‘Furious’ may be the best thriller you’re not watching yet
‘Furious’ may be the best thriller you’re not watching yet
Emmy Rossum and Lola Petticrew lead a cat-and-mouse thriller that keeps making you question which woman you’re actually rooting for.
Sometimes there’s a show that just grabs you and doesn’t let go. You find yourself counting down the hours until the evening so you can watch the next episode… or in the case of “Furious,” waiting for Monday night. Now for this kind of article, I very rarely write about a show that’s still dropping new episodes. But I’m going to make an exception here because “Furious” is just that good. Here’s why I think it’s the most under-the-radar thriller TV show on Hulu right now.
Best under-the-radar thriller TV show on Hulu
Why ‘Furious’ is the most underrated thriller series on Hulu
If you don’t know anything about this show, “Furious” follows Alice, an FBI agent played by Emmy Rossum, as she tries to track down Catherine, a female serial killer played by Lola Petticrew who’s going after men she thinks got away with sex crimes. That’s the set-up, but the show is much weirder than it sounds, in part because of creator Elizabeth Meriwether’s really unique sensibility. This is the same person who created “New Girl” and “The Dropout” so you can feel her sense of humor shine through in even the most intense, dark scenes (and there’s a lot of them).
What I love about Meriwether’s female characters is that they’re usually obsessed, broken in some way, and just extremely unpredictable. Tara and I found ourselves chatting after the last episode about how, quite simply, we had no idea what would happen next. That’s rare for a police procedural that’s expected to follow a pretty well-worn path. And that unpredictability characterizes both Alice and Catherine — two women who have both suffered abuse at the hands of men, but have chosen opposite sides of the moral spectrum to fight that injustice.
Or have they? The moral ambiguity of this show will have you bouncing back and forth between judging these women and rooting for them. In that way, you’re an active participant in the story, which I think is one of the most fun aspects of this show. I never thought I’d be on the side of Catherine until you get some background into what the men she’s chosen to kill have done. Suddenly, I’m rooting for her to pull out her drug kit and finish them.
And then when Catherine targets someone more in the grey area — an accomplice more than a perpetrator, I’m back on Alice’s side, hoping she can find Catherine and bring her to justice. That bouncing back and forth really reminds me of “The Girlfriend” over on Prime Video, which I named the most underrated thriller TV show on the platform much for that reason.
Finally, I can’t talk about how underrated this show is without mentioning the performances. I haven’t watched much of Rossum’s previous work, but here she brings a brittle vulnerability masked by an obsessive drive for justice. Combined with pristine writing, she bounces between the hard FBI shell she puts on to do her job in public, while teetering on the edge of panic and PTSD in private from the abuse she suffered at the hands of her ex-boyfriend, played by Jake Lacy (who is building quite the career from playing these types of guys). Then there’s Petticrew, who is a wildcard every time she’s on screen. Not only will her performance keep you guessing, trying to figure out who the real Catherine is, but you’ll also ask yourself why she’s doing what she’s doing. Is it real, or just another performance?
Then there’s Quincy Tyler Bernstine as Nora Washington, the veteran FBI agent who works with Alice. She may be my favorite resilient woman in a show packed with them. Her sense of humor keeps the whole thing from getting too dark in the face of such horrible sexual abuse that I can’t help asking myself when her next scene is going to come around.
So, if you’re looking for a thriller to fill your nights, “Furious” is the one. It’s still dropping new episodes on Hulu with the season finale set for Monday, Aug. 31, so you’ve got some time to catch up. I promise you won’t be disappointed if you do.
Furious
FBI agent Alice Black is on the hunt for a mysterious and calculating female serial killer. Both walk their own paths toward justice, and as their lives start to intertwine, the line between right and wrong begins to blur.
What is ‘Furious’ about?
“Furious” follows Alice Black, an FBI agent who gets pulled into a string of deaths. All the guys dying had been accused of some pretty horrible sex crimes. Turns out Catherine (Lola Petticrew) is the one killing them — she’s basically decided that if the system won’t punish these guys, she will. Alice starts hunting her down with veteran FBI agent Nora Washington, and she also gets some help from her old NYPD partner Danny (Scoot McNairy). But the deeper she gets into Catherine’s case, the messier it all becomes… especially because Alice has her own history with abuse involving her ex-boyfriend. So while it’s a cat-and-mouse serial killer thriller on the surface, it’s really about these two women dealing with the same kind of injustice in completely different ways.
Other underappreciated thriller TV shows on Hulu
If you’re into “Furious” and want more underrated thrillers on Hulu, here’s where I’d go next. Start with “Luther” — Idris Elba plays DCI John Luther, who hunts down the worst killers out there… while he tries to hold himself together in the process. Thematically, it’s one of the best matches for “Furious.”
Then there’s “The Patient,” which stars Steve Carell as a therapist who’s being held captive by a serial killer and turns into this really tense, stripped-down psychological battle between the two of them.
And check out “A Murder at the End of the World,” which follows Emma Corrin as a young hacker trying to solve a murder at a remote retreat full of wealthy, powerful people — with plenty of weird tech and paranoia mixed in.
Hulu
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