The French action series Furieson Netflix since March 1, 2024, draws on Greco-Roman mythology to construct its criminal Paris.
This is the French event series for March 2024, a dose of supercharged action over 8 episodes: Furies has been on Netflix since March 1, propelled almost immediately to the top of the rankings.
With Lina El Arabi at the head of the bill, accompanied by the two pundits Marina Foïs and Mathieu Kassovitz, this French production is set in an ultraviolent alternative Paris, where the law of crime is above all else. Five mafia families share a shadow government, called Olympe. In this slump, the Fury brings order… at least, it tries. After the assassination of her father, who was the accountant for organized crime, Lyna sets out on a quest for revenge – and thus encounters the Fury.
Furies torment the guilty
In its vocabulary, the series created by Jean-Yves Arnaud and Yoann Legave is modeled on Greco-Roman mythology. The reference to Olympus is the most obvious: in ancient Greece, it was the domain of the gods – as if to accentuate the omnipotence of the five mafia families who run this infernal Paris; the staging emphasizing this almost divine dimension.
But the title of the series – with the figure of Furie – is also mythological. The term comes from the Romans; where these deities are also described as female dogs of Hades. In ancient Greece, these are the Erinyes. They live in the darkness of the Underworld. Their role: to torment and afflict the worst punishments on those guilty of crimes. Acts involving family law, or concerning oaths, are particularly monitored by the furies.
For example, Greek mythology presents the story of Orestes, assailed by the Erinyes (furies) after the murder of his mother. To the extent that the criminal Olympus of the French series is described as a large family where only strict rules avoid chaos, thanks to the character played by Marina Foïs, the figure of fury corresponds more or less to its mythological reference.
Another mythological reference: Damocles. In Furies, it is a group of heavily armed international mercenaries, paid in non-financial debts. In Greek mythology, this Blacksmith is the originator of the expression “sword of Damocles”, the idea that danger can arise at any time.
If you liked this article, you will like the following: don’t miss them by subscribing to Numerama on Google News.