Everyone thinks that 'Euphoria' is an original series, but in reality, it is just a remake

It seemed like it would never arrive, but the third season of Euphoria has finally premiered, with Zendaya more at the peak of her game than ever and rumors of tension between her and Sydney Sweeney (apparently due to jealousy over Tom Holland). As always, the new episodes of the series have presented chaos, love, sex, madness, broken characters, and drugs, a cocktail that has been working perfectly since its premiere back in 2019. Well, or that’s what HBO has made us believe, completely hiding a reality that screams: Euphoria was not created by Sam Levinson nor is it a completely original idea: in fact, it is a remake.

Euphoria Dysphoria

Seven years before the premiere of Euphoria on HBO, the Israeli channel Hot 3 premiered, well… Euphoria, a series created by Ron Leshem, Dafna Levin, and Timira Yardeni that aired from November 30, 2012, to February 1, 2013 causing all kinds of controversies along the way. If you have seen the American series, you already know that its protagonists navigate a path of loss, drug addiction, and sex, and the Israeli Programming Council did not like it at all. In fact, they disliked it so much that they ordered it to be removed due to public scandal.

In all honesty, they ended up doing it, but through the back door: after just one season and some not-so-good reviews, it was canceled without hesitation. After all, it didn’t have great success, partly because it aired in a very difficult time slot to build a community. In any case, its 10 episodes became a full cult, thanks to dialogues like this: “When you were seven, people jumped from the Twin Towers live. And it was repulsive, and exciting, and logical. Parents have drowned their children. Children have stabbed their parents. So at seven, you get hooked on the news. And then you feed on that. What could shock you when you’re eight?”. Imagine, for the time and in a society as enclosed as Israeli society, what that could have meant.

Using the British Skins as a basis (a fantastic series in every way, at least in its first two seasons), Euphoria aimed to show a reality that the media refused to portray in Israel. Shortly after its cancellation, Sam Levinson had a meeting with HBO to adapt it for the American market. However, he wanted to understand exactly what was appealing to the network, so they were very honest with him: the raw and honest portrayal of drugs and being young. “I started talking about my personal story with drugs. I was an addict for many years and now I’m clean. Then they said ‘Okay, write that'”, Levinson recounted.

Levinson did not copy Euphoria exactly, but he did create several parallels between the stories of the Israeli version and the new ones he specifically created for the United States. What’s the result? You know it all too well: three successful seasons on HBO, while the original can’t even be seen on a streaming platform, condemned to oblivion. That said, its creators can be happy, because they have made a fortune: in addition to Rue, Euphoria had its German version in 2025, although it wasn’t exactly a hit: in fact, it was seen as a plagiarism of the American one… Just without Zendaya in the mix. And whether you like it or not, it loses something.

So now you know: the next time you watch Euphoria, remember that, somewhere, its original version, forgotten by everyone, seems to remind us that this is and has always been a tale of the rich and the poor, of lucky people and those who are not. Of the United States and the rest.