HBO has always been a place where people could go if they were looking for more adult-oriented entertainment. Sex, nudity, cursing, shocking violence...none of these things have been absent from the network, especially when it comes to shows made for the cabler. But, the latest offering from HBO, teen drama Euphoria, sounds like it will do even more boundary breaking when it comes to what we're used to seeing on television. Namely, penises. Lots and lots of penises. At least one of which is very excited to be here.
The debut of Euphoria is coming up quickly, on June 16, and plenty of viewers will likely be a bit surprised by what they see just in the pilot. During a scene where Cal (Eric Dane) commits statutory rape with Jules (Hunter Schafer), those who tune in will be treated to a shot of an erect penis. And, while the penis is actually a prosthetic, there are several other graphic scenes in the first episode and throughout the eight episode series, including one episode that features a whopping 30 male members.
Sam Levinson, who created Euphoria and wrote all eight episodes by basing them on his own previous struggles with addiction, spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about his show's graphic content, noting:
There are going to be parents who are going to be totally fucking freaked out.
Well, at least those behind the show are prepared for it. If this were, say, another Game of Thrones type of show, it would be pretty easy to dismiss the content as being for adults only, but part of the issue that has already been raised by Euphoria is that the series deals with adolescents and how difficult it is to grow up in today's world. Meaning that, logically, lots of teens (and possibly younger kids) will want to check out the show, while their parents will likely be turned off by the graphic depictions of sex, drug use, violence and other things they probably wish their kids could stay away from for the rest of their lives.
Levinson has admitted that, though HBO is known for pushing boundaries when it comes to adult themes in its content, even some at the network were taken aback by some of the scenes he'd come up with for Euphoria. They put the kibosh on the original opening of the pilot, which features Rue (Zendaya) narrating her own birth and would have been a tracking shot that, you guessed it, eventually found its way to her mother's vagina. So, no more internal vaginal action will be in that shot.
The other scene that Levinson agreed to change after network executives took a gander at it was one that he considered a tribute to the locker room scene in Carrie, but this one featured, again, you guessed it, dozens of boys and their young penises on full display.
According to Levinson, the scene, which appears in the second episode, would have shown off "like, 80 more" penises, and while there's no word on whether or not any of these were prosthetics like the aforementioned illegally erect penis from the pilot, one can only assume that the final scene will still have way more penises in one scene than most of us are used to seeing in a non-porn situation.
You can decide for yourself if Euphoria makes all its adult content work when it debuts on HBO, Sunday, June 16 at 10 p.m. EST.
