Between the white-hot rage of Beef, the simmering tensions between guests at The White Lotus and Michaela Coel’s eviscerating I May Destroy You, anger is proving a defining theme of this decade’s most acclaimed TV shows. After its caustic first season, Furious might prove the most blistering of them all.Created by Elizabeth Meriwether (The Dropout, New Girl), Furious is a cat-and-mouse thriller about an FBI agent named Alice (Emmy Rossum, Shameless) hunting down a serial killer, Catherine (Lola Petticrew, Say Nothing), a survivor of child trafficking seeking vengeance on the men responsible. Many of them are known to FBI’s sex crimes unit boss Nora (Quincy Tyler Bernstine), whose hands are often tied. All three seek justice in their own way, fuelled by a carcinogenic fury at a judicial system that fails to protect the vulnerable or hold traffickers accountable.The show – loosely inspired by the 1987 film Black Widow – has become a sleeper hit for Disney+, which reports one-day viewership rose 40 per cent by the penultimate episode from July’s premiere.Following the season finale, TV writer Jared Richards speaks with Emmy Rossum (who is also an executive producer) on how she and Meriwether shaped the series’ approach to sexual violence and trauma, what she thinks of the real-world comparisons critics have made to Jeffrey Epstein, plus a teaser of what’s coming for the just-announced second season.Warning: There are spoilers for the season’s full eight episodes below.Jared Richards: This is a show about sexual violence and its impact, but it doesn’t feature flashbacks to rape or images of grisly crime scenes. There’s an absence of dead women’s bodies. When and how did you and Liz Meriwether decide to not include those images? Emmy Rossum: From the very beginning. It’s also inspired by a film that’s much more interested in the journey of two women who are lonely outcasts getting to know each other – an FBI agent and a serial killer. Very early on, Liz wanted to tell the story of two sides of a coin that were more similar than they were different: a good guy that wasn’t all good, and a bad guy that wasn’t all bad.We were also interested in showing violence that was very female in nature. What does it look like when you can’t always just shoot someone with a gun? When you have to get really close to them with a needle? Or with a curling iron? How do you weaponise a chicken breast? [We tried to play with] things that are traditionally associated with women.Catherine (Lola Petticrew) finds inventive new uses for her curling iron.Disney/Sarah ShatzIn terms of flashbacks, the show is not really interested in depicting trauma other than the after-effects: how it’s compartmentalised, how it twists and shapes us over time and how it affects you 25 years later [as with Alice] or 10 years later [as with Catherine].Alice is also a survivor of abuse. As an actor, was there anything that was difficult to understand about how her trauma emerges? Her [violent] sex life comes to mind as an example.Yeah, that’s certainly what I was scared by. Having a character who’s been a victim of violence, who is seeking out violence in their life, is confusing. Working with psychologists on the role made it make sense.This is a person who’s become so dissociated from their body that – similar to Catherine, our killer – her superpower is that she’s been able to hold all these secrets and disconnect from herself. That’s what makes her so great at her job; she can work these cases and seemingly not have them permeate her.Lola Petticrew and Emmy Rossum in Furious.Disney/Sarah ShatzWhen I worked with FBI agents [to prepare for this role], there was this way that they compartmentalised what they were working on – and the way they processed things – where their eyes just weren’t all there. They were with you, but at the same time they were on every exit and every other person in the room and every vulnerability. They were a pressure cooker in a way I found to be totally illuminating.There were certainly things about the character that overlapped with me – certain parts of her pain, her fear, her obsessive tendencies – but also things that were unfamiliar to me.Emmy Rossum stars in Furious.DisneyYou shadowed FBI agents and underwent drill training for research. What surprised you about that experience?Some agents shared things that had happened to them that made them become an agent. They didn’t think they would get justice for themselves, but it galvanised them to work for others. There was one specific case that I found to be almost one-to-one with Alice that immediately let me wrap my arms around her.Many agents really understood that the system didn’t always work. Yet, it’s the only one that we have, and so they have to work within it. Otherwise, we’ll have chaos and vigilantes everywhere. A lot of the time they’re playing a long game. There was one detective that is still waiting to get justice for a child, and sees who they believe to be the perpetrator of this crime at their 7/11 weekly.Just the horror of seeing somebody that you feel has committed a crime that you can’t quite prove at your 7/11 every week. But knowing that one day that kid is going to be old enough to walk in and tell you the story. Or you’re going to get them some other way, for some other crime. It’s having the fortitude to play that long game and to sit with those uncomfortable feelings of frustration for a long time.Nora (Quincy Tyler Bernstine) is often left with her hands tied in the pursuit of justice.Disney/Sarah ShatzYou took on so much in this role. How did you deal with the heaviness?I ate a lot of snacks. I got food trucks for the crew. I’m all about having good things to eat and soothing in other ways. And then you’re held up by your crew, right? You’re held up by your other actors, by your camera operators, by your costume team, by Liz, by your directors. You’re not alone out there on the field.I have an amazing family that I come home to at the end of the day, and I eat my kids’ snacks, and I realise that it’s not my story. It’s my job to tell [Alice’s] story that is, unfortunately, similar to a lot of women’s stories – some of whom aren’t even around to tell their stories any more. But it’s my job to channel those things, and then to try to leave them at work.The final episode is named Hart Island – the New York site for unmarked graves that Alice and Nora visit in the finale to reinter Catherine’s friend Isabel, previously another Jane Doe. What was the importance of that title?It’s a place where people are honoured. But nobody knows who they are, and they’re not claimed. There’s a tenderness, loneliness and a beauty in that, and our story is very much about the women whose stories haven’t been told.Lola Petticrew as Catherine in the Furious finale.Disney/Sarah ShatzMany critics call Furious as a “post-Epstein show”, though he isn’t directly referenced in the show. How do you view that framing?I understand it. We do have a villain in our show [Jay Easton] who has very similar initials, so I get it.I think, unfortunately, it’s not just him. We’ve had 10, 15, 20 mega-predators over the last 20 years in positions of power. And I think there is a lot of rage about that. About the lack of accountability. About the people who have covered it up – and the fact that we know those people’s names off the top of our head and can rattle them all off. Yet we don’t know the women’s names equally well, and some of them aren’t even around to tell their stories. That’s the tragedy. That’s the horror.Furious has just been renewed for a second season. I know you can’t reveal much yet, but when did you and Liz start considering continuing this story?It was always designed to be an ongoing series. Though Liz jokes that if it wasn’t a hit, she would have just said it was always meant to be limited. I think the engine of Alice’s story and job is such that there are so many stories to be told, and we end the season with more secrets than we started with. That’s a good place to start.Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) or the Men’s Referral Service on 1300 766 491.Furious is streaming on Disney+ now. This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.Want more TV? We’ve got you.Newsletter: Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. 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