Lola Petticrew is making a habit out of playing women who are going after their goals… no matter what it costs.

**Spoiler alert: This article contains details from the first three episodes of Furious, now streaming on Hulu**

In Petticrew’s new series — which also stars Emmy Rossum and Jake Lacy — the Irish actor steps into the role of Catherine, a traumatized young woman who begins hunting down and killing men, specifically ones who have been up to no good. And after playing famed IRA volunteer Dolours Price in FX’s Say Nothing, it’s something they might just have a knack for.

“I think I’m someone who’s really interested in the moral gray areas of things and particularly of people and the characters that I play,” Petticrew says, adding that in the case of Furious, it also didn’t hurt that the first scene hooked them instantly. “I think I was sent the first two scripts straight away and the opener is pretty fantastic, and I don’t think that has changed much from the scripts that I was given. You’re immediately faced with this massive, fierce image of this woman and a very extreme act. And so immediately it was like a gut punch to see a woman allowed to do that on screen,” they tell DECIDER over Zoom.

In the very first scene of Episode 1, the audience at home watches as Petticrew’s character — adorned in a very creepy cat mask as she watches trick-or-treaters go from door to door on Halloween in New York City — takes the life of an unidentified man, injecting drugs into his arm and causing him to overdose. She then lies down right next to her victim as he’s dying, watching the life drain from his eyes. That scene first introduces the audience to the tone of the series, including the sickly-dark sense of humor Catherine has.

Thankfully, it’s not just straight darkness and fury for Petticrew’s very determined on-screen personality, as the show gives plenty of room to Catherine to let her origin story unfold over the course of the eight episodes in Season 1. What Petticrew says they found by the end was a character cut from a complex cloth that allows Catherine to be a heartless criminal who doesn’t bat an eye at a death, as well as a broken woman who is just waiting for someone to see them and acknowledge them.

“As I read on, there was also this beautiful, dignified space for her to also be more complicated than that, and to be somebody who was vulnerable and emotional and hurt and sort of the mix of those things,” Petticrew adds of what made them say yes to the project.

For Petticrew, the show feels a bit like a representation of a topic like A.I., as it highlights society’s reliance on software and programs that simplify things for users, maybe even a little too much. Often, the truth does not come in black or white, but a million shades of gray and it’s what makes Furious feel real.

“I think increasingly in this world, we’re stripping nuance away a lot and we want clear-cut simple answers right away. Maybe that’s why everybody’s so obsessed with ChatGPT, but I’m not so much interested in that. I think that this character and this show are sort of a perfect tonic for that,” they said.

Petticrew adds, “People get to be complicated and messy and difficult, and you don’t have to agree with their actions, but you certainly get the opportunity to understand them.”

The first three episodes of Furious are now streaming on Hulu. New episodes premiere Mondays.

If you’re new to Hulu, the basic (with ads) price is $11.99/month. If you want to upgrade to Hulu ad-free, it costs $18.99/month.

If you want to stream even more and save a few bucks a month while you’re at it, we recommend subscribing to one of the Disney+ Bundles, all of which include Hulu. These bundles start at $12.99/month for ad-supported Disney+ and Hulu and goes up to $32.99/month for Disney+, Hulu, and Max, all ad-free.