It took years for Euphoriato finally make its way back to screens, and by the time Season 3 arrived, the show was carrying a pretty wild amount of baggage. There had already been delays, cast changes, off-screen controversy, and the simple fact that the series had been gone long enough for its stars to become even bigger names than they already were. That kind of gap can build excitement, but it can also make the landing a lot rougher if the new season doesn’t instantly click. Right now, that seems to be exactly what’s happened.
Euphoria Season 3 is officially the worst-rated season of the HBO drama on Rotten Tomatoes. The new season is currently sitting at 42% from critics, which puts it far below Season 1’s 80% and Season 2’s 78%. However you slice it, that’s a pretty brutal drop, and it means the long-awaited return hasn’t come close to matching the response the show got in its first two runs.
That’s especially striking because Euphoria used to feel almost critic-proof. When the series first launched in 2019, it quickly became one of HBO’s biggest conversation starters, with its dreamy visual style, messy emotional chaos, and breakout performances helping it stand out even when the reactions to its content were split. Season 2 didn’t land quite as strongly as the first, but it still stayed comfortably fresh. Season 3, though, has taken a much sharper hit, and a lot of that seems tied to how different the new version of the show feels.
The cast this time includes Zendaya as Rue Bennett, Sydney Sweeney as Cassie Howard, Hunter Schafer as Jules Vaughn, Jacob Elordi as Nate Jacobs, Alexa Demie as Maddy Perez, Maude Apatow as Lexi Howard, Colman Domingo as Ali, Dominic Fike as Elliot, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Toby Wallace, Rosalía, Natasha Lyonne, and Marshawn Lynch.
Collider Exclusive · Taylor Sheridan Universe Quiz Which Taylor Sheridan Show Do You Belong In? Yellowstone · Landman · Tulsa King · Mayor of Kingstown
Four worlds. All of them brutal, complicated, and built on power, loyalty, and the price of survival. Taylor Sheridan doesn’t write heroes — he writes people who do what they have to do and live with the cost. Ten questions will reveal which one of his worlds you were made for.
🤠Yellowstone
🛢️Landman
👑Tulsa King
⚖️Mayor of Kingstown
01
Where does your power come from? In Sheridan’s world, everyone has leverage. The question is what kind.
02
Who do you put first, no matter what? Loyalty in Sheridan’s universe is always absolute — and always costly.
03
Someone crosses a line. How do you respond? Every Sheridan protagonist has a line. What matters is what happens after it’s crossed.
04
Where do you feel most in your element? Sheridan’s worlds are as much about place as they are about people.
05
How do you feel about operating in the grey? Nobody in a Sheridan show has clean hands. The question is how they carry the dirt.
06
What are you actually fighting to hold onto? Every Sheridan character is fighting a war. The real question is what they’re defending.
07
How do you lead? Authority in Sheridan’s world is never given — it’s established, maintained, and constantly tested.
08
Someone new arrives and tries to change how things work. Your reaction? Every Sheridan show has an outsider disrupting an established order. Sometimes that outsider is you.
09
What has your position cost you? Nobody gets to where these characters are without paying for it. The bill is always personal.
10
When it’s over, what do you want people to say? Sheridan’s characters all know the ending is coming. The question is what they leave behind.
Sheridan Has Spoken You Belong In…
The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you’re complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes.
🤠 Yellowstone
🛢️ Landman
👑 Tulsa King
⚖️ Mayor of Kingstown
You are a Dutton — or you might as well be. You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world’s indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you’re willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family’s weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what’s yours, you don’t escalate — you finish it. You’re not cruel. But you are absolute. In Yellowstone’s world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn’t make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it.
You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything. You’re a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they’ll do to get it. You’re not naive enough to think this world is fair. You’re smart enough to be the one deciding who it’s fair to.
You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you’re not above reminding people that the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they’d be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they’re more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don’t need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land.
You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you’re the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky’s world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target. You’ve made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless.
Is ‘Euphoria’ Worth Watching?
Collider’s review stated that Euphoria Season 3 still has all the things people usually praise about the show, but much less of a reason to exist. After a long break, the series returns with a five-year time jump and a new stage of life for its characters, but the review argues that the show has not really evolved. It still leans on the same mix of gorgeous visuals, strong acting, and relentless ugliness, only now with less to actually say.
“The fact that these characters were in high school for the first two seasons made all of Euphoria‘s risque moments that much more shocking and uncomfortable, but in a way, it also sort of felt like the whole point.The show’s five-year time jump inherently strips it of its central thesis of “look at all the adult things kids have to deal with nowadays,” making it difficult to pinpoint why Season 3 exists at all. Is it beautifully shot? Yes. Does it feature excellent performances? Many. Does it have anything interesting to say? It doesn’t, really — in fact, it amounts to a whole lot of well-crafted, weakly-written nothing.”
