When I was in upper grade school or junior high, we had a couple anti-drug school assemblies in the gym where they set up a series of projector screens, creating a panoramic film. It was created in California with surfing, skateboarding, Venice Beach, etc. Then, they'd have a couple of young people who had come out of addiction talking about their experience. I'm this kid growing up in a giant corn field, getting forced to watch all these young people having a blast on beaches, in an interesting Venice bohemian culture, talking about taking LSD, people turning into giant oranges and various other hallucinations. Uh? This was supposed to scare us away from drugs? This film was supposed to make us wary of drugs? I didn't speak to my classmates about it, but to me, it felt like an extension of Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and I loved that movie and dreamed of anything even remotely similar to any of those experiences. I still don't understand how far removed the creators of this anti-drug program must have been from the ways so many kids in America were growing up. Their anti-drug diatribe was a carrot, not a stick. And geez, as far as I knew, drugs weren't a thing in this small farm town. Surely, there were drugs...because they're everywhere...but none of my friends knew about it...until these school assemblies.
I just finished watching the second season of Euphoria. This is some insanely high quality TV making, even if you have no interest in the subject matter or the story. They consistently nail the vibe of whatever they're trying to make you feel. On that level, it is extraordinary. I can't relate to a lot of what they're showing, because again, this is a quasi-California childhood setting. Nevertheless, it sure looks like a whole lot of fun and far different than anything I ever experienced, even when I lived in big cities. This show is dark, but it is also appetizing, at least to me; or rather, to my teenage self it successfully transports me back into feeling. I don't know if I would recommend it, but it is deserving of a lot of the hype surrounding it.
