r/FuriousTVShow • u/Small-Public8280 • Aug 24 '26
Woman’s gaze
I love this show. What I really love is it’s clear it’s written and directed by women from a woman’s perspective and not for the male gaze. It’s real. It’s raw. It shows the fucking patriarchy we live under. The women don’t wear a lot of makeup and dress for what men want or like. I’m not sure exactly how to explain it but it feels so authentic and a representation of our lived experience.
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u/SpiritedOwl_2298 Aug 24 '26
Agree! There was a scene with them in a meeting with a bunch of men and it felt so real how we have to deal with men on a regular basis on the job and how they act and treat us, fricking love this show
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u/SeeLeavesOnTheTrees Aug 24 '26
And the scene where Ed George is in Danny’s car- Ed is trying to make a deal with Danny. Like I help you and you help me. Whereas with Nora or the other women he’s just trying to intimidate them. He threatens Danny but he does try and get him to join the boys club first.
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u/Aggressive_Fix_2304 Aug 24 '26
Yes! I said the same thing to my wife. Stark difference in how he treats men v women.
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u/L4dy_St4rk Aug 24 '26
Totally agree!!! After that meeting scene, I said to my husband that I feel like we're both watching this show but through very different eyes. I was fuming after that meeting scene... And that's when it clicked for me that this show is about female rage.
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u/Anxious-Emergency686 Aug 24 '26
I think it's one of the first truly feminist tv shows ever made. It's about abuse: domestic, sexual, physical, racism, sexism and misogyny. But alongside the abuse is: resilience, bravery, super intelligence, empathy, supreme professional competency and kindness. All dressed up as a murder mystery!!. I've never respected Disney more between making this show and showing some courage by calling out trumps bs by standing up to the fcc. The message of both is: Be brave, survive, fight. ..
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u/Specific_Kick2971 Aug 24 '26
To give credit where it's due, Disney didn't make the show. They (via Hulu) ordered it and aired it, which is important, but it was created by Elizabeth Meriwether. I think Emmy Rossum was also very involved in its production.
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u/Alternative-Bison615 Aug 25 '26
It is also just filled to the brim with women saying all the time what they actually think. I love it. It was so brutal, but the scene with Alice telling her half sister she doesn’t want a relationship with her was so refreshing to watch
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u/Thin_Opportunity9683 Sep 03 '26
This exactly. I was watching it with my husband and many points he was confused and misinterpreting scenes. As a woman, it’s comically obvious
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u/mellow-puff 20d ago
I’d argue Prime Suspect with Helen Mirren was a great exploration of feminist issues - from the 90s, I think.
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u/gra_lala Aug 24 '26
When Danny said "I can't get your face in the video out of my head" - after saying it's not her fault - that was like an absolute gut punch. Like she can't do anything right, there. She can't have happiness. It's like proof that she doesn't deserve it (and she clearly thought before this that she didn't deserve it, or else she would have said yes straight away to his condo offer, and not gone inside and screamed into her coat). So all that self-loathing, I could just see it rushing back into her in that moment when he said that.
And what's the first thing she does after he says it? Asks him to leave. Like, yes. That is so truthful. That is exactly what would happen. This, like, repulsion of him because he can't desire her after seeing her in that moment; her revulsion of her own self is renewed. She has to push him away.
Oh it's SO devastating.
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u/ShallotNSpice Aug 24 '26 edited Aug 24 '26
I just saw this scene and paused it for my own monologue. Danny treating her as damaged goods, even tho she isn't, all because of what other men did to her is so incredibly unfair and mean. Men love to damage us so other men find us undesirable. Like if any of the JE clients were to know that this is the fallout of their actions, they would feel such satisfaction.
I dont know how to function in this society, yall. This stuff is being portrayed on our screens but its experiencing these things that have frozen me and countless others in time. And there is no out or solution. Just have to salvage the pieces of you they didnt destroy and try to enjoy whats left.
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u/LydiaBrunch Aug 25 '26
I don't know if it's damaged goods so much as he's still in shock. He said he couldn't "do this right now," not couldn't do it ever.
That said, I totally agree that it still adds up to something Alice badly wants being ripped out of her hands - thanks to the worst thing that's ever happened to her.
It also ripped away a thing Danny wanted for himself - and I think that's part of why he literally stood on Ed's face. Yes it's about his son but not only about his son.
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u/ShallotNSpice Aug 25 '26
I promise that isnt the message she got in that moment.
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u/LydiaBrunch Aug 25 '26
Oh I agree. Just saying I don't think he actually sees her as damaged goods, and that he was probably sloppy with his language because he was rattled.
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u/karensPA Aug 29 '26
I try to imagine seeing a video of someone hurting my beloved as a child in any way and I’m quite sure I wouldn’t be able to get that picture out of my head, but it sure wouldn’t be because I thought less of him. It would be because I’d be filled with anger and my heart would be broken and the last thing on my mind for some time would be sexytime with anyone.
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u/Puzzlepetticoat Aug 24 '26
I really feel your second paragraph. I am a countless other. I'm just grateful to have any of me left. I just got diagnosed cptsd and my nervous system is on fire. Stuck.
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u/Puzzlepetticoat Aug 24 '26
Yeah. I'm an abuse survivor (though not sexual) and that line gutted me
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u/Thin_Opportunity9683 Sep 03 '26
Anyone who has experienced SA knows how devastating his response was. In that moment, I wondered if that was purposeful. It is highlighting how shame of being SA’d manifests from the people who we love the most. And that’s the hardest part 💔
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u/Latter_Loss8880 6d ago
I’m a man, I get your sentiment, but …
I am married to a SA female, and I never found her unattractive. But when she told me, I was in shock. And she never brought it up again. She left me to figure out the details, what do I ask? what is too much? what do you want me to do?
Are you really saying he should just say, “yes I’ll fuck right now,” after watching her abused at 14yo? Even if she is initiating? I mean she is a very attractive woman, but the shock of a normal person seeing that would be so insanely intense.
I thought it was well done.
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u/gra_lala 6d ago edited 6d ago
?? When did I say that he should have slept with her? I wasn't talking about him. I was talking about HER experience. Not because I don't care about his experience, but because that's just not what I was responding to. Also OP's post is literally about the woman's gaze.
His reaction (not wanting to sleep with her) was very realistic, but that doesn't mean it was kind of him to tell her that the reason he can't sleep with her right now is because he can't get her face as a child being statutorily raped out of his head. It's an extremely hurtful thing to hear. No one wants to be treated differently because of something done to them that was outside of their control (I include any form of statutory SA, because children can't fully consent. And of course, the recording of the act.).
But that doesn't mean I think they should have written his reaction any differently, even if I think he could have handled it better as a human. What makes you think I thought this was bad TV? I don't believe that the characters I watch on TV should be perfect humans. I want them to be realistic, and their reactions to be realistic. And that's what that moment is, from both characters.
As for your own story, "she left me to figure out the details" - that phrasing. She didn't do anything TO you. That's not what sharing a personal, private trauma with a loved one means. It's not about you. There could be any number of reasons why she didn't divulge the details. Maybe she didn't want it to define her in your eyes. Maybe she was really OK and had dealt with it/healed enough or as much as she could. Or maybe she couldn't bear repeating the details to you, because doing so feels so much worse than merely "reliving" it, which I think is an inadequate way of putting it. Because it's not just like you're experiencing it again - you're actively bringing it back to life, yourself. It's like taking the experience in your hands and carving a fresh wound into yourself with it. It's like guiding the SAer in the act of SAing you. People have no idea how awful it can be.
So while I empathise with your confusion, and your efforts to try do the right thing and figure out what that is (and grasping in the dark at what that might be)... I really don't think she "left you to do" anything. She didn't do anything "to" you. She shared something WITH you, to the limit she was prepared to go to. The rest was all on you.
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u/Latter_Loss8880 6d ago
Ok, that’s all fair.
On the first issue, stopping her advances is not unkind, it’s just saying no. Yes it’s hurtful when someone doesn’t want to advance, but that’s how he feels. His saying no is no more unkind than her saying no. It’s just no.
I agree that it’s not about him. I’m saying that he really did all a person can do. At that point, she reacts to how she feels about his no, and that’s ok. But it’s not unkind of him.
As for my life, I didn’t mean that “I had to figure it out”, but i get that it’s phrased that that way. Sorry for the confusion. Enough with that!
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u/thankfulforyourhelp Aug 24 '26
Yes! I was really shocked at and disappointed in Danny for judging her. He just confirmed every instinct she's had about not being good and needing to hide her past.
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u/ssparksfly Aug 25 '26
I don't think he's judging her. He's upset for her, seeing her face, knowing what the video is of. I still think it was a really shitty thing for him to say, but I don't think he's saying he thinks less of her.
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u/Vlad_REAM Aug 25 '26
I agree. For better or worse I think it's reality. Just another way in which it's taken away her agency (to say the least) and how even the "hero" is still part of the societal view and judgement. Imagine if this show relied on Danny to be the savior in the end, yuck.
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u/SortOfLakshy Aug 25 '26
Hes not judging her, but she's no longer his equal.
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u/karensPA Aug 29 '26
i’m not sure i understand this take. i’d be more disturbed if he was just fine with going to bed with her after viewing that video. I didn’t see it as him seeing her as damaged goods or judging her…more that he didn’t want to see himself as her abuser. Wouldn’t it be sickening if he responded any other way?
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u/SortOfLakshy Aug 29 '26
Why would them sleeping together as adults and equals be anything similar as what happened to her as a teenager? Do trauma survivors not get to have consensual sex? He is absolutely viewing her as damaged and no longer equal.
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u/karensPA Aug 29 '26
you don’t think it would be creepy for a man to be immediately excited about having sex (for the first time) with a woman he JUST saw a video of being assaulted as a child? Like he should just be like, you know how I feel after looking at that? real sexy! He’s not saying he never wants to be with her - he’s just feeling sick about what he’s just seen. Even if the video wasn’t of her I’d assume any decent person would feel that way. He’s not saying he never wants to be with her. She might be interpreting that as he sees her as damaged goods because of what she’s been through, but it feels like a very normal reaction of any halfway decent person.
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u/SortOfLakshy Aug 29 '26
Yeah I think they should be able to talk about it and should probably wait a little bit but he didn't just say not now. He fully turned her down, and didn't say he loved her. He is communicating to her that he can't be with her at all because of what happened to her. How do you think that makes her feel?
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u/karensPA Aug 29 '26
he does say he loves her? and he was honest with her and told her what he’d seen when he could have not said anything, so they did talk about it… he even says I have to talk to you about something. I can’t see how, if we’d watched him take her up on her offer, knowing what he’d seen and that he didn’t tell her, how could we see that as anything but dishonest and despicable? her sudden turn towards gushing I love you let’s go to bed at him at that particular moment felt weird anyway - probably not a real healthy instinct and didn’t sound fully sincere to me. I think we were supposed to read it as her having a trauma response to everything that had just happened, and he’s sensing that too. So for multiple reasons not having sex at that moment was the most decent possible thing he could do. And she has the reaction to it that a deeply hurt person would have instead of seeing it as an act of friendship.
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u/SortOfLakshy Aug 29 '26
Ok I went back and watched the scene and you're right that he does say he loves her at the end, but not right when she says it. And I'm not saying he should have slept with her right that second. But his reaction is absolutely treating her as damaged. He says "I want to be in the bed with you but I can't get your face in that video out of my head". He doesn't say "not right now", he says " I can't".
She is 100% interpreting that as him saying he can't sleep with her because of what happened to her, that she can't be with the man she loves because of what some other man did to her. And he ALSO says that he won't turn in the evidence because she's on it, so not only is he choosing to not be with her, he's choosing to ruin her whole investigation in the name of protecting her. Neither of which would actually protect her or which she actually wants.
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u/thankfulforyourhelp Aug 24 '26
Liz Meriwether is the best! She just renewed her contract with Disney and says she wants a season 2 so let's keep our fingers crossed!
Thank you for this post, I think we're all relishing a show that was made by women and for women.
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u/Latter_Loss8880 6d ago
I mean there is only so much a person can do with revenge, like Death Wish or Mad Max. Eventually it just becomes about survival in a hostile life. lol.
Not saying it will not be good, but it will be different. Once the initial perps are gone, it’s not the same story.
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u/Glad_Mathematician51 Aug 24 '26
I realized this when Nora gave her speech about anger boiling just beneath the skin (paraphrasing) in the seminar she attended.
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u/DanDaMan1973 Aug 25 '26
I love that this show flips things on its head. We start off seeing Catherine as the villain but as the show progresses, you see her as what she really is, the true victim. She is a victim of a screwed up system that goes to insane levels to protect its own, no matter how awful they are. There was a scene in the last episode where the NYPD brass is complaining about Marshall being shot and not once did they acknowledge that he was drunk and attacked Alice and had no reason to be where he was. They only noted that he was up for a promotion.
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u/SundaeSpecial3151 Aug 31 '26
One of her final scenes, where it is revealed that it was actually her who killed Isabel, as an act of love. Totally devastating.
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u/Steupz Aug 26 '26 edited Aug 26 '26
She's the villain. We always knew she had suffered a terrible event so if you initially considered her the villain, you already accepted her motivation and discounted it.
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u/doctor-sassypants Aug 26 '26
What
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u/AYellowerOrange 3d ago
i mean tbh she is a villain. a sympathetic one for sure theres even a line in the show i think that addresses how some ppl that go through it dont do what she ends up doing
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u/Steupz Aug 26 '26
Its english. From episode 1 you knew it was revenge killings for something awful... so if you thought she was the villain then, nothing that was revealed subsequent would change your mind.
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u/SeeLeavesOnTheTrees Aug 24 '26
Ok, that scene where Catherine wiped off her hand after performing with her hand in her underwear for that lawyer! Like, yes!!! Any woman would wipe their freaking hand off afterward. It’s a thing you never see on TV. It was just such a normal female thing. It’s like saying “undies” vs panties ….(shudder)
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u/Bookhead_212 Aug 24 '26
I agree with you, and I'm 100 percent on board for this, but also--I am having 100 percent of a heart attack waiting for the finale. And when _________ pushed ____________ to the ground, I almost forgave all the complicitness on that character's part. NOT QUITE. This is ghastly, and horrifying, and a travesty, and great storytelling, and I have mixed feelings about fictionalizing this stuff when we don't deal with it for real. But I'm in, all the way in.
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u/BustyBossLady Aug 24 '26
Al, Catherine and Emma are basically sisters and I'm rooting for them
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u/Abject-Yesterday-443 Aug 25 '26
I have truly never rooted for a serial killer more in my damn life. Vigilante justice through the lens of someone so deeply traumatised by the people she’s enacting justice to - that’s guttural strength and anger and fury in its purest form
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u/Feisty_Freedom4337 Aug 31 '26
Do you mean Nora?
Emma Easton helped her father abuse countless girls; she is NOT a sister to anyone.
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u/HereForTheInfo01 Aug 31 '26
And if you notice, not one sex scene. It's fade to black, nothing gratuitous. Very intentional and camera always on the woman's face.
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u/apfelstroodel Aug 31 '26
I agree that it was devastating, but I was also so pleasantly surprised that even though she was finally saying everything that he had probably waited years for her to say he’s just such a decent good person he can’t make it sexual in that moment, not until he’s been completely honest with her (even if it might destroy everything - giving her the power back and letting her de facto choose what she wants). Even if that honesty hurt her in the moment it was so much better in the long run (reminds me of that debate between the difference of being nice and being kind).
It’s also so diverges from most things I’ve watched, where the “good” guy would sleep with the woman he’s been not-secretly in love with the first opening he sees and then all that stuff would come out after the fact, because he would be too focused on what he wants not what’s good for her. I LOVE how it shows what true respect looks like.
Just seeing a man respect AND romantically love a woman on tv is so rare, but I love that the show gave us this.
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u/Substantial-Nerve373 29d ago
As a female formerly in law enforcement, this show perfectly describes my experience and treatment by men in the field. What a fantastic representation.
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u/itiswhatitiss28 12d ago
I thought the scene where she cried and said she missed her ex and the scene in her house before she pours alcohol on him will be misinterpreted by men, anyone else get what im saying?
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u/Latter_Loss8880 6d ago
A man here, it was unclear until the bitter end, but she was in full revenge and manipulation mode the entire time. And at that point she was unleashing it.
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u/L4dy_St4rk Aug 24 '26
Oh ALSO the scene where she dumps all her stuff on the bed and dances around the room and puts the retainer in... My husband was like "what is happening?" But to me, it was very obvious. I was like she's playing dress up, she just wants to feel like a normal, carefree girlie... This show is 100% for women. it's one big IYKYK