{"id":841694,"date":"2026-08-03T11:16:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T11:16:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/841694\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T11:16:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T11:16:18","slug":"furious-review-this-post-epstein-tv-thriller-is-a-must-watch-for-fans-of-killing-eve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/841694\/","title":{"rendered":"Furious review: This post-Epstein TV thriller is a must-watch for fans of Killing Eve"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This week\u2019s picks include a thriller from the writer of New Girl about a female serial killer and the female agent trying to stop her. Plus, an Australian documentary dives into the death of bodybuilder and proto-influencer Zyzz, dance company Bangarra get its story told, and Tiger King <\/a>and Chimp Crazy<\/a> director Eric Goode looks at America\u2019s exotic animal trade.<\/p>\n

Furious \u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605 (Disney+)<\/p>\n

White-hot anger vibrates through Furious, a remarkable thriller for the post Epstein-age<\/a>, where the perverted and wealthy are so insulated from repercussions that they can barely hear the outrage of the masses, let alone be brought to justice.<\/p>\n

\"EmmyEmmy Rossum stars as FBI agent Alice Black in new thriller Furious.DIsney<\/p>\n

Created by Elizabeth Meriwether (the showrunner behind 2025 standout Dying for Sex<\/a>, as well as The Dropout<\/a>), Furious is reportedly inspired by 1987 psychological thriller Black Widow. Both focus on a female serial killer and a female agent trying to stop her.<\/p>\n

We open on the former \u2013 a small, childlike figure (Lola Petticrew, Say Nothing<\/a>) in a Halloween cat mask watching a sedated man crawl across the floor of a Manhattan brownstone, before she heads outside to hand out candy to trick or treaters. He makes it to the stairs by the time she\u2019s back, where she injects him and lies close to watch the light fade from his eyes.<\/p>\n

The murder catches the eye of Alice (Emmy Rossum, Shameless), an ex-NYPD officer who left for the FBI after her boyfriend and fellow cop (The White Lotus\u2019 Jake Lacy<\/a>, excellent as always as a complete jerk) assaulted her, and is working a desk job in the hopes of moving into the sex crimes unit.<\/p>\n

Editor’s pick\"What<\/a><\/p>\n

Joining forces with NYPD ally Danny (Scoot McNairy) and FBI\u2019s sex crimes unit boss Nora (Quincy Tyler Bernstine), Alice soon identifies their killer as a trafficking victim exacting revenge. Across its eight episodes, Furious is a game of cat-and-mouse between killer and agent. And, much like Killing Eve, it\u2019s clear that both the killer and Alice are more alike than not (although this series is free of that show\u2019s campier impulses).<\/p>\n

Led by three searing performances from Rossum, Petticrew and Bernstine, Furious is a rare beast: a show about sexual violence that doesn\u2019t rely on the dead bodies of women to convey the depth of depravity that\u2019s occurred. The violence that is on screen \u2013 mostly, yes, against men \u2013 is slight.<\/p>\n

\"LolaLola Petticrew plays the killer in Furious.Disney<\/p>\n

Its erratic, percussive score is almost more confronting, filled with jarring synths and plosive choral stuttering. Instead, the trauma lives in slight moments. The cold ease in which Petticrew\u2019s character can slip between personas, having been trained to do so for \u201cclients\u201d; Alice wolfing down meals, as if suspicious of attack; Nora\u2019s sobering fury in the few moments she lets herself feel through a haze of booze.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ones really to blame never get caught. Never. Never,\u201d says Nora to Alice. \u201cYou think you\u2019re going to catch anyone who matters?\u201d<\/p>\n

Thankfully, Furious doesn\u2019t make its point about justice at the sacrifice of our own enjoyment. This is a zippy watch, full of twists that draw towards an immensely cathartic finale.<\/p>\n

\"AustralianAustralian bodybuilder and proto-influencer Aziz Shavershian (left), known online as Zyzz, who died in 2011.StanPoster Boy: Becoming Zyzz (Stan) \u2605\u2605\u2605<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been 15 years since Australian bodybuilder and proto-influencer Zyzz \u2013 aka Aziz Shavershian \u2013 died aged 22, after a heart attack in Thailand<\/a>. While Zyzz\u2019s then-52,000 Facebook followers now feels quaint, he was a true international sensation thanks to his Adonis body, cocky personality (\u201cU mirin\u2019?\u201d was his catchphrase) and tendency to troll.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Daniel<\/a><\/p>\n

Made with the support of Shavershian\u2019s otherwise private parents (who don\u2019t appear on-screen), Poster Boy is a tell-some documentary \u2013 one that will no-doubt generate headlines for revealing his cause of death, an acute respiratory failure due to the combined use of morphine, cocaine and benzodiazepines.<\/p>\n

Via a brisk 80 minutes with a morbid interstitial countdown to Thailand throughout, Poster Boy captures how Aziz, a skinny, awkward Kurdish teen in Western Sydney, became Zyzz, the self-titled \u201cgod of aesthetics\u201d, before struggling with the fame and pressure to play a character.<\/p>\n

Perhaps because of his family\u2019s involvement, Poster Boy shies away from examining Zyzz too closely. Mention of his sex work passes by quickly, for example, and director Selina Miles (Silenced, Harley & Katya) doesn\u2019t dispute the hagiographic talking heads from his brother and friends. Zyzz is presented as a pioneer and fitness icon. Which is true. But he\u2019s also the precursor to the Paul brothers<\/a>, Clavicular<\/a> and more chauvinistic male influencers with dangerous fitness \u201chacks\u201d and anti-social stunts \u2013 a link that Poster Boy gestures towards but never properly explores.<\/p>\n

\"FirestarterFirestarter traces the journeys of brothers Russell, Stephen and David Page.Michael BianchinoFirestarter: The Story Of Bangarra (SBS On Demand, DocPlay) \u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t need much knowledge or interest in contemporary dance to be enthralled by Firestarter, the 2020 documentary from Wayne Blair (The Sapphires) and Nel Minchin (Making Muriel) about world-renowned Indigenous dance company Bangarra<\/a>. Founded in 1989, Bangarra\u2019s distinct blend of tradition and contemporary dance \u2013 as seen at the 2000 Sydney Olympics \u2013 was created in large part by the Page brothers: choreographer Stephen, composer David and dancer Russell. Deeply moving, Firestarter weaves together the brothers\u2019 stories and tragedies with wider historical context and the joys of artistic creation and Indigenous culture.<\/p>\n

\"AA reptile collector in the 1980s featured in HBO Max series Monsters of God.\u00a0Bill Love\/Goode Films\/HBOMonsters of God (HBO Max) \u2605\u2605\u2605<\/p>\n

Tiger King <\/a>and Chimp Crazy<\/a> director Eric Goode sticks to America\u2019s exotic animal trade in his latest documentary, a five-part series exploring reptile trafficking. What emerges is a fascinating web of warring dealers that implicates most major US zoos \u2013 at least, in the nascent days \u2013 alongside international crime rings that mix drugs and animal trafficking. The sweeping story covers seven decades of misdeeds. In the process, Goode forgets that Tiger King\u2019s appeal was primarily as a character study, glossing over its subjects\u2019 many eccentricities.<\/p>\n

\"SeidiSeidi Haarla and Rupert Grint star in Nightborn.Pietari PeltolaNightborn (Shudder) \u2605\u2605<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a little baffling that this Finnish folk horror has been so celebrated across the festival circuit, offering few scares, surprises or innovations to the demonic baby trope. Saga (Seidi Haarla) and her British husband Jon (Harry Potter\u2019s Rupert Grint) relocate to the witchy, sentient Finnish woods to start a family, and Saga gives bloody, graphic birth to a very hairy son she is fearful of, always referring to him as \u201cit\u201d. Haarla captures slipping sanity well, and Nightborn is refreshingly resistant to elevated horror\u2019s insistence on metaphor. But it\u2019s otherwise unremarkable.<\/p>\n

\"VahidVahid Mobasseri,\u00a0Majid Panahi,\u00a0Mariam Afshari,\u00a0Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr and\u00a0Hadis Pakbaten\u00a0in\u00a0It Was Just an Accident.MadmanIt Was Just An Accident (Mubi) \u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s Palme d\u2019Or winner, this Iranian thriller by Jafar Panahi<\/a> (The White Balloon) was, like all his films since 2010, filmed illegally. A sharp story of former Iranian political prisoners who capture a man they believe tortured them, what\u2019s most remarkable about It Was Just An Accident isn\u2019t its surprising humour, its complex moral questions or the fact it exists at all. How do you make something this visually arresting, well-paced and acted under constant threat of imprisonment? Without context, this is a remarkable film; with it, it\u2019s awe-inspiring.<\/p>\n

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