Hello everyone
On first look, Furious, a new series on Hulu (Disney), is a cat-and-mouse FBI/killer story. But don’t let this seeming cliché turn you away: Furious is a dark, morally complex thriller that trusts its viewers with difficult questions about vengeance and complicity.
And it’s very good. At the time of writing, it has a 99 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Let me tell you why I think the show is (rightly) rated so highly and why you should seek it out.
There will be no spoilers here (beyond what you can find in the trailer/first episode). But Furious has upsetting themes (most notably, child sexual abuse) so it won’t be for everyone.
With that caveat, if you like a good story well told, then read on.
What is Furious about?
The trailer should give you a good idea of the flavor of the piece, but it doesn’t show what makes this series worthy of a 99 percent Rotten Tomatoes rating.
At the heart of the Furious, FBI agent Alice Black (played by Emmy Rossum) is chasing Catherine Grace, a killer, (played by Lola Petticrew).
not simply killing, but seeking revenge
But it’s more complicated than that: Catherine isn’t simply a bad person who kills other people and Alice isn’t simply a by-the-book FBI agent bound to follow the rules. Catherine was trafficked and abused as a child and is now seeking out the men who hurt her, torturing and then killing them, while Alice has her own difficult, and violent, back story.
What makes Furious different?
In the best cat-and-mouse stories there must be some level of dissonance. As a viewer we must be able to root for both the cat and the mouse.
Or, at the minimum, if we root more for one character, then we must be able to respect the actions of the other character. If we can’t root for both parties (at some level, at least), then it’s just a detective story (or a criminal getting away from a detective story).
Many cop-chasing-criminal cat-and-mouse stories have a sympathetic criminal—often committing crime for a good reason and without seriously hurting their victims.
we want the killer to succeed
But it’s not easy to root for someone who is an out-and-out killer—especially one as hard to like as Catherine is in Furious. But when you look past the violence, we can recognize the terrible circumstances she was forced into. This leaves us with an uncomfortable mix of repulsion and genuine empathy; we want her to succeed even while we’re sickened by her actions.
How the story is told
A lot of TV today assumes we’re half-watching—scrolling on our phones, going to the door for deliveries, watching just enough to get the gist and then zoning out. As a result, many shows spoon-feed the information, especially the key plot points, and then keep reminding the audience of the central thrust of the story.
This is not the case with Furious.
Here, with the exception of a brief recap at the start of each episode, there are no callbacks or clunky pieces of exposition trying to remind the audience what the story is, and who the main characters are.
Where Catherine has a single focus, this is balanced by a large number of police and FBI agents, all with different agendas. We see the effect of past actions on several of the characters (Catherine and the police/FBI), and get to understand how they cope with past events, particularly as their perspective on those past events changes.
In telling the story, there are no flashbacks—everything is in the present. In particular, there are no flashback scenes showing the abuse. Once or twice, we see a character watching video footage of past events and reacting, but we never see what the character is seeing. And the clichéd tropes (most notably, good-looking women—dead—and in a state of undress) are absent.
trust the viewer
More than that, as the story is told, it is not clear how one is meant to feel. The story is presented, with nuance and ambiguity, and it’s up to the audience to interpret what they’ve seen and decide how they feel about the characters’ motivations.
Questions
Furious succeeds by raising complex moral questions and wrapping these issues in a coherent story that makes those questions feel relevant and compelling.
it’s not the questions—it’s how they make you think
The series is set in a world defined by systemic failure and law enforcement complicity. In this context, the story takes the question of violence and asks whether vigilante justice is justified when it seems to be the only viable remaining path.
As the narrative unfolds, the boundaries between good and bad become blurred, challenging the viewer to consider the ethics of “bad” characters performing “good” acts and the necessity of finding a reckoning for those who were complicit as well as punishing the primary offenders.
Go and watch
There are many reasons to watch Furious—I’ve really only scratched the surface, and to say more would bring in spoilers. But if you’re looking for a story that compels you and makes you think, then give Furious a watch.
The story maintains its pace and momentum to the end, and there are plenty of interesting, surprising twists and turns along the way. But watch it slowly. Don’t try to consume the entire series in one or two sittings—you need to take a breath between episodes. The time and emotional investment will reward you with a gripping story and a satisfying end.
A second series has been commissioned. There are enough open loops to carry the world of the story into this second series (although the loops that matter in this series are closed, so these episodes are a satisfying watch with a definite ending).
I’ll be back in November. Until then.
All the best
Simon