Content Warning: Furious depicts sexual assault, domestic violence, and graphic violence.
The New Girl and The Dropout creator has a new series on Hulu that sees a serial killer targeting powerful men, and it’s one of the best things on television right now!
Furious on Hulu is a show that tackles complex subject matter, depicted in a way that feels real and messy, mirroring much of the reality of those topics. The series explores trauma from various perspectives, while still keeping the narrative framework within a conventional serial killer thriller.
Furious Season 1 Review: What Hulu’s Thriller Is Actually About
Furious season 1 is an absolute powerhouse of story, execution and handling of often seen subject matters in wildly different ways. The credit belongs to the writer and creator of the series, Elizabeth Meriwether, known for The Dropout, and also New Girl, which is pretty surprising, given the wildly different tones between the shows. While Furious season 1 feels original from anything we’ve seen before, the show is based on the 1987 film written by Ronald Bass, starring Debra Winger and Theresa Russell.
Furious stars Emmy Rossum as Alice Black, a rookie FBI agent who stumbles into a situation that is a lot more than she was prepared for. After a long tenure in the NYPD as an investigator, her career stalls due to personal issues, necessitating a transfer to the FBI where she just answers the phone. Quite a fall from her previous veteran career. But when investigating a new homicide, it leads her down a path to a female serial killer. And as she uncovers the truth, she has to face truths about her own past that she refuses to acknowledge.
How Furious Breaks the Serial Killer Formula
The series is brilliant because it breaks down conventional storytelling elements, straight from the jump. Audiences get to see the killer, before the case, upending the mystery element of a serial killer story. This also creates a dual narrative with Rossum’s Alice as she investigates the murder, as well as the killer’s own journey. The hook here is as much in how their journeys unfold, as the why.
The reveals are not earth-shattering, because the story isn’t crafted around a mystery or a last-minute twist. Those come sparingly and are shocking, but the story isn’t reliant on them. Instead, Furious focuses on the characters, their past, their trauma and how each of their experiences motivates their actions. Not just a typical protagonist/antagonist dynamic, but also everyone in between. It’s fresh storytelling still wrapped in a conventional serial killer format.
Emmy Rossum and Lola Petticrew Anchor the Furious Season 1 Cast
I admittedly was not too familiar with Emmy Rossum’s work prior to Furious season 1, but I’m blown away! Rossum plays Alice as an incredibly flawed, messy and fascinating character whose sense of right and wrong is just as chaotic as she is. She portrays Alice with a strength and vulnerability that goes back and forth given the situations she finds herself in, and it’s more alluring than anything else happening on screen.
While Rossum leads the show with a controlled intensity, on the other side is Lola Petticrew playing the killer, in a performance that is nuanced while still being unhinged. Opening the series sweetly interacting with kids on the porch during Halloween, while holding a victim drugged just up the stairs insiders tells audiences everything they need to know about this killer; she’s cold and calculating, something Petticrew plays to perfection. Petticrew’s performance is almost an isolated one, but one that works to keep the mystery and interest in the story alive through the darker elements of the story.
Quincy Tyler Bernstine and the Show’s Corrupt-System Themes
Furious season 1 is an entirely performance driven show. While there’s definitely many riveting moments of action, the real drama comes from the actors playing characters that feel beyond redemption, even when it comes to the good guys. Another amazing performance is Quincy Tyler Bernstine’s Nora, the FBI agent so is the head of the Sex Crimes unit that Alice actually wants to transfer to. When this new homicide leads to the two working together, she takes Alice under her wing during the investigation.
Nora has issues of her own and falls victim to her own ego and vices. She’s the classic case of being burnt out in her her job in the Sex Crimes unit, focusing on crimes against children. Much of the show’s initial engagement is seeing Nora and Alice play off each other, call each other out and support each other in weird and almost antagonistic ways. You see how Nora mentors Alice in a very unhealthy manner; more recruits her and using her, teaching lessons in manipulation and how the ends justify the means. Almost corrupting Alice’s own ideas of justice and morality. A lesson Black takes to heart, with amazing results in the back end of the series. Even Nora’s backstory plays into the events, and that’s really what showcases the larger, corrupt-system themes of the story.
Jake Lacy’s Villain Streak Continues In Furious Season 1
Among this bevy of flawed and grey characters is Scoot McNairy’s Danny, Alice’s long time friend and former NYPD partner. Danny is seemingly the only character in the story who can be considered, ethically good. But even that has some flexibility given his soft spot for Alice. When things hit close to home, Danny has no qualms about bending the rules to protect her.
Another actor who is impressive to me, despite being a horrible character, is Jake Lacy’s Marshall, Alice’s abusive ex who also happens to be a cop himself. Lacy is fascinating to me because he has almost willingly established a career of playing absolutely despicable characters, either with or without nuance. From White Lotus to All Her Fault, the actor, who could easily make a play for leading man-type roles, seems to revel in playing these toxic male characters. And audiences will love to hate him in Furious season 1 as well.
Elizabeth Meriwether’s Storytelling Is the Real Star
Among these unbelievable on-camera performances, the stand out is what’s happening behind the scenes. Meriwether’s storytelling is aggressive, unconventional and is what makes Furious feel like an absolute tornado that ravages our emotions and expectations from stories with this subject matter. How she handles trauma and abuse, and how a character’s experience so wildly affects their actions, which upends everything we’ve seen depicted in such shows before.
Furious Season 1 Review: Final Verdict
The Hulu original series will invoke a flurry of emotions and take audiences on a wild ride that may even force them to confront their own understandings about what victims of abuse go through. But the series deals with it all in subtext, with no speeches or heavy-handed preaching. It’s just story and performance that make everything come alive. The 8-episode series has already been renewed for a season 2, with critical acclaim all around, making it one of the best shows of the year!
Furious season 1 is now streaming on Hulu.
What did you think of Furious season 1? Did the killer’s story land for you, or did the show’s back half go somewhere you weren’t willing to follow? Drop your read in the comments, especially if you disagree, because I want to argue about the finale with someone.
For more reviews, hot takes, and TV recommendations that will ruin your sleep schedule, follow me @theshahshahid across all social media. And if this review helped you decide, share it with the friend who still hasn’t started it.
