Steven Prusakowski
Dating is not easy. Dating is even tougher when you find out that everyone you slept with is dying in the order of your flings. That’s the premise of Peacock’s twisted new romcom which premieres today on Peacock. The eight episode and totally bingeable Laid, which takes it name from the infectious 90s James’ anthem about the messy and complicated nature of love and intimacy, stars Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All At Once) as Ruby and Zosia Mamet (Girls) as AJ, best friends trying to figure out why everyone of Ruby’s lovers is tragically (and often hilariously graphically) dying.
If the premise sounds a bit outrageous, that’s because it is and does not shy away from exploring the messy, often ridiculous consequences of sexual relationships taken to new extremes. The show blends raunchy humor with mystery, a darkly comedic take on sex and the chaos that comes with it. You’ve heard of friends with benefits… this is more like friends with consequences.
Awards Radar spoke with Hsu and Mamet as well as showrunners Nahnatchka Khan and Sally Bradford McKenna about the warped new series. (You can watch the full interviews below). Anyone expecting a stroll in the romantic comedy park has another thing coming. That is made evidently clear early in the series as the body count starts rising, each more darkly funny than the last.
Finding the balance between the juxtaposition of tones was one of the biggest challenges, shared Khan.
“We had so many kind of balls in the air that we were juggling in season one that I think the mystery and the deaths, and some of the deaths being more violent and shocking than others, blending with the rom-com felt like that was like the right kind of tonal mix for us to introduce people to this idea and to this world and to Ruby and her partners.”
Since the series does juggle so many elements that may not feel like a natural combination, casting the right actress to star as Ruby was vital. Bradford McKenna shared the thinking behind casting Hsu, “For Stephanie, Ruby is such an important role to cast. We knew we needed to get someone that you instantly love just because her character is a little flawed, a little messy. It needs to be someone who can do maybe not the best things, but you still root for her and you still love her.”
Hsu and Mamet’s chemistry is infectious, the glue that makes Laid‘s bizarre premise work so well. They feel like long time friends on and off camera as I learned while speaking to them. Letting themselves trust the material and in each other kept things fresh. “I really do feel like our show is just its own tone. It is a mashup of a lot of different types of stories,” shared Hsu. “Because of that is it is just its own thing and allowing us to like offer what we find it on the page. Then when you’re in the moment, you’re sort of discovering it as it goes and going on the ride and just trusting in the story that we’re telling.”
That trust was embraced by Mamet as well especially that which the producers had in her and Hsu. “When you’re in the moment, you’re sort of discovering it as it goes and going on the ride and just trusting in the story that we’re telling,” she explained. “At every turn, it felt like you guys were also confident in the fact that it was its own thing, but that we were doing right the new thing we were doing.”
The eight episode season of LAID is now streaming exclusively on Peacock.
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