After Euphoria dropped its latest episode on Sunday, April 19, viewers were left outraged, slamming it over yet another controversial moment involving Sydney Sweeney’s portrayal.
The third season of the series, despite airing only two episodes so far, has already been embroiled in major controversy and backlash, largely centered on the “degrading” treatment of Sweeney’s character, Cassie Howard.
Highlights
- Sydney Sweeney’s “degrading” scenes have sparked intense backlash following controversial, explicit moments in the latest episode.
- Viewers slammed the storyline as “trashy” and “unnecessary,” with some even questioning why the actress agreed to such a portrayal of her character.
- Influential figures, including Megyn Kelly and the show’s creator Sam Levinson, have offered sharply contrasting takes while addressing the controversy.
The latest scenes prompted critics to argue that the show may have leaned too far into “shock value,” reigniting ongoing discussions about how female characters are portrayed on screen.
“She will definitely regret this. It’s embarrassing. Can’t see any female actresses… ever doing scenes like this and humiliating themselves... It’s ridiculous at this point,” one netizen fumed.
Sydney Sweeney’s character is depicted as struggling with adulthood and creating “degrading” adult content to fund her lifestyle
Image credits: HBO
The highly controversial American teen drama has ruffled feathers online, as netizens have been largely displeased with the trajectory of Sydney Sweeney’s iconic character, Cassie Howard.
As the latest, and reportedly final, season premiered on April 12, Cassie, one of the central figures in the plotline, took a controversial turn when she was introduced as an adult-content creator.
The first episode shows her filming content while dressed as an infant, complete with pigtails and a pacifier.
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Another sequence features her in a brown dog costume, crawling and drinking from a bowl while her fiancé, Nate Jacobs, played by Jacob Elordi and formerly her best friend’s boyfriend, holds a leash around her neck.
These scenes were slammed not only by netizens but also by several professionals in the adult industry, many of whom argued that the portrayal was highly problematic and amounted to the “s**ualization of infancy.”
Amid the ongoing backlash surrounding the first episode, the second episode depicts Cassie in a photoshoot montage, posing completely bare while taking provocative pictures for her Onl**ans account.
Image credits: HBO
One scene shows her licking a melting ice cream cone, with the dripping ice cream running down her breasts.
In another, she partially covers herself with one hand while wearing a baseball glove, blue cap, and pale pink underwear, using her other hand to shield her privates in a downward peace sign.
The show’s narrator, voiced by Zendaya, who plays Rue Bennett, tells the audience, “Cassie was exactly the kind of girl you'd dream of signing. Beautiful, but directionless. So desperate for attention, she's willing to humiliate herself.”
In the latest episode, Sydney was seen posing completely bare in several provocative scenes during a photoshoot montage
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Maddy, played by Alexa Demie, then enters the scene, arriving at Cassie’s house. During their conversation, she forgives Cassie for dating her ex-boyfriend, Nate.
Cassie tells Maddy she is looking for someone to manage her adult-content account, to which Maddy replies, “The market's just oversaturated with a lot of girls like you.”
Cassie questions her former best friend, asking, “How are all these girls making so much money when I'm way prettier than them?”
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“Yeah, the doggie video? It's fun, and it's campy, but it's not s*xy, and it's not timeless… It just feels a little desperate,” Maddy says. “It feels like you're trying way too hard, instead of just being.”
Eventually, the two team up, with Maddy agreeing to help Cassie with her Onl**ans.
However, a majority of fans disapproved of Sweeney’s provocative scenes, calling them “trashy” and “unnecessary degradation.”
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“Honestly, Euphoria has always pushed boundaries, but it does feel like this season is going a bit too far for shock value. I get that it’s trying to portray dark and uncomfortable themes, but there’s a fine line between storytelling and unnecessary degradation,” one user said.
Another netizen wrote, “Look i am not easily shocked or even bothered this day an age i am Gen-X but even i am thinking Wot The Fudge lol.”
Another comment read, “I know we don't like Sydney Sweeney/yall only like her b**bs, but I can't help wondering about what changed for her between talking about being over s**ualized on euphoria and having Sam cut some n*de scenes to now fully doing p*rn in character.”
One brutal remark read, “Sad thing for Syd is that she's had starring roles in actual movies and… they've flopped. Her body is her selling point”
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The same user doubled down, saying, “I know last year she was selling bath water and jeans so I wanna know what was the switch for her to fully lean into the s*x sells shtick… On conclusion of that episode, I fully agree with that Sam Levinson is going to hell.”
Others expressed, “Please god i cant keep seeing cassie degrade herself in the most embarrassing ways imaginable.”
“How is Sydney even agreeing to do this season of Euphoria?” questioned one user, while another added, “Sydney is deliberately being degraded by the show producer…”
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“Looks like a piece of trash show. As for scenes, they could say no.”
While many viewers expressed disappointment and heavily questioned the plotline, particularly targeting the creator, Sam Levinson, he addressed the backlash directly in a recent interview.
In a chat with The Hollywood Reporter, Levinson stated that the provocative scenes were intentionally made to appear absurd.
The explicit scenes were labeled “sick” and “trashy” by influential figures, including Megyn Kelly and professional adult content creators
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He said, “What we wanted to always find is the other layer of absurdity that we’re able to tie into it so that we’re not too inside of her fantasy or illusion — the gag is to jump out, to break the wall.”
In a separate interview with The New York Times, Sam shared that the controversial plotline was meant to highlight the “combination of [Cassie’s] desperation and need for validation,” while maintaining a humorous undertone.
Prominent journalist and political commentator Megyn Kelly also took aim at Sydney’s explicit scenes, strongly criticizing both the creators and the show.
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On the April 14 episode of her podcast, The Megyn Kelly Show, she told her audience, “I can’t believe [Sydney] agreed to this frankly and was in this,” before adding elsewhere in the episode, “I think this guy’s sick … Sam Levinson.”
“He constantly wants the women to take their clothes off for, like, scenes that don’t require them to be n*de at all,” the former Fox News host noted.
“I think this is another example of Hollywood not understanding at all where the line is…”
With two episodes released so far and six more to go, dropping weekly on Sundays on HBO and Max, Sydney’s character is expected to continue a raunchy and explicit storyline centered on her career.
“Why on earth did she agree to this? It really is one giant humiliation exercise. It will be everywhere, forever,” wrote one netizen
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