A siren sounds in memory of all the victims of the Holocaust. A moment when all of Israel comes to a standstill, people stop working, get out of their cars, stand on the street or wherever they are and stand silently with their heads down in a gesture of respect. Everyone except the young stars of ‘Euphoria’. It’s not that they’re busy and can’t, it’s that they don’t do it.
That is one of the opening sequences of the Israeli fiction (‘אופוריה’) on which the American ‘Euphoria’, HBO’s prodigious teen series, is based. Premiered in November 2012 on the HOT channel, the ten-episode series presented the story of a group of young people who they navigate sex, drugs, alcohol and their own nihilism. It was a failure.
Inspired by one of the teenage phenomena of that time, the British ‘Skins’ Ron Leshem and Daphna Levin got down to business to make a shocking drama to portray the next generation of Israeli citizens while provoking a panic attack in the parents who watch the fiction.
something with him cocktail that is already familiar to us viewers of the American series: drugs, pornography, sex, depression, the loss of parental authority (in fact in the Israeli the parents only come out tangentially), body image and countless moments and traumas that end up defining each one. In Levin’s words:
“Growing up is a trauma, no matter how you live it. All of us—the sober, the stoner, the fat—deal with these mini-traumas. It’s excessive but familiar.”
The murder that inspired ‘Euphoria’
As if that were not enough, in the fourth episode we would attend a murder that would mark the second half of the series and the plots of the characters. In December 2004, 18-year-old Ra’anan Levy He had gone out with his friends to party.
According to witnesses, Levy had been talking to a girl, which did not sit well with her boyfriend, who thought he wanted to take the girl away from him. Soon his friends came out to chase Levy in a jeep. When they caught up with him, one of them stabbed the young man, who died on the spot..
Something similar happens in ‘Euphoria’, where we would see more or less in the middle of the season the murder of a boy at the hands of Hofit’s boyfriend (Roni Dalumi), which would be the equivalent of Rue (Zendaya). This death would be the one that pushed the girl to drug use.
taking different directions
Beyond sharing the idea around some characters (not their three-dimensionality), their characteristic of a high school series, and the themes to be dealt with, The Israeli and the American ‘Euphoria’ had little to do. Perhaps another notable difference was the age of the actors, most of them real teenagers in the original. Something delicate considering that there would be nudity, sex and other ingredients.
In fact, Sam Levinson was free to, from the concept, tell what he wanted:
«I went to sit with Francesca Orsi [jefa de drama de HBO]. I asked him what he liked about the Israeli series, and he told me that it was a raw and honest portrait of drugs and youth. So I started talking about my own personal history with drugs. I was a drug addict for many years and now I have been clean for many years… [E]So he said, “Okay, go write that…”
Despite the success of the American, in Israel ‘Euphoria’ happened with more pain than glory in its broadcast ten years ago. It was broadcast on a cable network (not too well known), in a slot close to late night and at a time when, unlike now, viewing on demand was not common.
«I felt like a failure, many doors were closed to me»affirmed years later Leshem. The series did not achieve recognition either among critics or among the publicwho considered this feast of excesses an affront to the way of life of the Middle Eastern country.
At the end, ‘Euphoria’ was canceled after those first episodes. A failure with a bit of a phoenix complex because years later a spectacular and exciting series arose from its ashes, not without controversy due to the crude portrait of these young people.