French-language Netflix original Furies is an ambitious project, competing with the plethora of European action thrillers that have been making waves for a while now. The show follows a Parisian underworld where six massive families come together under the title of Olympus. To maintain the peace between these families, a supreme force, “The Fury”, is enlisted to maintain decorum and make sure Paris doesn’t turn into a warzone. Lyna is the protagonist of this show. At the beginning of the show, she’s a woman who tries to hide her origin—born into a crime family that works under Olympus. Lyna’s perfect porcelain life is shattered when her father is shot dead, falling onto her birthday cake right by her side. With the blood still fresh on her face, she’s forced to hide while her mother tries to fight for their safety. This is where Lyna’s revenge story begins. It’s quite a convoluted story because, as much as it is about Lyna and her revenge, it’s also about two siblings: her biological father and her aunt. Lyna’s mother (who we learn later is adoptive) is left with a brain injury after trying to keep Lyna safe. This leaves her all by herself to figure out who did this to her family and why.
Lyna’s left with the message that “The Fury” has killed her father. Now, in prison, Lyna, who has never been interested in a life of crime, suddenly learns how to throw a punch. She’s let go about 5 months later, though I’m still not sure why she was in prison at all when her father was the one killed. Slowly, the spool of Lyna’s life unwinds, showing her how everything’s been a massive lie. To understand why Lyna’s mixed up in this mess, the first thing we must understand is how the furies work. A long time ago, there were seven families in Olympus. The Aragos were massacred after their family appeared to be too powerful in comparison to the rest of the mafia families. Only one woman remained, and she vowed to maintain peace within the underworld in order for such a catastrophe to never occur again. Thus, the first fury was born. As you can imagine, the furies are women, so a man born into the fury family is almost inconsequential. This is exactly what happened to Lyna’s biological father, Driss. Essentially, he became his family’s worst enemy, a threat to Olympus, an anti-fury, if you will. As the furies grew, Lyna’s aunt Selma’s job at the time was to kill her own younger brother; however, she left him alive, and so we come to the events of the show.
What’s quite unrealistic about this show is that Lyna’s nonchalant demeanor is attributed to her intelligence, because every time her biological aunt, i.e., Selma, or her father, Driss, does something to threaten her life, lie to her, or betray her, she’s mostly unbothered. No, of course, there are a couple of tears shed, but it’s really not as if her life’s been upended out of the blue. Lyna as a person is meant to appear very strong; she’s got great resolve, and as we’re reminded 100 times, she’s extremely intelligent and ahead of the curve, her aunt and father included. Lyna doesn’t get the option to choose to be a fury or not; she’s randomly thrust into it, and somehow, she’s just a natural at it. On the other hand, before any of this happens, Lyna’s ironically dating a cop. She never introduces him to her family because they would be at odds, considering they’re a family of criminals. As they keep reminding us, it sounds like a very bad (or very good) adult film.
Lyna’s forced to break off her perfect relationship with Elie when she finds the fury and somehow becomes a part of her team. Lyna doesn’t want to do so; however, in the middle of this emotional break-up, she also finds herself attracted to a man named Orso, who we later learn is part of the team of the man who is Selma’s enemy. Orso and Lyna have a primal attraction, but it doesn’t seem like they’ll actually hit it off. However, after she’s forced to break up with her cop boyfriend, she picks the criminal who is meant to be her enemy as her next partner. I suppose this girl really enjoys the enemies-to-lovers trope. It’s nice that amidst the “crazy,” she has time for love too.
As the show progresses, it becomes rather predictable, and it’s quite obvious that her father is the great enemy. We’re meant to be confused between Selma and Driss; who is the real enemy? Who is the nice one? Who really cares for Lyna? In all honesty, I don’t think anybody does. She’s just a pawn in their web of lies. Selma wants to maintain that the furies are the greatest peacekeepers, and Driss doesn’t want to remain the “second-hand child.” Despite having never known her father, Lyna has one thing in common with him. Her father fell in love with an undercover cop, Lyna’s mother, who came from a family of generations of cops. A big mistake on the fury’s part for not realizing this blunder. Selma basically ruined Lyna’s life, gave her a new one, and then ruined that too by leaving her father alive. This is why I said it was too convoluted and somewhat nonsensical. At the end of the day, though, Lyna still chooses Selma. To be fair, she doesn’t have a choice; she watches Selma shoot her father in the head. However, it did always seem like she’d choose her.
At the end of the show, because the Olympus themselves have created a big mess, they hire the evil mercenary group Damocles to kill their newly appointed fury Praques. This is why you’ve got to leave the lady stuff to the lady’s kids. What I found hilarious was that at the end of the show, Selma is narrating everything that unfolded between her, Driss, Lyna, and Praques to the 6 Godfathers, but they’re all actually lying dead in front of her. They could’ve at least checked before wasting their time, no? Anyway, this leaves them with no choice but to work under Damocles. Lyna’s relationship with Selma is a strange one. Technically, she should hate her; however, she thinks she’s done everything in her power to make life better for Lyna. I feel like this logic alone is flawed. How are we supposed to root for Lyna as a fury if it’s all so messed up? Or this relationship? Now, with only the two of them left, Lyna is left with no choice but to join hands with the Damocles and set off on a new journey.
