Why has marriage become a nightmare?

Editorial – From The Drama Season 3 to Euphoria mini-series A Very Bad Feeling, pop culture takes a dark look at what used to be the most beautiful day of our lives.

We knew that love stories usually end badly. Now, not even the beginnings are spared: it’s from the wedding, and even before, that everything goes wrong. The Drama, directed by Kristoffer Borgli and starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, portrays a perfect, young, cool, and very much in love couple who spiral into anxiety when the young woman reveals the worst thing she has ever done in her life during a tasting test before her wedding meal. On Netflix, the aptly named mini-series A Very Bad Feeling features a fiancée (Camila Morrone, with her mouth slightly open and wide-eyed) who, a few days before saying “I do,” meets her partner’s family in a Shining-worthy chalet where each member seems to hide a dark secret, clearly enjoying her terror. A Very Bad Feeling is also what we feel when we watch the trailers for Season 3 of Euphoria, where we can tell that Nate (Jacob Elordi) and Cassie’s (Sidney Sweeney) grand wedding will be as flashy as it is doomed.

This fascination with marriage disasters is not insignificant: it reflects the ambivalence of an entire generation towards the institution. Why does marriage embody the worst nightmares on screen, inspiring the darkest thrillers? This question is not trivial for a generation reflected by the age of their actors (except Robert Pattinson): this Gen-Z evidently hesitates to tie the knot, as confirmed by a study from INSEE published in January 2026 in France. For example, in 2025, the average age of women at marriage is 37.5 years in heterosexual couples, and 39.0 years in same-sex marriages.

In 1975, this age was 25.1 years for women. Back then, entering common life perhaps came with a few little secrets, but with brand new porcelain services and the hope (naïveté?) that, with a bit of luck, everything would be fine. Today, we must contend with the neuroses of being loved, and emotional baggage: who knows if past issues will not turn into ticking time bombs ready to explode?

More than a fear of losing freedom, it is an anxiety linked to our highly monitored existences that darkens the idea of marriage itself. How can we make such a leap into the unknown when we are used to knowing, controlling, and anticipating everything through our applications, social networks, and artificial intelligences? This is what The Drama conveys: besides the fact that the film may point to a man’s shock in discovering all the darkness and violence a woman can hold, it mainly underscores our conscious or unconscious obsession with mastering every aspect of our lives, as firmly as choosing the grand cru we will taste at our wedding, or the song that will open the first dance.

How can we ensure that we truly know the person we are about to spend our life with? Can we (or should we) really? We knew it, love is no longer a safe haven, and perhaps that’s what these works express. But has it ever been, whether married or not? Maybe we need to embrace letting go, the unexpected, and surprises, and let go of the illusion of perfection in love, as in other aspects. For better, but also for worse.