‘Furious’ Creator Liz Meriwether on the Season 1 Finale, Funny FBI Agents, and Farting Babies

Liz Meriwether has created hit series from the long-running sitcom New Girl to the Elizabeth Holmes dramatization The Dropout and the Emmy-nominated cancer dramedy Dying For Sex . But she isn’t being humble when she says she had no idea just how much of a success her latest show, Hulu’s combo procedural-thriller Furious , would be.

“I [felt] nervous and exposed, because for me as a writer, it was such a new genre,” she says. “I didn’t know if it was gonna work until two weeks into it airing. But it’s been amazing to see the passion that people have [for it]. I haven’t fully processed it and I probably won’t until 10 years from now, where I’m like, ‘Wait a second, how did I feel about all of that?’”

Executive produced and starring Shameless matriarch Emmy Rossum, Furious follows FBI agent Alice Black (Rossum) as she attempts to track down a female serial killer operating in New York City. While the murders are at first believed to be random, Alice’s gut instinct that they’re linked soon turns out to be true. The perpetrator, Catherine (Lola Petticrew), was a victim of a years-long trafficking ring operated by one of the wealthiest men in the city: Jay Easton — a purposefully unsubtle nod to infamous trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

Alice is already dealing with her own shit, mainly the trauma from years of physical abuse at the hands of her cop ex-fiancé Marshall (Jake Lacy). But as one of the only FBI agents taking Easton’s crimes and Catherine’s intentions seriously, Alice is forced to confront her own pain and trauma in order to try and capture Catherine and hold Easton accountable for his crimes. As the cat-and-mouse game unfolds, the show is a marvel of pacing and tone, creating suspense around the inevitable, wringing emotion and dramatic tension out of small moments, and incorporating quirky humor to deliver unexpected laughs against the grim backdrop.

Meriwether seems both bewildered and exhausted when she speaks to Rolling Stone by Zoom the day after the show’s final episode has dropped — completely understandable when you consider that amid all the press for Season One, she and her team have been in the writers room for Season Two for almost three weeks. The subject matter is not light: Furious explores how overwhelming the investigation of sexual crimes can be for law enforcement; how insidious and life-altering abuse of all kinds can be. It is also a potent examination of the different ways women still struggle to exercise their voice and their power, whether in the workplace, in romance, or in the larger world. Editor’s picks The 250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century

Meriwether spoke to Rolling Stone about the myth of the perfect victim, the emotional toll of creating a thriller with such serious themes, and her hopes for Season Two.

The finale is officially out in the world. Did you watch it with people? Oh, God, no! I have trouble with that.