'Furious' Creator Says She Wants the "Audience to Feel Uncomfortable"

One of the biggest risks in any serial killer thriller is making it too obvious who the hero is and who the villain is. Liz Meriwether, creator of Furious, the new Disney+ series, says that avoiding that trap was a priority from the very beginning of the show’s development, even if it means making the audience uncomfortable.

"I never want the audience to feel too comfortable with either of the two characters," the creator said in an exclusive interview with Omelete, explaining that the series deliberately begins with more familiar roles — an FBI agent and a serial killer — before complicating that dynamic over the course of the episodes. The idea, she said, is for viewers to start questioning their own judgments about who is right.

That does not mean softening Catherine’s choices, the killer played by Lola Petticrew. Meriwether was direct in saying that she finds it "very sad" that the character chose violence as a response to what she went through, precisely because that choice traps her and keeps her from moving on. According to Meriwether, the goal was never to absolve the killer, but to complicate the way the audience sees her motivations.

"I wanted the audience to be on the edge of their seats and uncomfortable in a good way, because they’re constantly discovering new information about why people do what they do, and constantly questioning their judgments about the characters. That was very important to me."

Part of that complexity came from real conversations Meriwether had with female FBI agents while researching the series. According to her, it was in those conversations that she discovered how much their work involves dark humor and how, in practice, it is a job centered on care — much more about listening to and helping victims than about chases and guns.

One real detail from those interviews made it straight onto the screen: one of the agents said she always drove around with snacks she bought with her own money to hand out to victims of human trafficking. That gesture directly inspired the character Nora, played by Quincy Tyler Bernstine, who carries snacks and clothes in her car throughout the series.

Furious is now available on Disney+ and Hulu, with weekly episodes through August 31.