Hulu’s crime thriller Furious has wrapped its eight-episode first season, and the show is quickly becoming one of the year’s most talked-about television debuts. The series, created by Elizabeth Meriweather, best known for New Girl, has drawn growing audiences each week, with the finale pulling in 90 percent more views than the premiere. According to Variety, the premiere had already cracked the lower end of Nielsen’s streaming charts, and the show has been greenlit for a second season.
Furious is loosely based on the 1987 film Black Widows, which starred Debra Winger and Theresa Russell, but the series shares little with the movie beyond its core dynamic between women serial killers and a federal agent. The show is not a breezy half-hour sitcom, despite Meriweather’s background in comedy. It is a difficult watch at times, dealing with dead-serious subject matter, but it handles its thorny complexities with care and never crosses into exploitation. The pacing and tone are tightly controlled, with mounting tension that makes even quiet interrogation scenes feel dangerous.
The cast is led by Petticrew, who plays Catherine, a woman carrying deep trauma and erratic unpredictability. Petticrew, who also starred in last year’s Hulu series Say Nothing about the Irish Republican Army, brings huge emotional peaks and valleys to the role without becoming hammy. Emmy Rossum, known for Shameless and Phantom of the Opera, plays Alice, a character who can be stoic, cruel, selfish, and compassionate all at once. Quincy Tyler Bernstine delivers a standout performance as Nora Washington, Alice’s boss and a Greek mythology enthusiast who wastes no words on screen.
The supporting cast includes Scoot McNairy as an exhausted good cop, Jake Lacy as an insatiable bad cop, Rob Yang as a somewhat foolish FBI agent, Danny McCarthy as a corrupt FBI supervisor, and Steve Way as a hopelessly romantic comic relief character. The men hold their own, but the show is driven by its core group of women, all of whom, as the title suggests, are filled with justified rage.
Furious has been praised for its ability to blend bleakness with moments of humor that cut through the darkness. It has also benefited from a weekly episode release schedule, which allowed the show to build an audience over time rather than being dumped all at once. Critics have noted that the series feels like a strong contender for Emmy conversations next year.
For viewers who have not yet started the show, the first season is now available in full on Hulu, making it possible to binge the entire story without waiting between episodes. The series has broken out of its initial niche, growing week over week and earning a devoted following. With a second season already confirmed, Furious appears to have established itself as a major new drama in the streaming landscape.