Okay, so you’ve just torn through Furious and now have no idea what to watch next? Here are a few shows that share some similarities with Furious that you may be into!
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TW: Violence, Sexual Assault
If you can stomach something quite dark at the moment, honestly, it really should be Furious. This show is not an easy watch, by any means, but it is incredible.
Now, I love a crime / mystery / thriller, but Furious has really made me take a second look at this whole genre. Have I become desensitised to violence against women in these shows? Without a doubt. The bulk of them all start off the same way: the body of a dead woman shows up and now it’s time to get to the bottom of it.
Furious starts with a woman killing a man – and she’s unflinching as she does it. It’s an uncomfortable watch – partly because we’re watching a woman behave the exact opposite way in which we’ve been taught she should act: she should be maternal, caring, helpful, a good girl. She should be showing mercy.
The show follows Emmy Rossum’s character, FBI agent Alice Black who is new to the bureau having formerly worked as a NYPD homicide detective. She’s called up to join some of her former detectives in looking into the murder of a man – a murder she soon believes was committed by a female. A female who might just be a serial killer.
Emmy Rossum is brilliant in the show – as is Lola Petticrew who plays Catherine Grace, the murderess, plus Quincy Tyler Bernstine who plays Nora Washington, the head of the FBI’s sex crimes unit. There’s also terrific performances by Scoot McNairy – who plays Danny Kelly, Alice’s friend and former NYPD partner and Jake Lacy, another NYPD detective.
As Alice looks further into the case we learn more and more about her complicated back story – as well as what is motivating Catherine to commit the murders. The whole show quickly made me question my own beliefs and morals as I found myself rooting for both Alice and Catherine. What did I want to happen to Catherine? Did I think she was justified in the killings? Did I want her to pay for the crimes, or did I really want her to go free?
This show is dark and heavy – it covers some difficult topics, and unfortunately there are so many situations in it than many women, perhaps even most women, will find some real familiarity in.
If you haven’t watched it, I really recommend it. And if you have watched it – you might need to swap and watch something light next, but otherwise here are five shows that are similar to Furious that I think you’ll love:
I May Destroy You
These two shows are very different in their plot lines, but there was something about the experience of watching Furious that immediately made me compare it to I May Destroy You.
Both, are a tough watch – but are extraordinary. I May Destroy You came out in 2020 (everything that came out that year is a blur to me, so I had to rewatch the first episode again!) and was described as a black comedy – and it most certainly is dark. It’s written by Michaela Coel and is based on her own experience of sexual assault. Her lead character, Arabella is a Twitter star who lands a book deal – she’s in the midst of trying to make a deadline when she agrees to go out for a couple of drinks. She wakes up the next morning, confused – but realises that she was drugged and raped the night before.
It’s beautifully crafted – but yes, an uncomfortable watch. Sadly, it’s one many women will be able to relate to – or at least some aspects of, much like Furious.
Like Furious, it features complicated, messy characters (i.e. they’re real women – not ‘perfect’ victims TV shows seem to want to portray). There’s trauma, there’s the lingering psychological weight of sexual violence – and, like Furious, I May Destroy You also explores how law enforcement and justice systems often let down survivors.
Watch it on: HBO Max
Killing Eve
The show Furious is being compared to the most right now, is Killing Eve – and yes, I can see why. There are definite similar narrative threads – a female killing people! – but Killing Eve is definitely more of a black dramedy, providing a bit more lightness and laughs (which there are zero of in Furious).
Like Furious, it features an incredible cast – this one’s led by Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer. Sandra plays Eve, a British intelligence investigator tasked with capturing psychopathic assassin Villanelle (Jodie). There’s that cat-and-mouse chase between the two characters that we saw in Furious, but also that blurring of the lines at times when it comes to right and wrong, making you examine some of your own ideas around morality.
Watch it on: Netflix or Neon
Sharp Objects
This is one of the most disturbing books I’ve ever read – it’s by Gillian Flynn (she of Gone Girl fame) and it’s dark, even by her standards. The TV series is equally dark, but brilliantly acted. Like Furious, there’s very little respite from the creepiness and darkness. Both are exploring a crime – whilst also heavily focusing on the troubled inner lives of our leads, rather than just solving the crime at hand.
Sharp Objects stars Amy Adams as crime reporter Camille, who suffers from alcoholism and was recently discharged from a psychiatric hospital after years of self-harming. Back to work, she winds up back in her small hometown in Missouri to investigate the murders of two young girls. There, she finds herself back in touch with her estranged mother, step-father and half-sister and spending time in their Victorian mansion. It’s also where she finds herself confronting the past – the breakdown in her relationship with her mother really kicked off when Camille’s younger sister died from an illness.
From there… well, the story just gets darker and darker as the story progresses and more skeletons are revealed.
Watch it on: HBO Max
Mare of Easttown
God this is a good show – if the fact that it stars Kate Winslet isn’t already all the info you need, let me convince you to watch Mare of Easttown next.
Like Furious, it follows a tough, but emotionally burderned woman working in law enforcement who finds themselves in a bit of a psychological grey area as ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ begin to intersect and blur.
In Mare of Easttown Kate Winslet plays Marianne “Mare” Sheehan, a police detective who is something of a local hero after scoring the winning basket in a high school basketball game that won Easttown its first state championship some 25 years earlier. But lately, that ‘hero’ status is being tested – there’s a missing girl case that’s now been going on for a year unsolved. And now a teenage mother has turned up dead. Meanwhile, Mare’s personal life is falling apart – she’s recently divorced, lost a son to suicide and is in the midst of a custody battle with her son’s formerly heroin-addicted girlfriend – the mother of her grandson.
It’s a gritty, hard watch at times, but also brilliantly executed.
Watch it on: HBO Max
Long Bright River
Yip, like a lot of the other shows on this list, Long Bright River also focusses on a woman who is trying to get to the bottom of a case – a case that they’re not just following from a distance. It’s personal. Their own history and trauma – scars of abuse collide with the case at hand. There’s a blurring of lines. And systems – dominated by men – that are deeply corrupt.
In Long Bright River, Amanda Seyfried (who was nominated for a Golden Globe for the role) plays Mickey Fitzpatrick, a patrol officer and single mum who is working in a high-crime area heavily impacted by the opioid crisis. She heads out to the avenue with her newly assigned partner to speak to sex workers – when the day takes a dark turn: a dead woman with pink hair has been found on the train tracks. Mickey begins to panic – she hasn’t told her new partner, or anyone else at the department, but her sister (who sports bright pink hair) and battles with addiction has been missing for weeks.
While it’s not her sister, Mickey continues her hunt to find her sister – while more women from the avenue wind up dead. The department wants to write them up as overdoses – but Mickey is determined to discover the truth..
Watch it on: Three Now
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