The most bizarre TV moment of the year is undoubtedly HBO’s decision to screen, in its new teen drama series Euphoria, an animated sequence of Harry Styles performing oral sex backstage on his former One Direction bandmate Louis Tomlinson.
While it might not have delivered the online buzz of the show’s locker room sequence which featured, according to observant bloggers, footage of 30 penises, the One Direction gay sex scene has certainly lit up some sections of the internet, with most audiences reacting with entertained delight at the fantasy sequence, which was an animated rendering of fan fiction written by the character Kat (Barbie Ferreira).
The episode (entitled, appropriately, Made You Look) told the back story of Barbie Ferreira’s character Kat, who is famous online in the world of the show for writing a fan fiction epic, ‘Larry Stylinson,’ which imagines One Direction’s Louis Tomlinson and Harry Styles are lovers.
ADVERTISEMENT
Kat’s story was titled The First Night, and was set during the opening night of One Direction’s ‘Take Me Home’ tour in 2013.
The story was narrated by the character Rue, who spoke Harry and Louis’ lines in a faux British accent.
The animated sequence showed Louis waiting backstage before the concert was about to begin, when he’s greeted by Harry.
“Louis was unusually nervous, his mouth was dry, palms sweaty when he felt the press of Harry’s body from behind,” Rue narrates, “Harry can sense the nervous tension running through Louis’ stiff body.”
As Harry reaches into his pants, Louis says, “What are you doing?”
Harry replies, “To calm your nerves. You’re my best mate and this is what mates do for one another.”
“But Harry, what if someone sees?”
“Let them,” replies Harry.
Some die hard fans of the former band, which broke up in 2015, have expressed outrage at the co-opting of the former teen icons.
Now we can add to the list of those displeased by this not-so-subtle interrogation of teenage sexual desire one Louis Tomlinson, who tweeted last night that no, he had not given permission to the team behind Euphoria to include the scene.
Tomlinson responded to a query from a fan from his verified Twitter account:
In an interview with The Los Angeles Times, Euphoria producer Sam Levinson gave a insight into the creative process behind the sequence, saying, “Something that I thought was a fascinating or exciting idea was to take this burgeoning curiosity about sexuality that’s ultimately framed through the lens of fan fiction and allow it to come to life … It’s sort of what Kat’s dream would be if she could see an animation of one of her stories. That was the impetus behind it. It’s sort of allowing her wishes to come true.”
Levinson added: “The idea behind it was a mixture of slightly rough animation and the surrealistic beauty of something like ‘Belladonna of Sadness,’ where you have animated images exploding into other things and there’s an element of surrealism to it.”
We’re not sure how much comfort this justification will be to Tomlinson, but you can judge for yourself whether this is really a compelling moment of artistic authenticity or a, ahem, naked attempt to garner online attention.
