TV & Film

I’m sure almost all of you have at least heard of, if not already watched, the HBO Max series “Euphoria” that was created, written, executive produced, and directed by Sam Levinson. Season 1 initially aired in June of 2019 and after a brutal two and a half year waiting period, the highly anticipated second season finally premiered on January 9th, 2022. Since then, viewers can’t escape “Euphoria” content on Twitter or especially on TikTok, even if they wanted to. Personally, my FYP is completely full of “Euphoria” themed videos. Hollywood has TikTok to thank for a lot of the success of recent releases.

Source: Dana Galo I Euphoria Cast

Between the building hype, anxious fans, impending drama, beloved characters, and the incredibly star-studded cast, the season 2 premiere of “Euphoria” was the “strongest digital premiere night performance for any episode of an HBO series since HBO Max launch and a series-record more than double the Season 1 premiere,” according to HBO. The show’s audience aligns with a significant portion of users on TikTok, which is likely the reason that the show has completely dominated the app. Apart from the content of the episodes, fans have been going crazy posting countless reactions, fan theories, brand new trends, and so much more, in addition to clips, highlights, and fan edits. “Euphoria” has truly taken on a life of its own because of its enormous community of fans connecting through each other's videos; the comments section alone on “Euphoria” related TikToks is endless. #Euphoria has over 11 billion views, while #EuphoriaSeason2 and #EuphoriaEdit have each amassed over 1 billion views. Some of these videos have tens of millions of views, and this does not include videos just using audio from the show without any of these hashtags attached to them.

These numbers were exactly what contributed to the second-season premiere being named as the “most social premium cable series episode,” beating the record set by the “Game of Thrones” finale in May of 2019, according to HBO. Social media has transformed the viewer experience of our favorite shows and movies. The extent to which these programs are accepted on social media controls how well they perform on the Nielsen TV Ratings.

Music and imagery play a big role in the show and the storyline, which means that there is plenty of material for TikTok use. The fashion and makeup are distinct and are frequently replicated by fans to capture the classic Euphoria aesthetic. The makeup pushed us into a new and experimental era featuring intense colors and plenty of rhinestones. The scoring of the show by Labrinth is not only popular on the charts, but also on TikTok. Labrinth’s song ‘Still Don’t Know my Name’ has been used millions of times on the app to accompany videos. All of these factors create the perfect perfect combination for a total social media takeover. It’s almost routine at this point: you post a creative video about “Euphoria” on TikTok and, boom, you get phenomenal engagement. When there is something as good as “Euphoria” blowing up, TikTok users completely eat it up, and it pays off. The Internet instantly took on the role of creating memes that have since gone viral. One of the biggest trends we’ve seen this year is the ‘Euphoria High’ audio on TikTok, which pokes fun at the wardrobe on the show being inappropriate and over the top for our own classrooms.

Source: Dana Galo I Euphoria Trend

In this trend, someone walks into the room wearing an outfit they would typically wear to school, like jeans and a sweatshirt, but is interrupted by the familiar voice of Squidward from 'Spongebob Squarepants' accusing, “and why aren't you in uniform?” This then leads into the subject of the video walking back out of frame and reappearing after remembering they are going to the same high school as the teens in ‘Euphoria,’ now wearing something more extreme and fashionable that you might expect in the club. This sound is filled with hundreds of thousands of TikTok users having fun with the trend and creating their own Euphoria-inspired outfits.

Another trend that's huge on TikTok is the concept of recasting popular TV shows and movies. Sticking with the theme of ‘Euphoria,’ videos have blown up on the app replacing the characters on the actual show with anything from a random assortment of former Disney stars to the Kardashian-Jenner family members. It's a crossover between iconic shows in an incredibly new and playful way.