![]() ![]() Nichols is there to listen, not share painful details from her own life, so this isn’t a two-hander like the last special. But while Weedman is excellent, the nature of her role as a mental health professional makes this a different conversation than the one Rue and Ali had. Mardy Nichols (Lauren Weedman), as if Schafer and Euphoria creator Sam Levinson, who co-wrote the episode and directed it, were huge fans of HBO’s late, great, and soon-to-be-rebooted drama In Treatment. Much of it takes place in Jules’ first session with her new therapist, Dr. “Fuck Anyone Who’s Not a Sea Blob” is slightly less of an acoustic duet. It was Euphoria stripped of all its stylistic tics, and the emotional substance proved more satisfying than the show’s usual flash. The Rue episode, “Trouble Don’t Last Always,” was essentially a one-act play in which Rue and her Narcotics Anonymous sponsor Ali (Colman Domingo) open up about their respective addictions and heartbreaks. It’s as if these two episodes - created and produced under Covid safety guidelines, with stripped-down casts and crews - are meant to be “real life.” And they have been anything but a letdown. But it’s striking to see how much this special and the one focusing on Jules’ girlfriend Rue (Zendaya) serve as a departure from the heightened reality of the series’ first season. “I feel like real life is always such a letdown,” Jules Vaughn (Hunter Schafer) announces midway through this second Euphoria special, titled “Fuck Anyone Who’s Not a Sea Blob.” She’s referring to how much more satisfying she finds online relationships than in-person ones, particularly in the aftermath of being catfished by sociopath supervillain Nate (Jacob Elordi). “I want to see trans people directing, not only because I think they can do a better job representing us…but I think there is a certain level of creativity that is inherent to transness and very special to transness that is unique, and has not received the funding nor the opportunity to be made that I think it deserves.This post contains spoilers for the second Euphoria special, which premieres Sunday night on HBO and is available on HBO Max. “I’m still seeing a lot of cis people doing the directing and the casting and everything,” she said. While authentic casting has pretty much become the norm, she says trans talent is often “the token trans person” on set, which places an undue burden on them. Schafer recognizes the many barriers to showing nuanced trans narratives on TV, especially the lack of opportunities for trans talent. Hunter Schafer and Zendaya in “Euphoria” Eddy Chen / HBO That’s obviously a win for the show, but also for trans viewers craving storytelling that doesn’t trade complexity for inoffensiveness. With Schafer as a co-writer, Levinson was able to delve deeper into the more complicated - and dramatically ripe - nuances of trans identity, which includes permutation as infinite and varied as the entire spectrum of human gender and sexuality. “And I think I can also confidently say that none of us are certain about any of it and that it’s all fluid and spiritual in some way, and intangible in a lot of ways, which makes it difficult to talk about and articulate in some ways.” “Particularly with my very close tight-knit trans family, these are things we consistently talk about with each other,” Schafer said. ![]() With Schafer’s name proudly displayed as a writer of the episode, however, viewers can breathe easy knowing these complex conversations were grounded in a trans perspective. For that reason, antennae go up whenever hormones, surgery, or transition are discussed in TV or film, especially in a show as popular as “Euphoria” with such a groundbreaking and beloved trans character as Jules. For too long, transgender representation in media focused solely on elements of medical transition, wrongly emphasizing the physical body in relation to a person’s gender. ![]()
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