Sharon Horgan on Creating ‘Bad Sisters,’ This Year’s Most Vicious Comic Treat

Like any good comedy, Sharon Horgan’s new show, Bad Sisters, begins with a funeral. A priest delivers a eulogy for the deceased, John Paul (Claes Bang), as his wife, Grace (Anne-Marie Duff), sobs in her pew and comforts their daughter. Standing with Grace—but looking somewhat less mournful—are her four sisters: Eva (Horgan), the oldest who became a motherly figure to the rest after their parents died; Ursula (Eva Birthistle), the sensible nurse with a devoted husband and kids who is secretly having an affair; scrappy Bibi (Sarah Greene), whose eyepatch portends a grisly backstory; and Becka (Eve Hewson), the free-spirited youngest sister looking to prove she can be responsible, too. At the wake, a fellow guest shares his condolences with Eva, who says that she’s just glad the suffering is over. “Was he ill?” the guest asks, surprised. “No,” she replies.

So begins the twisted tale of toxic masculinity, deep family ties, and bloodthirsty revenge that unfolds across two timelines. In the past, the sisters plot to murder the odious John Paul, whose abuse involves not only ritually humiliating Grace, but attempting to destroy each of the other sisters’ lives, too; while in the present, the sisters try to cover up the mysterious way that they eventually saw John Paul off, and fend off the scrutiny of two bumbling brothers determined to invalidate the deceased’s life insurance policy. It’s a twisty, acid-laced comic confection that could only have come from the mind of Horgan, whose 2000s cult hit Pulling, breakout show Catastrophe with Rob Delaney, and Sarah Jessica Parker-starring HBO series Divorce made her one of the most in-demand offbeat comedy writers out there. (Bad Sisters is the first show Horgan is debuting on Apple TV+, with whom she signed a first-look deal last year.)

Based on the Belgian comedy The Out-Laws, the show is Horgan’s first adaptation—but by moving it to her native Ireland, more specifically the suburbs of Dublin, she was able to give the original’s ferociously funny material her own, distinctive bite. “In terms of the dynamic of an Irish family, I think the best thing I could do was just stick to the truth of it,” says Horgan, noting that she drew on her own experiences growing up in a sprawling family to inform the nuances of the sibling relationships. (That said, there were no murders in the immediate Horgan family that she knows of, she’s quick to point out.) Debuting last month, the fifth episode of Bad Sisters screened this week (there will be 10 in total, meaning we’re halfway through the sisters’ dastardly journey) in which we witness yet another foiled attempt to get rid of John Paul.