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…