Directed by Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, the eight-part French action thriller Furies may have a confusing plot but has an interesting cast! The series stars renowned actors like Lina El Arabi and Marina Fois. The actors have given it their all to make sure that the Netflix original action drama is a blast!
Spoilers Ahead
Lyna Arago
The protagonist, Lyna, has been played efficiently by Lina El Arabi in Furies. She is one of the most determined characters that I have ever seen. Well, now the question remains as to how she went from an ordinary girl to such a master at fighting! Well, she was determined enough to train herself by reading books on action while in prison. Now, as ridiculous as it may sound, the activities that she engages herself in are not as easygoing. The moment she comes out of prison, she makes it her life goal to find out the murderer of her father, Darius. Lyna has something enigmatic in her that keeps her alive in the underworld.
The love life that Lyna treads on is equally as risky as her other endeavors. She has the guts to associate with people in the underworld, knowing that her boyfriend is a cop. As loyal as her boyfriend is, she gives it her all to break up with him later so that she can save his life. However, when she hooks up with Orso, we are left questioning her morality. The moment she gets out of a relationship, she tries to get a taste of another man. Her impulsiveness shows her making hasty decisions and acting irrationally at times. If it had not been for Selma, then she would have been long dead.
Lyna’s fearlessness and undaunting spirit to get to the root of Darius’ death reveal many secrets about her past. When she gets to know that she is actually Driss’ daughter, she could have chosen to stay by his side and ruin the godfathers, but she decides to be a bootlicker just like her aunt, Selma. Even though she has a thirst for power like Selma, she is not as resourceful and sharp as her. She is gullible and often makes the wrong decisions! We are left wondering what is to happen to Lyna after Selma is gone. Will she be able to protect herself? Will she be able to keep herself alive in the underworld? This is something for us to find out in the next part of Furies.
Selma Arago
She is sharp, fast, and strong, but she is growing old. Selma, The Fury, is invincible even when she is facing the end of her life. Marina Fois has done justice to Selma’s character in the series Furies. Selma is the protector of the six mafia families in Paris, and it obviously takes something special to be the protector of destroyers. She tactfully manages to maintain a balance in the underworld, which could not have been done better by anyone else.
Despite being associated with the underworld, she is just and does not waive the right to punish wrongdoers, even if they are her family members. However, having a soft spot for her brother Driss, she was unable to kill him but kept him confined in jail for years (after he had betrayed the godfathers). Selma has been portrayed as a vengeful fury who doesn’t stop following you (if you are a wrongdoer) till she has murdered you. This has been evidently brought out by the way she has been following Kahina (Lyna’s mother) for years, as she had betrayed the underworld. She is like the justice cop of the underworld, whom everyone fears and regards. However, as she is aging, she develops some physical complications that have not exactly been revealed in the first season. It is likely that her condition is deadly, as she had desperately wanted to make Lyna her heir. She was constantly trying to teach Lyna the way she should be tackling things in the underworld.
She is extremely loyal to the godfathers and does not think twice before fighting her brother, Driss, to restore their money. Later, she even kills him just to maintain her image as the best Fury that the underworld has ever seen. She, however, even resorts to lying and fooling others at times to make sure that no harm comes to the godfathers. She lies to Lyna about her parents dying in a car accident, but it’s later found out that they did not die. She did not want Lyna to judge her on the basis of the fact that her aunt was opposed to her parents. She was also very protective of Lyna and did not want her to face any of the whiplashes of the underworld. Therefore, she had placed Lyna (in her childhood) with a family that she thought was the farthest away from the world of crimes. She did not want Lyna to face the same fate that she had been facing since childhood.
Driss Arago
Matthieu Kassovitz, also known as Driss, was known to have the mind of a devil and could come up with new ideas to own new illegal businesses almost on a regular basis. When the ganglords capture his business, he becomes furious and attacks them. Regarded as a betrayer, the godfathers set up his own sister, Selma (The Fury), to kill him. The first segment of the series Furies makes the audience think that Driss is dead, but suddenly he springs out of the past. It appears that Selma had been unable to kill her own brother previously.
Driss is not as bad as he has been portrayed, and he is the most misunderstood character in the series. He was only determined to take revenge on the godfathers and get back what he considered to be his. Selma had portrayed his image as that of a bloodthirsty animal who had been searching for his own wife (Kahina) to murder her, as she was an undercover cop who had betrayed him. However, we later get to know that Driss had been presented in the wrong light by Selma to ensure that Lyna doesn’t grow a soft corner for her father.
Driss is not as vengeful as Selma, but he knows how to get his own rights back. He is extremely sharp, which has been portrayed in the set-up of the jail that he had done to fool Lyna during their first meeting. He had also kept his identity a secret for a very long time (as the masked man), confusing them and trying to buy some time for himself to plan his next step. He wanted everyone to think that he was still in confinement while he had already gotten himself out and was planning to attain his goal. He had also been quite crafty in employing Parques to give him all the inside information so that he could easily break into the train and loot all the wealth of the godfathers.
No matter how strong-willed he is, Driss has a soft spot for his daughter and is unable to kill her, even though she stands as an obstacle in his way. He also tries warning her against Selma, asking her not to trust her. Despite being a criminal, he has huge self-esteem. When he realized that he was nearing his death, he asked Selma to kill him before his daughter arrived at the spot, as he did not want her to have the blood of her father on her hands.
Some additional characters
Parques
Alex Brendemuhl, as Parques in Furies, is a significant character who stands as a barrier in Selma and Lyna’s paths. He is a power-hungry assassin who wouldn’t hesitate to kill anyone to gain his spot. He had been considerate enough to wait till Selma reached her grave to take her spot, but when he got to know that her heir, Lyna, had dropped in, he became furious. He wanted to get Lyna removed by hook or by crook so that he could become the next fury. He did not miss one chance to make the godfathers feel that he was someone to be trusted. His lack of morals is later revealed when he joins hands with Driss to get a position of power by backstabbing the godfathers.
Elie
Jeremy Nadeau, as Elie, is the perfect boyfriend that any woman could ever ask for. We feel a sense of relief when he enters the room to comfort Lyna in any situation. Elie is extremely devoted as a partner and does not want any harm to befall Lyna. No matter how weird the combination of a cop and a criminal may sound, Lyna and Elie seemed perfect together. However, when he realized that Lyna was involved with the underworld, he did not hesitate to arrest her (for her own safety). When it came to saving Lyna, he did not think twice before killing his colleague, Nadia, as she was about to shoot Lyna. Elie has been portrayed as an extremely protective partner who would give it his all to keep his girl safe.
Orso
The character of Orso has been played by Sandor Funtek in Furies. He is a gang member in the Parques clan who has his eyes on Lyna. He was crazy about her and was even willing to risk his own life to save hers. He takes on a feud with his own boss (Parques) after he fails to murder Lyna, as instructed by him. Orso had also given her a watch containing all the information on the underworld, which would act as her amulet. If her heart stopped beating, then the device would automatically leak all the secrets of the underworld. Orso, in the true sense, is Lyna’s crazy lover, who literally comes back from the grave to save her. No matter how many times he must have tried to think about killing her, he couldn’t bring himself to do so and eventually ended up risking his own life to save hers.
Some other characters who have made significant additions to the series include Mudman, Fixer, The Californian, Mama, The Duke, K brothers, Fehim, Jelly Herve, Nadia and Darius.
