Emmy Rossum's 'Furious' review: Actress leads Hulu's new crime drama

Hulu's new crime drama Furious, led by Emmy Rossum, has drawn strong reviews for its performances even as critics note the show occasionally leans too heavily on familiar trauma to bind its central characters together.

Loosely inspired by the 1987 thriller Black Widow, the series swaps out that film's premise of a serial killer targeting rich husbands for something considerably darker. 

Creator Elizabeth Meriwether centres the story on Catherine, played by Say Nothing breakout actress Lola Petticrew, a woman targeting the men who abused her as a trafficking victim, including a New York financier whose portrayal several critics have noted mirrors the late Jeffrey Epstein.

Rossum plays Alice Black, a rookie FBI agent sidelined to the bureau's public call centre who stumbles onto Catherine's trail while working through trauma of her own.

Variety's review praised the cast for elevating material that can otherwise feel overly neat in how it draws parallels between its two female leads' pasts, noting the show "fits comfortably into the current yen for psychologised storytelling" but ultimately "transcends" its familiar framework thanks to its performances. 

Collider called it Rossum's "most viscerally raw performance since her decade-long tenure on Shameless," while The Hollywood Reporter's review described the series as "a complex, well-acted and even funny thriller about the ongoing toll of trauma, the psychic cost of revenge and the danger of a life driven by anger." 

The Playlist was kinder still, calling it a "gripping Epstein-esque revenge thriller" anchored by Rossum's ability to hold her character's contradictions together "without becoming incoherent."

Furious also stars Quincy Tyler Bernstine as Alice's hardened FBI mentor, alongside Scoot McNairy. 

The series premieres with three episodes on 27 July on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+, with new episodes rolling out weekly through 31 August.