Furious is a crime drama, and it may be one of the year’s best television series, according to the source.
Catherine Grace’s Story
Furious follows a woman named Catherine Grace, played by Lola Petticrew, who was forced into sex work as a teen and now works through a list of powerful, cruel men. Petticrew’s performance is called remarkably good by the source.
The opening scene shows Catherine inside a man’s house on Halloween night, wearing a mask made to look like a small animal, as the man begs for his life. She gives him a fatal poison, using a small instrument taken from a pencil case covered with stickers and small sparkling stones.
Alice Black Takes the Case
The case reaches Alice Black, played by Emmy Rossum, a former detective with the police department of New York City who now works for the FBI. The source says this is the finest work of Rossum’s career. Alice’s boss, Nora Washington, played by Quincy Tyler Bernstine, runs the team handling sex crimes and crimes against children, and drinks to deal with what she sees on the job.
Alice herself carries the weight of past harm. She left the New York City police force after being beaten by the man she was with, Marshall Connelly, played by Jake Lacy in a performance the source describes as truly full of dread. Other officers either doubted her account or did not care. The show, the source says, gives a plain and honest picture of women living with lasting trauma from what they have been through.
A Timely Story
The source says Furious carries a clear sense of timing, and that the parallels to Epstein are not subtle, and are not meant to be. The story features wealthy men who pay to keep quiet and act in plain sight, along with an important photograph showing young girls forced into that world, standing next to older, rich men. The source even asks whether the show might reach the Mountbatten-Windsor home.
What Sets It Apart
The source points to several reasons the show stands out.
- It refuses to stay a simple chase story and instead exposes what the source calls a wider conspiracy of abuse, harm and not caring.
- Every character carries some kind of weakness, with morals left open to question built into the show’s foundation.
- It works, in the source’s words, as an act of relief through feeling.
- It offers what the source calls a fantasy of power given back to women who never had it in the first place.
A Line That Stays With You
In one scene the source singles out as especially painful, Catherine says she never got any say in her own life. Elsewhere, a police officer describes her as small in stature, only five feet high, even in her ordinary dress. The source notes, on its own, that Catherine’s ability to master grown men in a fight is itself a kind of fantasy, apart from the officer’s plain description of her size.
Key Details
- Title: Furious
- Lead performers: Lola Petticrew as Catherine Grace, Emmy Rossum as Alice Black
- Also appearing: Quincy Tyler Bernstine as Nora Washington, Jake Lacy as Marshall Connelly
- The show has already been renewed for a second season, according to the source
How It Ends
The finale, the source writes, balances a dark story with just enough relief for its characters, landing on an ending that is imperfect but good enough. Some of the men in the story pay for what they have done, whether in plain sight or off the books. Some are given awards for their criminal conduct instead.
Beyond the renewal, the source gives no further detail on what comes next — only that, as the source puts it, there are plenty more monsters left to find.
Source: theguardian.com
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