- Rating: 3.5/5 Stars
- Verdict: “New Girl” and “Dying for Sex” creator Elizabeth Meriwether delivers a thoughtful, sensitive and often wryly funny take on the crime thriller with “Furious.” Emmy Rossum and Lola Petticrew are both excellent as, respectively, a rookie FBI agent and the vengeful yet sympathetic serial killer she’s pursuing.
- Premiere date/time: New episodes premiere Mondays starting July 27
- Where to watch: Stream on Hulu
If I hadn’t been so impressed with “Dying for Sex,” I might not have paid much attention to “Furious,” the new crime thriller series on Hulu from “Dying for Sex” co-creator Elizabeth Meriwether. What looks like yet another streaming series about a troubled detective solving a brutal crime becomes a much more nuanced, insightful and even funny show in Meriwether’s hands.
“Dying for Sex” effectively balanced incredibly heavy material about a woman dying of cancer with lighthearted explorations of sexuality and joyous celebrations of friendship, and while nothing in “Furious” could ever be described as lighthearted, it achieves a similar tonal and thematic balance.
Meriwether also created the sitcom “New Girl,” and it’s not impossible to envision a slightly toned-down version of rookie FBI agent Alice Black (Emmy Rossum) as an offbeat acquaintance of the characters on “New Girl.” Alice’s quirks are darker than anything that would show up on a sitcom, but they manifest in an acerbic wit and a low tolerance for people who underestimate her.
Despite spending a decade in the NYPD, she’s still treated as the new girl at the FBI, and stumbling across the case of a potential serial killer offers her the chance to prove she knows what she’s doing. The subsequent investigation is equal parts thrilling and harrowing, with plenty of suspense alongside a bleak glimpse into the way the rich and powerful casually abuse young women.
‘Furious’ puts a smart spin on a familiar genre
The basic set-up for “Furious” is nothing particularly novel. In her first assignment at the FBI, Alice is stuck at the bottom rung of the ladder, answering the phones for the FBI’s general public number, which mostly involves talking to paranoid weirdos. She catches a break when her former NYPD colleague Danny (Scoot McNairy) calls her to the scene of a high-profile murder, the son of billionaire Jay Easton (Peter McRobbie). Although it looks like an accidental overdose, Alice and Danny quickly determine that Easton’s son was deliberately drugged, and it’s not long before they connect his death to another killing.
So it’s the FBI tracking a serial killer, just like in dozens of other shows. “Furious” isn’t really a mystery, though, because it begins by showing Catherine Grace (Lola Petticrew) administering the lethal dose to her victim, and continues to follow her as she kills more people. There are some secrets to be revealed over the course of the eight-episode season, but for the most part “Furious” is about how its two central female characters go about their parallel missions, and the way their harsh experiences have affected their lives.
That’s where Meriwether’s unique creative perspective comes into play. Both Alice and Catherine are complex, multilayered characters, whose backgrounds intertwine in depressingly similar ways. They’ve taken opposite paths from that shared trauma, though, and one of the most rewarding themes of “Furious” is its exploration of how different people process mistreatment.
The characters make ‘Furious’ distinctive
Alice’s mentor in the FBI’s sex crimes division is Nora (Quincy Tyler Bernstine), a hardened veteran who points out that victims of abuse often become the most vicious abusers. “We become evil to fight evil,” she tells Alice in a later episode, and both of them have to figure out a way to hold onto their humanity as they directly confront horrifically inhumane acts.
That’s difficult for Alice, who was beaten by her longtime cop boyfriend (Jake Lacy) and starts to sympathize with Catherine’s apparent mission to get revenge on her own abusers. Although Catherine is ruthless and often sadistic in her methods, she’s not picking random targets: Everyone she’s going after was a participant in the trafficking and exploitation of underage girls for sex.
Catherine isn’t just an evil serial killer; she’s the kind of person the audience might root for in another context. Her victims aren’t particularly sympathetic, and Petticrew makes her appealingly snarky and vindictive. Alice is equally engaging, although she’s more sullen and withdrawn, preferring to keep her emotions bottled up. Rossum’s performance is raw and affecting, even when she has to deal with some unfortunate plot contrivances in the later episodes.
McNairy is endearing and grounded as the eternally patient Danny, whose unwavering support for Alice contrasts with the way that Nora challenges her. Bernstine brings biting wit to her portrayal of an agent who’s grown bitter and cynical after all the terrible things she’s seen, but finds renewed purpose thanks to Alice’s tenacity in joining her unit and pursuing the case.
Verdict: ‘Furious’ is a superior crime thriller
Although there may be one too many convenient developments as the story goes on, overall “Furious” is a gripping, thoughtful story about murder, corruption, and the ability of the rich and connected to get away with nearly anything. It’s sometimes hard to watch, especially as Alice and her colleagues face the uncomfortable truths about the way the world works, but that darkness is always tempered by a sense of humor and genuine warmth among the main characters.
The season ends with a tease for Alice and Nora to work on future cases, but it’s hard to imagine Meriwether coming up with an angle as compelling as the back-and-forth between Alice and Catherine. Like “Dying for Sex,” “Furious” tells a devastating but satisfying story, and it leaves the audience with the right balance of hope and, well, fury.
“Furious” premieres July 27 on Hulu
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