{"id":2647638,"date":"2026-08-21T05:55:02","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T09:55:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/hulus-furious-is-a-riveting-brilliantly-acted-character-study\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T05:58:35","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T09:58:35","slug":"hulus-furious-is-a-riveting-brilliantly-acted-character-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/hulus-furious-is-a-riveting-brilliantly-acted-character-study\/","title":{"rendered":"Hulu&#8217;s &#8216;Furious&#8217; is a riveting, brilliantly acted character study"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhulus-furious-is-a-riveting-brilliantly-acted-character-study%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2647638&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The series &#8220;Furious&#8221; on Hulu explores themes of female revenge and the cycle of violence between men and women. It follows FBI agent Alice Black, who investigates a homicide linked to a wealthy young woman named Catherine grace, played by Lola petticrew. Catherine, a former victim of child sex trafficking, becomes a murderer, targeting men responsible for her suffering, drawing comparisons to mythological Medusa. The show is both a suspenseful cat-and-mouse thriller and a refined character study, comparing itself to &#8220;The Silence of the Lambs.&#8221; It features complex characters, including Alice\u2019s conflicted feelings for her abusive ex and her mentor Nora Washington. Created by Elizabeth meriwether, &#8220;Furious&#8221; is loosely based on the 1987 film &#8220;Black Widow&#8221; and delves into the idea that female violence stems from victimization but also highlights individual choices.Despite its violent and dark content, the series is praised for its smart writing, strong performances-particularly from Rossum and Petticrew-and its nuanced portrayal of its themes. It ultimately suggests that, unlike Catherine, people always have a choice, emphasizing resilience and moral agency.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<article class=\"fn-body\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A small moment in <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/hulu\/\">Hulu\u2019s<\/a> riveting new series <em>Furious<\/em> reveals the depth of the show\u2019s preoccupation with female revenge. Investigating a crime scene with an officer who is also her abusive former boyfriend, <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/fbi\/\">FBI<\/a> agent Alice Black (Emmy Rossum) secures a pair of blood-stained scissors and hands them over to her ex. Yet, just for an instant, we see something darker in her expression. She\u2019d clearly prefer to stab him in his guilt-ridden face. <\/p>\n<section class=\"explore-more-section\" id=\"wex-recommended-widget\">\n<div class=\"magazine-container single\">\n<h1 class=\"magazine-title mt-2\">Recommended Stories<\/h1>\n<p>             <i class=\"fa-solid fa-play icon\"><\/i>         <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-grid\">\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/entertainment\/4694825\/hillary-clinton-host-karaoke-night-progressives-nyc\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>Hillary Clinton to host karaoke night for progressives in NYC<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/entertainment\/4694807\/us-mint-freedom-250-grand-prix-medal\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>US Mint rolls out Freedom 250 Grand Prix medal<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/entertainment\/4694687\/sean-duffy-great-american-road-trip-family-infrastructure-faith\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>Sean Duffy\u2019s \u2018Great American Road Trip\u2019 highlights family, infrastructure, and faith<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The harm men do to <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/women\/\">women<\/a> \u2014 and that women do back to them \u2014 is the dominant theme of Hulu\u2019s eight-part production, now streaming weekly following its premiere in late July. Alice, an FBI rookie who once worked for the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/nypd\/\" data-type=\"post_tag\" data-id=\"1446\">New York City Police Department<\/a>, has been called in to investigate a homicide disguised as a drug overdose. The dead man was the son of a prominent billionaire. Could his new girlfriend, strangely absent from neighborhood security footage, be to blame? <\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-1\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-1\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-15\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-1\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That young woman, played by a startlingly good Lola Petticrew (<em>Say Nothing<\/em>), goes by many names over the course of the series but is billed as Catherine Grace. A former victim of child sex trafficking, Catherine has developed a murderous modus operandi: track down, seduce, and poison the men responsible for her ill treatment. Through the first four episodes alone, at least as many bodies pile up, killed or left for dead by a woman who invites explicit comparison to the mythological sufferer Medusa. \u201cShe\u2019s a victim,\u201d one fed says of our lethal antiheroine, \u201cbut it doesn\u2019t make her a good person. It turns her into a monster.\u201d <\/p>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\">Emmy Rossum in \u201cFurious.\u201d (Courtesy of Disney)<\/p>\n<p>&#8221; data-large-file=&#8221;https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2026\/08\/localimages\/LA.TV_.082626.jpg?w=696&#8243; height=&#8221;658&#8243; width=&#8221;1024&#8243; &#8220;https:><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Emmy Rossum in \u201cFurious.\u201d (Courtesy of Disney)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Furious<\/em> is, on its surface, a simple cat-and-mouse thriller of the kind regularly produced for big and small screens. But the show is also a character study of greater-than-usual sophistication \u2014 a worthy heir to its most famous forerunner, the Oscar-winning<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/movies-and-films\/\" data-type=\"post_tag\" data-id=\"744\"> film<\/a> version of <em>The Silence of the Lambs<\/em> (1991). A pitiless scourge of the Epstein class, Catherine is also a compassionate nurse to Alden (Steve Way), a muscular dystrophy patient for whom she works as a home healthcare aide. Alice, for her part, is nearly as fascinating as Jodie Foster\u2019s iconic Clarice Starling. Having survived a childhood not entirely unlike that of the woman whom she pursues, the young agent is similarly contradictory and fierce. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The show\u2019s supporting players inhabit a layered headspace of their own. NYPD detective Marshall Connelly (Jake Lacy), the aforementioned bad ex, is plainly a villain but is just as visibly consumed with regret. Though we wish she could, it is no affront to believability that Alice can\u2019t make herself stop loving him. Also intriguing is Scoot McNairy (<em>Halt and Catch Fire<\/em>) as Detective Danny Kelly, a once-close friend torn between rescuing Alice and abandoning her to her folly. Best of all is journeywoman Quincy Tyler Bernstine, who gives an award-worthy performance as Nora Washington, Alice\u2019s wise and funny FBI mentor. Asked by our protagonist to account for her erudition, Nora serves up the quip of the series: \u201cI\u2019m not a former cop, I went to a fancy school, and I\u2019m very smart.\u201d Trust me, the moment comes off as endearing rather than smug. <\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-2\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-2\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-16\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-2\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Furious<\/em> needs its lighter scenes to deliver us from what could otherwise be an oppressive tone. Even with them, the series is not for the faint of heart. Note, for instance, the brutality with which Catherine dispatches an abuse-enabling lawyer played by Campbell Scott. What separates the show from lesser efforts is that it is too intelligent to allow its emotional palette to fade entirely to gray. Yes, the series is often violent, but it is also clever, surprising, amusing, and oddly sweet. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Created by veteran showrunner Elizabeth Meriwether (<em>New Girl<\/em>), <em>Furious<\/em> is loosely based on Bob Rafelson\u2019s 1987 neo-noir thriller <em>Black Widow<\/em>, in which Debra Winger\u2019s <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/department-of-justice\/\" data-type=\"post_tag\" data-id=\"438\">Justice Department<\/a> analyst pursues Theresa Russell\u2019s serial killer of men. As befits its era, that film assigns Russell\u2019s character no motive beyond a love of money. She wants it, and her victims have it. <em>Furious<\/em>, no less a representative of our own age, is unable to fathom female violence except as an outgrowth of righteous wrath. A line from Nora gives away the game: \u201cObviously any woman who becomes a serial killer is a victim of something.\u201d Obviously? They should have told that to Rafelson, the <em>Five Easy Pieces<\/em> (1970) auteur who died in 2022, whose near-perfect picture spends a drum-tight 102 minutes demonstrating the opposite. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\">Emmy Rossum and Quincy Tyler Bernstine in \u201cFurious.\u201d (Sarah Shatz Courtesy of Disney)<\/p>\n<p>&#8221; data-large-file=&#8221;https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2026\/08\/localimages\/LA.TV2_.082626.jpg?w=696&#8243; height=&#8221;658&#8243; width=&#8221;1024&#8243; &#8220;https:><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Emmy Rossum and Quincy Tyler Bernstine in \u201cFurious.\u201d (Sarah Shatz Courtesy of Disney)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ah, but we would have better luck spitting into the wind than denouncing a <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/tv\/\" data-type=\"post_tag\" data-id=\"620\">television<\/a> show for its concessions to vogue anxieties. Coming in 2050: a Catherine who kills male-featured anthropomorphic bots. The miracle of <em>Furious<\/em> is that it succeeds despite its paternalistic treatment of the fairer sex \u2014 despite, for that matter, stretching Rafelson\u2019s taut tale to a now-standard six hours and change. The show\u2019s writing and pacing are simply too good to be brought low. And one would have to go back to the 1980s-era police procedural <em>Cagney &#038; Lacey<\/em> to find two overlapping female performances this strong. Tyne Daly and Sharon Gless, winners between them of six Lead Actress Emmys in a row, may finally have met their match. <\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-3\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-3\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-17\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-3\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/premium\/4681747\/review-will-ferrell-the-hawk-netflix\/\">REVIEW: WILL FERRELL\u2019S \u2018THE HAWK\u2019 IS UNFUNNY AND UNINSPIRED<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is difficult to overstate how effective <em>Furious\u2019s<\/em> two stars are in this production. Having wasted her youth on Showtime\u2019s execrable satire <em>Shameless<\/em> (2011-2021), Rossum now establishes herself as a masterful portrayer of psychological weakness and strength. Her Alice is a hypnotically self-destructive figure. Petticrew, meanwhile, builds on her much-praised work in <em>Say Nothing<\/em>, Hulu\u2019s 2024 Irish Republican Army drama based on a book by Patrick Radden Keefe. As she did on that show, the young woman gives an utterly fearless performance as an ingenue pushed by circumstances to the emotional brink. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But perhaps even I am now letting Catherine off the hook. The character is, after all, irredeemably wicked, never mind the arguably more outrageous evils that men have done to her. Looked at a certain way, the figure of Catherine exists to show us the person whom Alice might herself have become. Except Alice doesn\u2019t. Take that as the show\u2019s most important lesson. We always have a choice. <\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-4\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-4\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-25\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-4\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Graham Hillard is the TV critic for the <\/em>Washington Examiner<em> magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hulu\u2019s Furious explores female revenge and choice<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":956,"featured_media":2647639,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/LA.TV_.082626.jpg?w=696","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[84484,9792,4517,13478,17338],"class_list":["post-2647638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-character-study","tag-drama","tag-furious","tag-hulu","tag-riveting"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/LA.TV_.082626.jpg?w=696","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2647638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/956"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2647638"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2647638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2647642,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2647638\/revisions\/2647642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2647639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2647638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2647638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2647638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}