One Director Turned Euphoria and Share Into Must-See TV

HBO's Euphoria has been grabbing headlines since its debut for its graphic and often harrowing depiction of  modern teen sexuality, but with last week's episode (titled "The Next Episode") the series showed the human side of its many characters and delivered its best episode yet. In many ways, it felt like a primer for the new HBO original film Share, which charts the aftermath of one young woman's abuse at the hands of her classmates during a party. If you are watching Euphoria, you can't not watch Share. But the symbiosis between both Euphoria and Share isn't merely thoughtful scheduling on HBO's part. Combined, they are a one-two punch from emerging director Pippa Bianco.

Share opens with basketball star Mandy (Rhianne Barreto) waking on her lawn, unable to remember the previous night's partying. The hell of her next days comes in the viral taunting of her classmates sending her videos of her unconscious body as she was mockingly dehumanized and sexually assaulted. Bianco's distinct voice makes it easy to imagine that it could have happened at "The Next Episode"'s Halloween party or any of Euphoria's other out-of-control nights.

It's striking how much Share feels like it belongs in the world of Euphoria, and not just for the very similar conversations that both are having about teenage life. While Euphoria's teens act out, Mandy's soft-spoken athlete is the student at the back of the class; she's at all of the same parties but stays out of the drama. Bianco understands these characters not only individually, but also how they interact with one another in their larger social ecosystems.

Whether by coincidence or design, Bianco's week on HBO plays like the arrival of a major voice with an eye on the teenage experience. With Euphoria, she gives the show its most confident stride at a time when many shows hit a late-season lull; with Share she delivers something singular. That the two can be in dialogue with one another makes Bianco's arrival all the more pronounced.

Both offer very different stylistic takes on adjacent material -- Share vibrates with tension and the aftereffects of trauma, as if coming down from Euphoria's high. As a visual stylist, Bianco is as controlled with Euphoria's expressiveness as Share's unnerving stasis.

Bianco's Euphoria episode is more patient in its observations than is typical for the show, turning what could be a chaotic daze of a party into the show's smoothest encapsulation of all of its moving parts. Conversely, Share could just be about Mandy's trauma but Bianco expands it outward, folding in considerations on parenting, the effects of isolation, and the failings of  the legal system. Bianco's voice finds the micro in the macro, the global in the personal, and vice versa.

One assumes this is only the beginning for Bianco. She won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for Share when it debuted at this year's Sundance Film Festival (with Barreto also taking the acting prize). Both Euphoria and Share were produced by indie label A24 (who also produced HBO's Native Son, which premiered back in April), suggesting there is a quiet collaboration between both companies that can help foster voices such as Bianco's; voices that the cinematic experience is leaving behind. And this week could - and should - catapult Bianco as HBO's new go-to auteur.

Share debuts this Saturday July 27th at 10:00 PM ET on HBO. People are talking about Euphoria in our forums. Join the conversation.

Chris Feil is a freelancer writer and co-host of the This Had Oscar Buzz podcast. His previous work can be found at Vulture, Vice, Paste, and The Film Experience. Follow him @chrisvfeil on Twitter.