Euphoria season 2 continues to prove that Zendaya is the show’s greatest asset as she turns in another dynamo performance in the HBO show. The 25-year-old multi-hyphenate began performing on the show Shake It Up but she has slowly moved into more mature roles with greater success than many of her other peers from Disney Channel original programming. After first appearing in Spider-Man: Homecoming, Zendaya has gone on to star in all three of Tom Holland’s MCU Spider-Man movies as MJ, in addition to turns in The Greatest Showman, Dune, and Netflix movie Malcolm & Marie. It’s in Euphoria, though, where Zendaya truly shines.

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Zendaya stars as Rue Bennett in the HBO show, a teenage addict who, from a young age, has lived with myriad mental health issues like depression, anxiety, and OCD. This, coupled with the death of her father at a young age, has led Rue to dabble heavily in drugs, something she has struggled with since the onset of the show. The show also focuses on Jules, another character on Euphoria, and her complicated relationship with Rue, and the roster is rounded out by plenty of reckless teens who push the limits of the show’s believability. Luckily, Zendaya is there to ground it all.

Rue serves as the anchor of the show. As the omniscient narrator of the goings-on at East Highland High School, the voice of Rue is laced throughout Euphoria. While it can be hard to sell narration or even shift perceptions of voiceovers in a genre where it is oft overused, Zendaya’s naturalistic performance is what ultimately makes the narration work, as well as many other elements of the series. Zendaya also channeled this grounded performance style in the Netflix movie Malcolm & Marie, but it’s the HBO show where the actress really stands out.

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One of the main criticisms leveled against Euphoria is that it prioritizes style over substance, but Zendaya has always been its secret weapon. After season 1, Zendaya became the youngest woman to win Best Actress in a Drama Series at the Primetime Emmy’s and Euphoria season 2 proves that wasn’t a fluke. She makes the show infinitely better and, when she’s in scenes with other characters whose storylines are otherwise flat, she reinvigorates the show—she is the throughline, the one who grounds the show and communicates its so-called mission statement.

Euphoria is ultimately an exploration of addiction, partly influenced by creator Sam Levinson’s own experiences, and it’s one of the best shows on HBO right now thanks to Zendaya’s honest portrayal of a very real problem. Euphoria season 2 seems poised to look at this further after Rue relapsed at the end of season 1, but it’s clear that this story wouldn’t land without Zendaya’s performance to anchor it. The “style over substance” criticisms are not unfounded, but they can be ignored when a performer like Zendaya is able to honestly communicate a very real struggle that breaks through the noise surrounding it. Euphoria is not without its flaws, but it is an unflinchingly honest and brutal depiction of something that impacts millions of people with a core performance that elevates its other, more salacious material.

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Graeme Guttmann
(1228 Articles Published)

Graeme Guttmann is an editor, writer, and interviewer for Screen Rant. With a love for all things pop culture, he watches just about everything from the biggest blockbusters to reality shows like Real Housewives. He currently resides in Boston, MA where he is an MFA candidate at Emerson College for creative writing. You can follow him on Twitter @cryptograeme for pop culture commentary and random musings about pop music and just about anything else.

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