The 1987 film Black Widow is an engaging, well-acted B-thriller about a serial killer (Theresa Russell) who targets wealthy men, and the investigator (Debra Winger) tracking her down. It’s a fun little noir, and one might expect a remake to mostly follow suit, albeit in series fashion, as is (unfortunately) the custom of the day. But creator Liz Meriwether has chosen a different route in adapting the material for the new series Furious, a grave and heavy and decidedly issues-driven suspense drama. 

Which makes a certain sort of sense, given the context of, well, the many developments in sociopolitical thought over the four decades since Black Widow was released. Meriwether locates her series squarely in the post-#MeToo area, or more specifically in the age of justified outrage at the relatively consequence-less sexual predations of Jeffrey Epstein and his interconnected cabal of powerful friends—one of whom is the president of the United States. What is anyone to do about this ceaseless and remorseless abuse, carried out in walled compounds and on private islands, abetted and covered up and excused by the people entrusted with the reins of society? 

In the case of Furious, one becomes a murderer. The series (the first three episodes of which are available on Hulu now) reimagines Russell’s Catherine as an avenging angel, once a sex-trafficked teenager now a young adult seeking brutal retribution. She’s not simply a psychopath, nor merely traumatized by her abuse; she’s both, a complicated creature born of a hell made by powerful men. Catherine is played by Irish actor Lola Petticrew with a mix of Jodi Comer’s Killing Eve menacing quirk and something sadder and darker. This young person’s addled mind has given her the gifts of intelligence and resourcefulness, but terrible events have turned that acumen into something vicious.