Everything You Need to Know About the Original Israeli ‘Euphoria’ Show and Its Creators

After more than four years, one of HBO Max’s biggest hits “Euphoria” is back on the platform with season three.

In this season, we spend time with the show’s teen protagonists Zendaya’s Rue, Jacob Elordi’s Nate, Sydney Sweeney’s Cassie and the rest of the talented young cast. The characters are still struggling to find a way through addiction and greed, and attempting to figure out their futures.

This new season of the show that never plays it safe is already making plenty of waves.

One controversy in particular involves Zendaya’s Rue, the show’s main protagonist, wearing a shirt with the word “Jerusalem” and a camel in the season’s second episode, which shows her going through a spiritual journey of sorts. It’s a perfect prop for anyone on a quest for meaning and religion, but some have called it Zionist propaganda — and a few linked it to the fact that the show was originally an adaptation of an Israeli show.

“Euphoria” was indeed co-created by Israeli TV makers Ron Leshem and Daphna Levin. In an excellent piece for Ynet, Leshem opened up about how the show came to be. Here’s everything you need to know about the original show.

What is the story behind the original Israeli “Euphoria”?

In 2012, “Euphoria” aired in Israel on Hot. The show was created by Ron Leshem and Daphna Levin. It told the story of a jaded group of teens trying to dull their pain and ennui with sex and drugs. The fantastically rendered characters were all based on real stories. In many ways, “Euphoria” was ahead of its time; its magical realism tapped into a dark, unhinged and hopeless teen reality that other shows about teens do not match.

The series faced backlash. Its incredibly explicit content had to be kept away from young people, airing and available on VOD only after 10 p.m. and always clearly demarcated for viewers who were 18 and over. Leshem said the show’s creators were chastised by a Likud representative who said they should’ve painted Israel’s youth in a positive light.

The show touched on both universal trials of being a teen and those specific to growing up in Israel. The show’s only season follows the happenings in the aftermath of a murder: a young teen is killed by the boyfriend of a girl he supposedly hit on at a party. It is based on a real 2004 murder. Some of the characters include a gay teen who left his home and is being pressured to do conversion therapy, a young man who was drafted to the IDF but deserted, a shy but gifted teen who dreams of being an IDF pilot and makes hallucinogens, a kippah-wearing boy who becomes a murderer and an Arab teen who dreams of becoming a veterinarian. There is a lot in this show about porn addiction, body image, drugs and people using sex as escapism.

How did the HBO Max “Euphoria” adaptation come to be?

According to Leshem’s recent Ynet piece, the show is a culmination of many years of “no,” as Leshem and producer Hadas Mozes Lichtenstein tried to shop it to different studios across the U.S.

Apparently, the former HBO CEO said the show would never get made in the U.S., but when Casey Bloys ascended to his current position as the head of the network, he remembered the show from previous meetings and greenlit a pilot. He put Sam Levinson — a gifted director all on his own, and the son of famed Jewish filmmaker Barry Levinson — at the helm.

In his recent piece, Leshem recalls that all the young stars of the show were skeptical of what would come to be, knowing HBO produces so many pilots and shows that never make it anywhere. Many of them were relatively unknown before the show’s success, and Leshem recounts how delighted they were when they realized that “Euphoria” was the channel’s second most successful show after “Game of Thrones.”

How involved are the show’s original creators in the HBO Max show?

Leshem and Levin are credited in each episode as the creators of the original “Euphoria.” And while Levinson is known to take on the writing of the episodes mostly himself, it does seem like Leshem and Levin are a presence on set.

How Jewish is the American “Euphoria”?

So far not Jewish at all, aside from a few stars (the late Eric Dane, Maude Apatow, to name a few) and Levinson being Jewish themselves.

But according to Leshem, this season was in some ways inspired by a quote from Levinson’s rabbi: “There is no great light, but that which comes out of great darkness.”

The quote means a lot to Levinson, especially after the show and the people creating it experienced many tragedies. Star Angus Cloud died of a drug overdose in 2023. Jewish star Eric Dane, whose storyline was particularly moving to Leshem, who is gay and partnered with two children, died of complications related to ALS. And one of the show’s main producers, Kevin Turen, died from a heart condition.

Levinson told Leshem and the cast and crew that he wanted to make a third season about “faith and salvation.”

What else can I watch by “Euphoria”‘s Israeli creators?

They’ve worked on too many excellent shows to name, but “Bad Boy,” which is streaming on Netflix and “Valley of Tears” are good places to start.