesnt mean he doesnt listen to other people.
For example I am a designer and sometimes I get hired by big agencies and payed by them instead of the “client” – mostly musicians. So in the credit there isn’t always my name but I get payed well so it’s cool for me.
I really think he does a mostly great job and has created something amazing. Can’t remember when a show made me think and feel so much.
I was confused about the dead father thing too. Like did SL claim his experience was exactly the same as the character’s or something?
I do get the criticism that he is writing from the POV of marginalized characters who he shouldn’t really be speaking for. I can’t think of another show centered around a Black woman written entirely by a white man… it’s not a great look. And it has to be pretty frustrating for Black women writers and other marginalized writers who are already overlooked in the tv industry… who would relish the chance to actually control a mainstream depiction of their own underrepresented identity, since those depictions have historically been controlled by white men :/
That being said I also like the show a lot! Maybe I’m more inclined to like it being white & cis because most of those moments that ring inauthentic because of the difference in lived experience between writer & character are probably going over my head
I also have a family that has had substance use issue and this episode was very raw and very triggering for me. I had to take several breaks. It brought up a lot of painful memories for me that felt very true to my experience. and I don’t really understand the negativity and what’s so “unrealistic” about it except Rue doing parkour for like 30 min.
This episode did feel like a submission to the Emmy’s but I didn’t hate it. I wish we got more of Gia’s perspective because in all of the chaos, I really felt for her, the kid who truly has no control and no options or escape from it. Even her mother burdens her with things she shouldn’t have to deal with by forcing her to tag along the great Rue escape.
Rue becoming a parkour master while going through a terrible withdrawal was strange and hilarious because it was so ridiculous.
The best scene was the fight at Cassie and Lexies house (and I actually think it’s fine Maddy couldn’t control herself in that moment. She’s a teenager and it’s not like Nate was just an ex boyfriend. Maddy knows he’s abused her and it probably felt like a best friend choosing her abuser over her, which is much more serious than “you stole my boyfriend” or whatever)
I think Laurie’s plan was sex trafficking all along because what experienced drug kingpin gives a teenage addict $10,000 worth of drugs. I understand the complaints about Levinson writing this particular story, but if it gets dropped now (which the after show special gave me the impression it might be?), it won’t make any sense narratively, I mean the woman knows Rues full government name, not to mention the Fez connection. Rue is not hard to find again and she owes what like $12,000 now?
But also, I don’t think the story has implied Rue is on the ace spectrum. I think it might even be harmful to say that tbh because i dont think we need another narrative of asexuality being tied to trauma or abuse or temprorary states. Rue is almost singularly focused on drugs. And when she did have sex with Jules, she said she was too high to feel anything that was actually happening, I imagine that happens a lot with her high drug usage. We don’t actually know what a sober Rue is like because she relapsed as soon as the show started. I also think it’s important who that message came because Jules is presented as almost hyper sexual as a teenager, and that also seems to come from trauma and seeking validation through sex (her special episode).
Um, actually, this review is wrong bc a honga hurgen sam levinson da fjuni skjappi addiction bjarki sjop i fjarp cinematography longyearbyen I’m definitely not sam levinson :)
Maybe if you had real experience with frikadeller you would get it, but you don’t sweaty -_-
Really resonated with this: “I guess my main problem is Rue’s mom does not feel like a real person. Maybe if we’d spent as much time with her as we did Cal, this all would hit harder. But, again, Levinson knows how to write Cal Jacobs and does not know how to write Leslie Bennett.” The whole episode, I was so mad that Leslie and Gia have had little to no character development, thereby making it another show where the black women (other than Rue) don’t get to showcase depth and complexity.
Rue’s expectation that she will be treated better then other people are is getting weirder and weirder to me. And yeah, having the cops chase her on foot rather then shooting at her stuck out. But it kind of goes with other mysteries of the show…
* When everybody else has to strip down, why does Rue think she’s an exception?
* Why does Rue believe the drug dealer who said she would sell her for fucking up is going to give her drugs for free at that point?
In general, why does Rue enter every situation assuming that she will be treated well? Is it a character choice, or is it just because that’s the way that Levinson has been treated? Is that what it’s like to live as a straight white dude? To have an endless supply of people who will sacrifice themselves for you, to never face any consequences? Is that really the way that addicts act– just assuming they will always be treated well? I don’t have much experience with addicts, I grew up with mean drunks and as an adult I’m not around folks who are really into substances. So, maybe it’s just that I’m naive about addiction and Rue’s behavior and attitudes are realistic.
I cheered a little when Fez kicked her out. It’s incredibly painful for me to watch her abusing everybody who loves her– especially her little sister– without any consequences whatsoever.
I do think the scenes of Rue screaming abuse at everybody around her were realistic portrayals of abusive people. She reminded me of the sister I no longer speak to. Incredibly painful. At this point I’m kind of rooting against Rue. Like, I don’t know if I would’ve been all that sad if she had died in traffic. Harsh, I know. Maybe I should excuse her abuse because she’s an addict? She just seems like such a dick. So many people in the show love and support her and I don’t see why, I don’t see her giving back anything but abuse.
Anyhow. Yeah, great acting, but extremely mysterious character motivations.
I’m not sure why you are so hell-bent on the intense Sam Levinson hatred. It’s very glaringly preventing you from seeing these episodes for what they are and it’s actually getting embarrassing to read. Also, this show very obviously is not supposed to be reality – it’s always been fantasy. There are literal fantasy musical scenes in it. This isn’t a gritty docudrama about Sam Levinson’s (or anybody’s) addiction – it’s art and it’s entertainment. Chill.