This week on our streaming radar, we have one of the biggest returns for a television series, at least according to social media. We also have Netflix continuing on an anthology rooted in two parties and a rivalry that goes overboard, and another Apple TV dramedy that continues to show why they are producing some of the most interesting content in the streaming world, with some major stars.
Euphoria Season 3 – HBO Max
Euphoria is a show created by Sam Levinson, which follows a group of teenagers originally going through high school. It is the quintessential sex, drugs, and social media story.
Albeit not my particular taste, the show has amassed an incredible fan base, elevating the already high profile of Zendaya and then making superstars like Jacob Elordi and Sydney Sweeney.
Season 3 picks up four years after the fact, where you see Jacob and Sydney’s characters are now living together. Sydney, who plays Cassie, is the preeminent bored housewife who decides to become an OnlyFans creator, and Zendaya finds herself entangled in quite the web that has been woven, being a drug mule, including ingesting balloons of fentanyl and smuggling them from Mexico back into the United States, which prompts her to find Jesus, and all of that happens in episode one.
I will say, it is a stream worthy show because it is in the public consciousness. However, I wanted to wait until I saw the first episode before passing any judgment or recommendation on it.
I can assuredly say this is not the show for me.
I found no great substance in the first episode that made me want to continue watching. And after a long hiatus, it seemed as though the want and desire to produce something great was there, but the ideas were not. So all the hype around Season 3 might have been very loud going into the first episode, but after the premiere, the loudness resembles a cotton ball gingerly touching a piece of felt.
Euphoria Season 3 is now streaming on HBO Max.
Margo’s Got Money Troubles – Apple TV
Now we move on to Margo’s Got Money Troubles.
Margo’s Got Money Troubles is an adaptation of a book that was published in 2024, written by Rufi Thorpe, in which a young woman who is the offspring of a former Hooters waitress and an ex-professional wrestler, and I am already all the way in, finds herself in a romance with a college professor, only to become impregnated and she chooses to go it on her own.
With the new baby being born, she faces, as the title states, some money troubles. And with a new baby, the aspiring writer drops out of college and, as she makes some less than wise decisions, is trying to navigate the most treacherous road, cobbling her pathway to success.
The cast is an embarrassment of riches, including Elle Fanning starring as Margo, along with Michelle Pfeiffer, Nick Offerman, Nicole Kidman, Marcia Gay Harden, Greg Kinnear, Michael Angarano, and AEW superstar Chris Jericho.
The series is created by David E. Kelley, who has brought you shows like Doogie Howser, The Practice, Boston Legal, Ally McBeal, Goliath, and Big Little Lies. And this show is just another chapter in an onslaught of excellence.
I cannot speak highly enough about Margo’s Got Money Troubles, which is streaming on Apple TV.
Beef Season 2 – Netflix
And finally, back in 2023, the Beef series led by Ali Wong was a show in which two strangers involved in a road rage incident found themselves in a protracted and prolonged feud of absolute insanity. It was met with great acclaim, and for good reason, because Steven Yeun and Ali Wong were phenomenal in it. And now, it is an anthology series.
This time we see Cailee Spaeny and Charles Melton set up against their boss, played by Oscar Isaac, and his wife, played by Carey Mulligan.
A singular encounter triggers a series of events that ripple far beyond the country club in which they work. According to Netflix’s Tudum, it is essentially an older generation versus a younger one, Gen Z versus millennials. And one thing we know, there has always been generational warfare.
So there is going to be something that everybody can relate to in Beef Season 2, which begins streaming on Netflix April 16.
