‘Laid’ Showrunners on Capturing the ‘Bleak and Funny’ Truth of Dating in Their Sex-Positive Rom-Com

“Laid” follows Stephanie Hsu’s Ruby as she comes to the grim realization that a growing number of her ex-partners have become victim to various maladies — all of which have resulted in death.

But instead of sex-shaming, co-showrunners Nahnatchka Khan (“Fresh Off the Boat,” “Always Be My Maybe”) and Sally Bradford McKenna (“Son of Zorn”) used the outlandish premise — which originated from an Australian format — as an opportunity for Ruby to reflect on her behavior during each relationship, serving as a jumping off point for some internal growth.

“From the beginning, we, the writers, Peacock and Stephanie, wanted this to be sex positive, not at all shaming, not at all judgmental,” Bradford McKenna told TheWrap. “In having to go back and look at all these guys and girls, it’s not so much, ‘Who were they and what happened?’ but ‘Who was I when I was with them?'”

As Ruby and her best friend and roommate AJ (Zosia Mamet) make a “sex timeline” to try to make sense of the unexplainable tragedies — as well as deliver the news to those who haven’t yet passed — the co-showrunners hoped to deliver on the “hopeful, optimistic theme of … looking for love and keeping love alive … but also have this kind of realistic, more cynical edge to it.”

“That’s dating, and that’s looking for love. It can be bleak at times,” Bradford McKenna said, with Khan adding “bleak and funny.”

Below, Bradford McKenna and Khan unpack casting Hsu as Ruby and reveal their hopes for a potential Season 2.

Why was Stephanie the right pick for Ruby? Had you always pictured her in the role?
Sally Bradford McKenna: We had written the script without knowing it was her, but when it started to become more real, and we started talking about who can play this role — we knew it was the hardest role to cast. It’s such a tricky character because she’s unlikable in so many different ways. She’s flawed in so many ways. But it needed to be someone who you’re instantly rooting for, so when her name came up, we were thrilled at the idea of and then hearing that she was into it and wanted to do it … Everyone was so on board, and she’s just brought so much the role and has been incredible to work with.

Once Stephanie came on board, did you tailor any parts of her character?
Nahnatchka Khan: She’s also an executive producer on the show, so she came into the writer’s room and brought donuts and everything — it was great. She inhabits Ruby from a very unique point of view — she’s almost looking at the world through her eyes. One of the things that she brought up was in relationships people always say, “You have to be vulnerable,” and she’s like, “But what does that mean?” Or when someone’s like, “Oh, I’m a romantic” … but what does that mean? So calling people out on things that you normally just let slide is almost like small talk or banter, and really drilling down on, what does it mean to be vulnerable?

Ruby’s friendship with AJ is really at the forefront of the show. How did you want to center their friendship in Ruby’s journey?
SBM: The actresses, when they met, we were on a zoom with them. We saw them meet, and was just instant chemistry. I feel like we did very little to help that connection — that was there from them, and it’s real and it’s natural. In terms of the friendship at the core of the show, we didn’t really set out to make it about that, but it really emerged, and I think as we were doing the show about her looking for romantic love and looking for a romantic partner, that was in the background that Ruby, herself, had to realize like, “Oh, I do have this very significant relationship right in front of me.” That kind of presented itself to us.

N.K.: Ruby makes a bad decision early on, so there’s another ball that gets thrown into the air early that she’s trying to keep secret. People are dying — there’s a lot of stuff. I think the ups and downs that Ruby and AJ go through in the season, as we were breaking the stories, started to lead us down a path of, this is the heart of it and wanting to kind of center that as the relationship ultimately.

You have such an amazing guest cast, including Simu Liu, Finneas and Chloe Fineman. How did that come together?
SBM: We got so lucky and Stephanie was so helpful with a lot of this — even just having her be a part of the show, people were drawn to it. She helped us with getting John Early, and then once John Early is there, then Kate Berlant wants to do it. We just got so lucky, because we got people that we were just huge fans of, and people were dying to work with, we got, we had so much fun with them.

N.K.: It’s surprising, but the guest cast fills out the world in a fun but real way, so it doesn’t feel like distracting, but it feels cool.

There’s definitely some element of magical realism happening. What conversations did you have about wrapping up the mystery in a not-so-grounded way?
SBM: We did talk about it quite a bit — it’s such a huge part of the show, this mystery of what is happening, what is the cause of this? But I think as we got into breaking more character-based stories — both on her romantic track and on the death track — we stopped thinking so much about the cause of it. The hope is that in success, if we’ve done it right, people are not … so concerned about what is the mythology of this? You’re just focusing on the interpersonal stories in front of you.

N.K.: We do have some red herrings of she thinks it’s this, or she thinks she’s discovered the reason, and she feels like she’s figured out a way. But, without giving away anything, at the end, we ultimately decided to take it out of the magical place and put it into science. There’s an element that gets introduced at the end that brings a new piece of the puzzle to take us into Season 2.

With mention of a potential Season 2, is anything official yet to continue the story?
SBM: We would love to. We haven’t heard anything officially, but we definitely end Season 1 in a place of, oh, what’s next? It would be a horrible series finale … because it really sets us up for, like, “Wait, what? What happens next?”

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

All episodes of “Laid” are now streaming on Peacock.

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