rage

The creator of “New Girl” has a dark, twisty new show about a … female serial killer?

Since the end of her breakout sitcom, Liz Meriwether has imbued her sharp and charming brand of funny in network comedies like “Single Parents” and “Bless This Mess.” But she’s steadily embraced darker tones in her work — first, with the Emmy-winning Elizabeth Holmes biodrama “The Dropout,” then with last year’s FX miniseries “Dying for Sex,” a delicate dance between laughter and sorrow in its exploration of a woman’s commitment to live her best sexual life following a terminal cancer diagnosis. “Furious,” though, may be her darkest project yet.

Loosely inspired by the 1987 neo-noir “Black Widow,” which starred Theresa Russell as a serial killer who marries and poisons wealthy men for their inheritances, and Debra Winger as the investigator obsessed with tracking her down, the Hulu crime drama deepens the cat-and-mouse dynamic. It follows an FBI rookie and her search for a female serial killer seeking vengeance against the men who abused her as a teenager. And still, it manages to find moments of levity. The first three episodes are currently streaming, with new episodes released every Monday until the finale Aug. 31.

“I’ve just been loving trying different things with my writing,” Meriwether told me during a recent video call. “When this came up, I was like, ‘Oh, wow, a crime thriller, a serial killer show.’ It was so different than what I’d done before. It’s like the shows that I love, so I was excited to try to write one, somewhat naively. It’s funny because I would always roll my eyes a little bit when drama writers thought they could write comedy and then I found myself in the flip side of that being like, ‘Oh, this is so hard.’”

Check out more of my conversation with Meriwether in Guest Spot. And yes, as a devoted “New Girl” re-watcher forever trying to retain my Youths! status, I asked about about the reboot discourse that’s become its own comedy.

Also in this week’s Screen Gab, our writers recommend the return of a detective comedy that has its schoolteacher-turned-self-taught P.I. on another wild adventure and a Spanish-language limited series that takes place during the 1986 World Cup. — Yvonne Villarreal

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Recommendations from the film and TV experts at The Times

Diarra Kilpatrick as Diarra Brickland and Shannon Wallace as Chris in Season2 of “Diarra From Detroit.”

(BET / Paramount+)

“Diarra from Detroit” (Paramount+)

Diarra Kilpatrick (“Perry Mason”) created and stars in this smart, sparky mystery as a middle school teacher, also named Diarra, who turns self-described Black Nancy Drew when a man she was dating (Shannon Wallace as Chris) disappears. The new season, which sees the series folded into Paramount+ along with other BET+ series, finds them together again (retrospective spoiler alert: she rescues him at the end of Season 1), with issues — he’s got trauma to navigate, she’s sorting out her identity and desires — and mysteries still to solve, including the identity of the Chief, the city’s Mr. Big. The new season, which feels even more self-assured, picks up old themes of friends and family, as the search for a missing antique desk leads Diarra and friends and accomplices Aja (DomiNque Perry) and Tea (Bryan Terrell Clark) into fanciful new territory, including encounters with Black Freemasons and bikers, the history of Prohibition and a treasure hunt. Local food culture (Superman ice cream, coney dogs, Faygo) gets its due. The mix of suspense, romance and comedy is deft; small details keep the characters surprising and lifelike.— Robert Lloyd

Rafaella Lopez as Barbara, Ian Andrade as Salvador, Aldo Emiliano Navarro as Miguel, Damian Vergara as Tono and Regina Arroyo as Maria in “I’m Not Afraid.”

(Julieta Horak / Netflix)

“I’m Not Afraid” (No Tengo Miedo) (Netflix)

The dilapidated La Esmeralda coffee estate in Mexico’s Veracruz mountains is a lush, beautiful and spooky place — the perfect setting for a kidnap mystery. But in “I’m Not Afraid,” it’s also the wonderfully imperfect backdrop for a compelling tale about friendship and family bonds as seen through the eyes of a child. Set in 1986 during FIFA World Cup fever and a blight that’s ruined the region’s coffee crops, 10-year-old Miguel (played with depth and authenticity by Aldo Emiliano Navarro) first discovers boy captive Felipe (Yago Andreu) hidden and chained in and overgrown area that’s said to be haunted. He’s sure it’s the work of a witch spoken about in local folklore until it’s revealed his beloved parents may have something to do with the abduction. Poverty has driven them and the other families on the estate to make desperate choices. Adapted from Niccolò Ammaniti’s acclaimed novel by Ernesto Contreras (“The Secret of the River”), this six-episode series explores what happens when adults do desperate things in the hope of securing a better future for their children, but it’s the kids who end up saving the day. — Lorraine Ali

Guest spot

A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they’re working on — and what they’re watching

Emmy Rossum as FBI agent Alice Black in “Furious.”

(Sarah Shatz / Disney)

“Furious” feels like a crime story for the Epstein age. The eight-episode psychological thriller stars Emmy Rossum as Alice Black, a troubled rookie FBI agent who left her job as an NYPD detective to escape a violent and traumatic relationship with a fellow cop. She gets enlisted to help track down a female serial killer, played by Lola Petticrew, whose targets are the wealthy men who exploited and trafficked her for sex. But the series isn’t as concerned with its ripped-from-the-headlines relevance. Over video call, creator Liz Meriwether discussed what she was interested in unpacking in TV’s latest addition to the crime drama genre and contributing to the red flag roles played by Jake Lacy. —Y.V.

The series is loosely based on the “Black Widow” film. But how much did current events, specifically stories surrounding Jeffrey Epstein and the powerful men in his orbit, inform what or how you wanted to explore here?

It really did start as a “Black Widow” adaptation. This female serial killer and this female FBI agent in this cat-and-mouse game that has this very weird third act, where they just end up hanging out together on a beach, being friends. I loved that part of it. In the midst of this very exciting female killer-female FBI agent crime movie, there was this story about two women connecting who don’t have anybody else really in their lives to connect with. I dug into that and quickly saw that if the serial killer was just a black widow like she is in the movie, that it wasn’t going to give me enough story for eight episodes. I did a lot of research about real-life female serial killers, which are pretty rare. Female serial killers are almost all victims of horrible violence at different times in their lives. That really got me going, OK, what does it mean if you’re a victim of violence and you start being perpetrator of violence? What are the things that we can forgive and understand, and what are the things that we can’t?

And yes, when I looked out into the wider world and current events and what I was thinking and feeling, I definitely scooped up a lot of a lot of stories that are out there. But it’s not the story of a specific predator. There’s a lot to choose from right now. It should feel relevant. It should have echoes of what’s going on out there. But I wanted the focus to be on these characters, not the men that did these acts.

The parallels between Alice and Catherine — what they each have survived and the different ways they deal with it — come into focus. What were you interested in exploring about the traumatic and lingering effects of abuse through these two women?

Initially, when we were casting Catherine, the question of age came up because all of my writer instincts were like, “Oh well, we need to have Catherine be very young and closer to when she was actually a victim of this predator.” But as I started thinking about it, I was like, I don’t think we’ve seen as many stories about the long-term effects of this violence. There’s no flashbacks in the show. I’m not interested in showing what was done to either one of them [Catherine and Alice]. I really was interested in the aftereffects.

I spoke to a social worker, a psychologist and a trafficking victim, which was one of the hardest conversations I’ve ever had, and also a beautiful conversation. Her name is Jay Benke, and she has an organization that helps people that have been trafficked. She made a really interesting point that stuck with me, which is that when these FBI agents and law enforcement officials build cases, they’re looking at putting the traffickers in jail; they’re not looking at what the people who have been trafficked need for their lives to heal. There’s also an amazing website that a lawyer pointed me to called thelifestory.org, which is videos from different people who’ve been trafficked telling their story — from their childhood, all the way through having been trafficked and then coming out — and it’s in the shape of a circle. Those two resources for me were incredible. On the Alice side of things, we tend to think of the experience of being a [domestic violence] victim as being much more cut and dry than it is for a lot of people. The victim’s relationship with violence and love is very complicated and violence and intimacy can become linked in their brain. It was something that I started to learn about in my research for “Dying for Sex” and continued on with “Furious.”

Lola Petticrew as Catherine in “Furious.”

(Sarah Shatz / Disney)

We see these very girly things, stickers and gemstones, that Catherine holds onto. It reminds us of her emotional or mental stasis.

I don’t know what Lola would say about this, but my thought about the character of Catherine was she was a bit trapped. The choice to go on the path of vengeance feels like a very active choice, but in some ways it’s really limited. It makes your whole life about what happened to you. I feel like Catherine’s story is about breaking out of that trap a little bit, almost trying to give her character a chance to to grow up in some ways. That was definitely a struggle for me going into this because I was like, how am I going to give a serial killer an emotional arc? Catherine is trapped and needs to put the pieces of her memory and her life together in order to move forward.

The thing I love in Episode 3 is the bag that Catherine puts on the bed. That was a big breakthrough for me for Catherine’s character in that her history is something that she’s had to piece together and hold on to, and there’s big gaps in her memory, so she holds on to these material objects in order to just feel like she’s a person. Then in looking at Alice’s character, we felt like she was the opposite in a lot of ways. She had run out of her life with Marshall and [did] not really bring that much. Her whole life is her job; her apartment is really bare.

I don’t mean to sound glib in regard to the subject matter, but you mentioned Marshall, played by Jake Lacy. Why has Jake cornered the market on playing toxic dudes who seem like nice guys?

I haven’t seen “All Her Fault” yet — it’s something that I really need to see. He’s extraordinary in the show [“Furious”], and I had a long conversation with him before he signed on. It’s a very tricky part to play. It was very important to me throughout the process that none of the characters were easily put into bad or good categories — hopefully, we’re constantly making the audience question their feelings and their judgments about people. There’s an incredible documentary called “A Better Man” that is impossible to find. I had to pay like $50 to rent it. It’s this couple that dated when they were in high school, and he was abusive toward her. She got out of the situation, and they’re coming back in their 30s, meeting again and talking about what happened. It’s an unbelievable documentary. I had Jake watch it because I really wanted him to think about Marshall as a human. He really contributed to that, and you can see it in his performance. He’s [Jake’s] a very nice guy.

You know I can’t let you go without mentioning this “New Girl” reboot — or at least the talk of it. It’s become a bit at this point — Lamorne Morris and Jake Johnson pointing fingers at each other. You posted a video on Instagram confessing to sending explicit messages that have caused some tension.

In some ways, I feel like the videos and the interviews and stuff is maybe better than a reboot. If we can see that as the reboot, maybe that would be good for everybody. [The video] came from me getting this question from journalists during the [“Furious”] junket, It was like Hour Eight of the junket, and my brain just disappeared, and I started talking like a stream of consciousness — like I don’t have any more stories to tell or something. And then I went home that night and texted the cast and I was like, “I really messed up the question.” It had been this running joke on our text threads about how they just constantly blame each other, but a lot of the times they blame me like I’m the one that’s like holding up the reboot. I find it so annoying, but then I like answered this question in a horrible way, and then I was like, “Oh, I am going to be the one who has to answer to this.”

If it does happen, it’s going to be a really dark “New Girl” reboot, given the tone of recent projects.

[Laughs] I don’t even know if fans would want what would come out of me at this point.

Last question: What have you’ve watched recently that you’re recommending to everyone?

I love “Taskmaster” [YouTube, Pluto TV]. It’s the thing that brings me joy when I need it and so I always recommend that to everybody — but with the caveat that you have to love British humor. If you love joy and British humor, I highly recommend “Taskmaster.” And Kumail [Nanjiani] was on this last season, which was like really fun.

I’m very behind. “Widow’s Bay” [Apple TV] is No. 1 on my list. I need to watch it. I love Katie [Dippold, the show’s creator] so much.

ICYMI

Must-read stories you might have missed

IT nurtured some of our broadcasting greats, from Terry Wogan and Tony Blackburn to Chris Moyles and Zoe Ball.

But now staff at BBC Radio 1 fear the station is crumbling beyond recognition.

This week it was announced that long-standing duo Melvin Odoom and Rickie Haywood-Williams will be departing, while DJs Dean McCullough, Nat O’Leary, James Cusack and Swarzy are also on their way out.

Meanwhile, social media stars GK Barry and Charley Marlowe are set to come in as part of a shake-up.

And lesser-known DJs Mylo & Rosie, as well as Emil Franchi, have landed bigger slots.

Insiders say tensions at the flagship youth station reached fever pitch after the comings and goings were announced on Wednesday, with some staffers claiming they only learnt of the changes when the BBC press office made them public.

“To say the handling of this feels like an absolute mess is an understatement,” one told The Sun.

“Some producers had no idea their talent was leaving. One of Melvin and Rickie’s team wasn’t told about the changes until they saw the email.

“They’d been on the station for seven years. So to see them suddenly off out of the back door was really upsetting. The atmosphere was chaotic and some staff were absolutely shellshocked.”

The changes have been met with hostility from listeners, many of whom took to social media to vent their anger.

One Radio 1 listener wrote on Instagram: “This is so disappointing.

“Both GK Barry and Charley Marlowe are incredibly talented at their craft but it’s so discouraging to see BBC Radio 1 providing these opportunities to host to already established presenters when there are so many people looking to break into the industry.”

Another was not happy with “clearing out DJs for social media ‘stars’,” while a third added: “Why is R1 on a self-sabotage mission by bringing in a load of social media ‘stars’ and godawful local radio DJs?”

An emotional staffer told us that a meeting, which was said to have included long-standing radio producers, was called to discuss the changes after the announcements were made.

They explained: “There is a weekly meeting on a Wednesday at Radio 1, but this week they called a second meeting where people were invited to speak up.

“A fair few people put their hands up to raise concerns.

“The main bone of contention was why Radio 1 appeared keen to say goodbye to established broadcasters and replace them with YouTubers and TikTokers.

“Much of the blame is being laid at the door of the big boss, Aled Haydn Jones. Some of the staff are so unhappy.”

Aled was a DJ on Radio 1 between 2009 and 2015 before he succeeded Ben Cooper as head of the station in 2020.

Insiders say he prides himself on championing new talent and is behind the raft of influencers joining the line-up, including GK, who came fifth in 2024’s I’m A Celeb.

Her arrival, alongside social media sensation Charley, has allegedly more than ruffled feathers.

“These influencers are lovely but they’re not radio geeks like most of the DJs who work at Radio 1,” one staffer explained.

“Working at Radio 1 is the dream job for any budding broadcaster who has put in the hard yards on student radio or local stations.

“It was held up as the pinnacle by so many people.

“But now it’s being eroded by this desperation to bring in ‘new’ talent that they think will bring in a new audience.

“The producers who work on these shows are so upset at what is happening.

“A couple have already decided to walk away. And it won’t be long before others start jumping ship.”

Another staffer added: “Aled seems to think social media is going to save Radio 1, but where’s the proof?

“Audience figures are down and they think the way to save it is by plugging the gap with people who are popular on the internet.

“That’s all well and good, but will their millions of followers start tuning into Radio 1 just to listen to them? It’s doubtful.

“Their fans already have access to their content at the touch of a button and that is a daily habit.

“Making them carve out a new habit of listening to them every day is incredibly difficult.”

Launched in 1967, Radio 1 was born out of the need to compete with the rise of pirate radio stations which had become hugely popular.

Legendary broadcaster Tony Blackburn was the first DJ to broadcast on the new station.

It grew into a juggernaut of the airwaves, commanding audiences of ten million for some shows and making huge stars out of presenters including Chris Evans, Simon Mayo and Sara Cox.

But as listening habits change, audiences across the BBC and commercial stations are decreasing.

Figures at the start of this year confirmed that the weekly audience reach across BBC radio stations is in steady decline.

In the final quarter of 2025, Radio 1’s weekly audience reach dropped by six per cent compared to the same period last year.

But bosses were keen to stress that their target market of 15 to 29-year-olds was consuming Radio 1 in different ways.

In that same final quarter, the station boasted more than 329million views on social media and Radio 1’s YouTube videos have had more than 6.1billion views.

But one BBC employee said: “It’s not just young people that listen to Radio 1.

“There is a decent percentage of listeners that are older.

“They have stuck with the station since they were young and they tune in to listen to DJs they have known and loved for years. Putting some influencers in their places, regardless of how well known they are, won’t translate as well.

“Many people working at Radio 1 think Aled is making a mistake if he carries on in this vein.”

The remaining jewel in the Radio 1 crown is Breakfast Show host Greg James.

Greg, 40, took over the coveted role from Nick Grimshaw in 2018 and pulls in more than four million listeners, making it the No1 Breakfast Show for young people across the country. But a well-placed insider revealed that BBC Radio 2 — the nation’s biggest station — was keen to bring him on board.

“Greg had meetings with Radio 2 and they were testing the water in a bid to poach him,” a source claimed.

“When Scott Mills left Radio 2’s Breakfast Show and Sara Cox took over, there was a lot of talk at Broadcasting House about whether Greg would make the move. But he’s definitely staying on board at Radio 1 for now.

“To lose Greg would have been horrendous because he is such a figurehead at Radio 1.

“Thankfully, he’s remaining in place.”

The Sun understands some staffers are now considering jumping ship with the departing talent.

And the blame is being solely laid at Aled’s door.

“Aled has been massacring the schedules and the method isn’t working,” one staffer said.

“The feeling is that he is ruining Radio 1 and it is heartbreaking.

“It feels like the craft of making radio isn’t being respected and the people behind the scenes who craft this magic for the audience aren’t being treated with the respect they deserve. Radio 1 used to be the best station to work at, with the most talented pool of people and the most incredible presenters.

“It’s like a shadow of what it once was.”

A BBC spokesman said: “Radio 1 is proud to be the number one station for young audiences and has a strong track record of supporting and developing young and emerging radio talent, with a huge majority of presenters having come through the station’s own initiatives and opportunities.

“Alongside Radio 1’s commitment to nurturing new voices, there will always be a home for DJs with specialist music knowledge and talent from a diverse range of backgrounds who we know resonate with our young audience.”

What is the angriest acting performance you’ve ever seen?

Maybe it’s Joe Pesci in “Goodfellas.” (“Funny how? Do I amuse you?”) Perhaps it’s James Caan kicking the stuffing out of his ne’er-do-well brother-in-law Carlo in “The Godfather.” John Goodman enforcing the rules of bowling in “The Big Lebowski”? It’s in the conversation.

Did Ben Kingsley in “Gandhi” cross your mind? Probably not.

The 82-year-old Oscar winner thinks it should.

I’m Glenn Whipp, columnist for the Los Angeles Times and host of The Envelope newsletter. Don Logan or Mahatma Gandhi? The answer isn’t as plain as you might think.

Not long ago, I spoke with Kingsley just before an Emmy FYC event for “Wonder Man,” the enjoyable new Marvel TV series that finds him revisiting Trevor Slattery, the washed-up, drug-addled actor he first played in 2013’s “Iron Man 3.”

“Wonder Man” follows struggling actor Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), trying to land a big break in Hollywood while keeping his superpowers hidden. Trevor befriends Simon. Initially he has ulterior motives, but soon becomes Simon’s mentor, turning the series into a look at the indignities that actors face while pursuing their profession.

Taking notes while watching the show’s eight episodes, I wrote, “Ben Kingsley’s seething anger is everything.”

You may remember Kingsley’s bullying and badgering and swaggering menace playing the underworld sociopath in Jonathan Glazer’s 2000 crime-thriller “Sexy Beast,” still my favorite Kingsley performance, one that earned him a supporting actor Oscar nomination. (He lost to Jim Broadbent in “Iris.”)

Is that kind of boiling rage as fun to play as it is to watch?

“If the expression of rage or indignation is completely dramatically justified and that expression of indignation is of enormous benefit to the tribe, yes,” Kingsley answers.

(Larsen&Talbert / For The Times)

Kingsley says Itzhak Stern, Oskar Schindler’s loyal aide and factory manager in “Schindler’s List,” was, “bless him,” all about “contained rage.”

“And a colleague of mine who saw ‘Gandhi’ said, ‘That’s the angriest performance I’ve ever seen on screen,’” Kingsley continues. “That righteous indignation propelled him, and it can be expressed in many ways. Sometimes the safety valve is efficient enough to allow it to come through language and gesture, and sometimes the safety valve can’t hold it.

“That was Don Logan in ‘Sexy Beast.’ No safety valve.”

Let’s circle back to that thought of how rage can help the “tribe.” In “Wonder Man,” Trevor proclaims that “acting is not a job. It’s a calling, the single most consequential thing anyone could ever do with their life.”

“I would broaden the definition and refine it back to its origins,” Kingsley says when I ask if he shares Trevor’s view on acting. “There are images, thoughts and threads that I find nourishing and sustaining, and I treasure them. The tribal storyteller is a very consequential figure in the tribe, and if the mantle of the tribal storyteller falls upon that person’s shoulders, that is the single most consequential thing that person can do in their lives.”

“Trevor expresses it quite differently, and that’s fine,” Kingsley says. “That’s in the script. I honor the lines. But for me personally, as a rather convoluted answer, the tribal storyteller is the hand I hold and the baton I want passed on to me. Maybe it has. I hope I’m worthy, but it’s …” Kingsley widens his eyes and whispers, “Wow.”

“It is the single most consequential thing I can do with my life.”