Unpopular opinion, but R-rated “teen dramas” like Euphoria should just be set in college.
The characters don’t look or act like teenagers. They’re played by adults, doing adult things—clubbing, drinking, hooking up, and having way too mature relationships for high school. Yeah, some teens experiment, but not like this. If you removed the scenes at school, everyone would assume these characters are 21-25.
Character ages should make sense narratively. Nickelodeon and Disney shows like iCarly or Victorious worked because they were actually about teens, played by teens, written for teens. Even Spider-Man makes sense as a teenage story—he’s a kid juggling real responsibility. But with Euphoria, it feels like they just made everyone “15” for shock value.
If your show’s rated TV-MA and aimed at adults, just make the characters adults. It’d be more believable and way less creepy.
I never said that they didn’t, but TV will glamorize it and make it look “cool” and “edgy” and romanticize it when it’s really not. There are teens who dated their high school teachers and got married, but just because this happens doesn’t mean we should romanticize this relationship on the screen.