Lately, it seems I may be the only person in the world who hasn’t watched HBO’s Euphoria.
Still, I’ve managed to piece together the show’s essence: a drama-laden high-school, bold fashion choices, and skyrocketing emotions. There are themes of addiction, trauma, and family life, tied together in a taut and vital portrayal that has viewers hooked.
These bits of information are threads pulled from the thousands of Euphoria-related posts that I’ve come across on social media alone. And I’m not alone: there are many others who seem completely consumed by the teen drama, without ever having seen a single episode. Across TikTok and Twitter, people are feeding off Euphoria-related content, buzzing to encounter big plot reveals, and knowing pretty much everything about it without having seen the show.
This phenomenon is thanks to the real Euphoria fans, of course, the social media mavens producing countless TikToks and tweets after the release of each episode of Season 2. There are videos inspiring beauty and style, all derived from that of East Highland High students. There’s analysis pouring onto the Twitter timeline, capturing viewers’ polarizing thoughts. There are spoilers and memes galore. There’s even fan fiction.
So now, those of all sitting in the I’ve-never-seen-Euphoria camp have created a counterpart. Living vicariously through the show’s social media-savvy fans, these series-adjacent enthusiasts are stepping into the discourse, keeping afloat of the latest twist, and sometimes even picking favorite characters, again, without knowing what actually happened in the latest episode.
This whole thing alludes to a greater idea: Can we truly understand TV shows, books, and movies merely through 30-second TikTok videos and the occasional Twitter reaction? Euphoria‘s non-watching subculture has certainly shown that fandom can be layered. If anything, it’s pretty remarkable that we feel like we’ve watched something by proxy, thanks to social media’s relentless flow.
