Euphoria

HBO

HBO loves having its Sunday night shows produce audience chatter for the ensuing week, and no show has done this more effectively in probably the last few years than Euphoria, returning for season 3 after a four-year break.

This has been pitched as the final season of Euphoria, and while that may not be 100% etched in stone just yet, at least for now, that’s the plan. And what we know about the series finale that will air in three weeks is that it’s about to set an HBO record that matches only a single other series, subjectively the channel’s best: The Wire.

No, we’re certainly not talking about critic or audience scores, but it’s been revealed that Euphoria will have an enormous 1-hour, 33-minute series finale, matching the series finale of The Wire, which was the exact same length, down to the minute. That certainly seems like an overall farewell to the series, and many are not expecting all the characters to survive. Death watch is pretty high for Zendaya’s Rue and Jacob Elordi’s Nate in particular (how many body parts can one man lose?).

In the scope of HBO history, a number of finales have gotten close to this high, including:

• Euphoria – 93 minutes (series finale)
• The Wire – 93 minutes (series finale)
• Succession – 90 minutes (series finale)
• Westword – 90 minutes (season 1 and 2 finales)
• True Detective: Night Country – 87 minutes (season 1 finale)
• Game of Thrones – 81 minutes (The Long Knight, season 8 episode 3)
• The Last of Us – 81 minutes (series premiere)

As for Euphoria, the longest episodes of the series are just over 60 minutes, with most around 55-60. So this will be close to two episodes joined together, and again, a record that ties with The Wire.

That length of a series finale to me indicates that yes, this really is meant to be the end of Euphoria as a series, with a lot of closed doors for many plotlines. However, I do think it’s obvious that HBO has taken notice of the fact that the show returned after four years with a 44% increase in viewership. And who are they to permanently kill a hit? I’m just saying, we already have two Game of Thrones spinoffs with more to come. Never say never, no matter what strange form something else in Euphoria-land might take.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.