I loved ‘Furious’ and ‘Lucky’ for so many reasons, but both series depict female characters who make up stories about being attacked in order to get sympathy. Even though I’m a fan of these new series, here on ReelGirl, we’re tracking times when we see women tell fake stories of victimhood. As consumers of fictional media—books, movies, series etc— we’re so used to witnessing women lie in the imaginary world, we’re trained to reflexively distrust women’s stories. This bias is a liability that leaks into the real world when we hear women speak out about rape and assault. The characters in Furious and Lucy ARE victims of violence and they also create imaginary instances where they were attacked, the message being we can’t trust them to tell the truth.

In ‘Furious,’ serial killer, Catherine, lies about an abusive boyfriend in order to be admitted to a women’s shelter. In the series, Catherine has a long history of multiple rapes, it’s lazy writing to see her lie for sympathy.

Lucky, played by Anna Taylor Joy, applies make-up so it looks like she has. a black eye, then tells a truck driver that she’s got an abusive boyfriend to convince him to give her a ride.