By the end of its first four episodes, the Disney+ streaming show Furious finds FBI agent Alice Black (Emmy Rossum) working towards solving the serial killer murders despite having almost everyone against her. There’s heat from above, including her own superior and mentor, Nora (Quincy Tyler Bernstine), and continuing aggression from her ex-lover on the police force (Jake Lacey). Her only friend, Detective Danny (Scoot McNairy), is struggling with his own feelings for Alice, further complicating an already delicate investigation. But the show’s title remains apt as none of this is getting in the way of Alice from solving this murder or from the serial killer, who goes by the name of Jenny (Lola Petticrew), to exact vengeance for the dark past that haunts her.
If the first four episodes were a slow burn, carefully maneuvering pieces across a chessboard toward a possible check, more of the characters come into play. We learn more and more about the sordid, twisted world of the billionaire who is at the center of all this human trafficking ring. The show brings us to the ways that they get away with literal murder and what Alice has to do to gather the evidence she needs to find some level of justice in this show’s cynical world where women have every right to their anger in the many ways by which they have been held back, oppressed, and violated.
The final four episodes of this explosive series ramp up the tension, heighten the emotional stakes, and reveal to us the dark truth behind Jenny and even Alice’s dark past. It is suspenseful, action-packed, and filled with great crime procedural narrative beats that it gets better and better with every episode.
Through it all, Rossum delivers a fascinating study of unyielding persistence, portraying a woman who does not back down no matter how hard the world seems to be against her. We witness her grit as she confronts her own vulnerabilities, ghosts, and personal demons, and soldiers through regardless. She serves as a magnificent anchor to the series’ pervasive darkness, fully embracing it to help shape the show’s core identity.
In my review of the first four episodes, I noted that Lola Petticrew felt like the show’s weakest. However, across these final four episodes, as more of her past is revealed, and her own vulnerabilities are exposed, her acting prowess now shines. She proves to be a capable second lead, commanding the screen with her raw presence. As an actress, she’s able to do more heavy emotional lifting when she’s playing to the context her character is given. While in the first four episodes, she was working as a mystery. The danger was not that apparent. But now, as Jenny and Alice finally face-off, the two characters at opposite ends of the law, yet with a background that is so similar it’s almost identical; we see a kinship that helps amplify the show’s central themes.
Furious is not a simple story of good versus evil. Instead, it exposes the inherent flaws and weakness of a legal system in handing out justice. While the show is centered in the American justice system, we can see the universality of how the rich manipulate the system to get away with whatever crime they see fit to commit. The series highlights the way women have always been treated by a patriarchal society that looks at them as possessions, exploiting their bodies and personas used for the pleasure of men. And for the women who are in positions of power and authority? People like Alice or Nora? They are constantly reminded about how low they are at the totem pole in the larger scheme of things.
While the finale closes the case, whether the resolution proves satisfying depends largely on the viewer. What the finale truly accomplishes is opening a can of worms that exposes the true cost of the darkness that has been inside Alice. Though the door remains open for a possibility for a second season if the series performs well, but if it ends the way that it does on episode eight, it’s a good enough ending for me.
My Rating: 4 Stars
Watch Emmy Rossum as Agent Alice Black face her darkest case yet. Binge Episodes 5 through 8 of Furious on Disney+.
