While we love to binge-watch television series about High school drama and cliche teenage romance, it is shows like Euphoria that besides taking the world by storm pulls us out from our picture-perfect vision of life and educates us about reality.
By creating an imperfect world without a clear distinction between who’s good and who’s not, Euphoria attracts viewers from all walks of life. While teens struggling with their lives, it is more surprising that even the older generation has taken to the show and has come forward, sharing stories.
With chronic bouts of anxiety, depression and hard to swallow topics like paedophilia, domestic violence, sexual abuse and the helpless spiralling dependence being brought to life by candy-coloured cinematography, Euphoria hits hard.
It is difficult to find such modern coming of age stories that through sorrow and pain liberate you. But here we are with a list of hand-picked television series that shine in a similar light.
Here are the Best Shows Similar to Euphoria:
#1. Skins
[ryvl video_url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueIaWucg1GM” auto_play=”yes”]Click here to watch Trailer Of Skins[/ryvl]
While Euphoria took a dark path to explore controversial topics in 2020, Skins did the same albeit in a much lighter tone back in 2007.
Back in the 2000s, most tv series glossed up realities with young teens having ostentatious cars and romantic affairs that were, well, too fiery to be an adolescent affair. Skins changed all that by not only bringing in a very young cast but also writers none of whom were above 25.
But above all, the show was very honest with the real issues faced by average teens and closer to home than any other series. Of course, the incidents are heightened at times, but the essence of being a teenager is captured beautifully.
More often than not, you won’t help but feel that the show is about them (teenagers) against the world and that’s what makes it all the more believable. Losing virginity, eating disorders, school trips, sexuality, divorce, friendships, peer pressure, wild parties, the hangover after and the ever prevailing inferiority complex, Skins never shied away from any of that.
It’s outrageous, brilliant and fun and a reminiscence of adolescence.
#2. Recovery Road
Every time you watch Recovery Road and see Maddie struggling with her alcohol and drugs addiction, you will be reminded of Rue from Euphoria. Right from the reason why both of them landed into the world of drugs the first place to the fight that they have with their inner demons, both girls have a lot common at heart. The only difference is that Maddie had the required help in early phases that Rue never had. She gets the option of enrolling in rehab early on.
Recovery Road does an excellent job showing the reality of alcoholism without glamorizing addictive behaviour. The show breaks the usual trend of focusing on the lengths addict goes to keep his/her addiction continuing and instead portrays people just trying to get better without eliminating the darkness that comes with substance abuse. It acts as a ray of hope when we see characters rebuilding their lives after hitting rock bottom and in the process heal themselves.
Thanks to a diverse portrayal of addiction, with our protagonist herself being biracial, Recover Road shows that addiction isn’t race-blind.
With bumps and hurdles everywhere in Maddie’s journey of self-recovery, we can’t help but fall in love with the story.
#3. My So-Called Life
To be a teenager is to be an ever ready to explode chemical reaction of arrogance and anxiety and crippling self-consciousness and nervy self-confidence. It is secretively stealing glances at that one person and feeling that anything that is not a similar look from the person you Like is offensively worthless. And My So-Called Life captured all of it and much more in its truncated run of 19 episodes.
My So-Called Life was among the first television series that show teenagers as they are without confining them to stereotypes. The thing that draws us closer to the characters is the conversations or even thoughts that are similar to the ones we have in our lives. Dialogues like “I cannot bring myself to eat a well-balanced meal in front of my mother. It just means too much to her” hit hard and we see ourselves in the characters.
Drugs, alcohol, sex, sexual identity and self-destructive behaviour find a natural space instead of being forcefully fitted in and our kindly and generously dealt with.
At its very heart, Euphoria and My So-Called Life are the same.
#4. Sharp Objects
Although a whodunit drama on the surface, Sharp Objects, it explores a lot more intense human emotions and struggles at its heart.
The series effortlessly overlaps past traumas with present-day crimes. Crime reporter Camille Preaker who has been suffering from alcoholism for quite some time now has been recently discharged from a psychiatric hospital after years of self-harm. Camille pulls through the day by taking sips from a water bottle she secretly fills with vodka and pressing her fingers into the screen of a cracked iPhone. She wears long sleeves to scars from the words she has literally carved into her skin.
She still has flashbacks of her troubled childhood in the small town of Wind Gap, Missouri where she now has to return on orders of her editor. A sister dying when young, a difficult melodramatic mother and a rebellious half-sister is enough to get on any one’s nerves. A mysterious murder case added to that further weighs down Camille.
With ghosts from the past mingling with the problems of today and a deep sadness engraved in the eyes of the young reporter, Sharp Objects is hauntingly captivating.
#5. 13 Reasons Why
When you talk tv series about self-harm or destructive behaviour or even drugs and alcoholism, you cannot miss 13 Reasons Why. If you haven’t heard about this series, you surely live under a rock.
13 Reasons Why shows how fragile teenagers are and how desperate they can be to hide the same. And this very fragility, be it from bullying, low self-esteem, being slut-shamed, struggle to fit in, or simply from pretending to be the biggest bully in the playground, drives several teens in this tv shows to surrender themselves to the world of alcoholism and drugs.
13 Reasons Why shows that cutting is not the only way of self-destruction. Refusing to accept the truth is equally devastating. Not many can get over the scenes of Hannah cutting her arms or Jessica refusing to accept that she had been raped, or when Alex shoots himself or even Justin chokes on drugs.
The show transcends time because the issues faced by these set of teens is not restricted to the present generation and the message ring true and clear.
#6. Shameless
Even though Euphoria is about a teen suffering from addiction issues, it addresses people of all ages. On the same note, we add to this list a series about Frank Gallagher, a single father raising six children. A slave to alcohol and drugs he spends his days either drunk or in search of misadventures while his children learn to take care of themselves.
Shameless is a dark comedy that takes place in the not so nice parts of Chicago and drives home the truth that drugs and alcohol not only affect the health of those addicted to them but also wrecks the lives of all associated with these lives.
Every time Frank rants about government, upscaling, or history, you realize that he is quite intelligent but wastes his mind on cocaine or vodka even as his children struggle to fend for themselves and later in the series develop addictive behaviors and drug problems themselves. Their miseries don’t stop here either as down the lane they also battle with mental disorders.
The Gallaghers have it rough but they stick together and more than anything this is what makes Shameless a must-watch.
#7. Orange Is the New Black
Orange Is the New Black Netflix’s most-watched original series and not without reason had it captured the attention of many throughout the length of its span.
The show centres on Piper Chapman, a sweet, blond, girl next door who gets sentenced to prison, thanks to her former lesbian lover/drug smuggler, Alex Vause, selling her out. The offence has occurred 10 years before the beginning of the series and now our protagonist lives the life of a law-abiding upper-middle-class person. Her entire life is disrupted as she finds herself catapulted into the world of criminals.
While most of the series here handle the effects of being addicted to drugs or alcohol, Orange Is the New Black deals with the consequences of being involved in this business. Although the main focus of the series is always the humanity of each of these women, forced to confront their faults, crimes, secrets and inner emotional lives rather than addiction, this series deserves to be on this list.
#8. Nurse Jackie
While we usually see medical professionals helping those who are addicted to drugs and advising against the same, what happens when one among them falls prey to the same? Nurse Jackie brings to fore lines this lesser talked about reality.
Our titular character is what we call an oddball in scrubs. She is caring and fiercely protective of her patients, but at the same time, she is nothing less than a self-destructive train-wreck with several complicated personal issues. She loses her family, friends and her reputation and she only makes half-hearted attempts to make things better. She hides her stash around the house and hospital, desperately collecting and crushing them and anxiously counting what’s left.
At some point, just when we feel that things are finally going right in her life, we see her popping an oxytocin pill and then the deception and lying starts anew.
Nurse Jackie is one of the most honest depictions of an average person’s battle with a relentless addiction.
#9. Patrick Melrose
Substance abuse or alcohol addiction often emerges from childhood trauma or abuse. Five-part miniseries, Patrick Melrose tells a similar story which though set in the previous century, is very much relatable.
Our main character is the perfect gentleman junkie with a smart mind, unbelievable wealth, sadism that makes once wince and repressed trauma. With the past being an important aspect of the show we see a young Patrick being raised by a mother who cannot protect him and a father who sexually abuses him. So deep is the trauma that Patrick greets the news of his father’s death with a droopy smile and glassy eyes that are a result of drugs and not grief.
Patrick Melrose never glamourizes addiction despite the glitz that surrounds our lead character. Rather it essentially captures what happens to children of abuse when they turn into adults. Our painfully self-aware, self-mocking hero makes several fail attempts to renounce his demons and each step makes us sympathize more with him.
If you loved Euphoria for the unabashed representation of facts, you have to watch Patrick Melrose.
#10. Riverdale
Teenagers dealing with stuff that is way too tough to handle is nothing new. But series like Euphoria and Riverdale redefine the way the issues are portrayed.
Nostalgia is the last word that will come to your mind in this dark adaptation of Archie Comics. The teens have a lot on their plate. The trauma of almost losing a parent, the struggles of fitting in a school on the wrong side of the tracks, coming to terms with perfect family façade and the murder of classmate are just the tip of the iceberg waiting to sink the teens.
Nothing is quite innocent in this seemingly idyllic town, where passing drugs and arms are more common than one likes to belief. Add to that a serial killer and an illicit party drug known as jingle-jangle, a white powder served in Pixy Stix-like straws that delivers an energetic, euphoric high to its users, Riverdale becomes home to distraught teenagers.
Add the series to your bucket list to know how the town deals with these new problems.
Conclusion:
None of these television series supports addiction. Rather they show that though addiction is bad, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the people who fall victim to the same are not worthy of kindness or generosity.
Leaning heavily on such serious topics, all these series never fail to entertain us. Perhaps the perfect balance of humour and sadness is what makes them so a favorite among viewers.
So what are you waiting for? Stream into these fabulously crafted series that makes you feel as if you are a part of the story.