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Well, for better or worse, Euphoria wrapped up its run on HBO last night.
And the response from critics has been less than euphoric, with some comparing the show’s final episode to other disastrous finales of recent years, including Game of Thrones and Stranger Things.
The movie-sized, 100-minute finale brought most of the series’ major storylines to an end, but some viewers were not thrilled by the fact that the episode felt more like a Tarantino-esque action movie than a show about high school friends and rivals.
“Move over, Game of Thrones and Stranger Things, there’s a new worst finale in town,” wrote Page Six critic Lauen Sarner.
“Euphoria Season 3 ended the way it began: tawdry, tasteless, and squandering its all-star cast with ludicrous writing.
The review went on to note some of the most common complaints about the finale, including the fact that after centering Sydney Sweeney’s OnlyFans storyline for much of the season, the writers treated Cassie like an afterthought in the finale.
But at least by bringing her together with her best friend Maddie and sister Lexi to run a business catering to adult content creators, the show stops punishing Cassie for her decisions.
“To the extent that anybody gets a ‘happy ending,’ it seems to be these three women living together in a weird large house with yellow decor,” Sarner wrote.
The same can’t be said for Zendaya’s Rue, who — as many predicted — passed away from an accidental Fentanyl overdose.
Oddly, her death comes not in the final moments, but halfway through the episode.
The climactic conclusion is instead reserved for a gun battle between one relatively minor character (albeit a beloved one, Colman Domingo’s Ali) and one who was just introduced this season (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje’s Alamo).
A showdown between two men in their fifties probably isn’t the finale viewers would have predicted when this show about troubled teens got its start back in 2019.
Of course, Euphoria has always thrived on defying expectations and confounding critics.
Unfortunately, it’s not easy to continually raise the bar in terms of shock value — at least not without winding up in a thoroughly ridiculous place.
Showrunner Sam Levinson likely knew that the finale would receive a divided response. But ironically, the Euphoria finale’s biggest sins had little to do with sex and violence and everything to do with bad pacing and unsatisfying character arcs.
We’re sure Levinson is unconcerned, and the same can be said for his biggest star, Sydney Sweeney, who celebrated the finale with a massive carousel of pics of her most memorable Season 3 moments.
Maybe Cassie was always destined for a happy ending. And maybe Sydney’s post is meant to remind us that Euphoria is just one small chapter in the story of her career.
Whatever the case, many viewers have made note of the fact that HBO lists last night’s episode as a season finale, rather than a series finale. So we may not have seen the last of Cassie Howard.