Sharon Horgan on Her ‘Bad Sisters’ Pitch, Irish Luck, and Why Viewership Matters
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Welcome to It’s a Hit! In this series, IndieWire speaks to creators and showrunners behind a few of our favorite television programs about the moment they realized their show was breaking big.
Sharon Horgan has seen success in her day. After cracking through in 2006 with the cult favorite and two-time BAFTA nominee “Pulling,” the England-born, Ireland-raised writer and actor co-created a sharp-tongued and moving modern rom-com in “Catastrophe,” the Prime Video and Channel 4 original that landed Horgan her first Emmy nomination. Since then, she’s created a three-season series for HBO (“Divorce”), earned two additional BAFTA nods (for “Motherland”), and launched a production company, Merman, with offices in New York, Los Angeles, and London.
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Now she leads “Bad Sisters,” a black-comic thriller for Apple TV+ about five siblings who swore to protect each other after their parents’ untimely death — and how that promise gets tested when they decide to murder one of their abusive husbands.
When it comes to awards, “Bad Sisters” already rivals Horgan’s biggest hit. Per IMDB, “Catastrophe” pulled in 12 wins and 21 nominations across four seasons, while the hourlong black-comic drama has already tallied eight wins (including three BAFTAs and a Peabody) and 24 nominations — after just one season, and before it’s had a chance to compete at the Emmys.
Still, in today’s world of unverified ratings reports and opaque viewership announcements, it’s hard to tell just how many people have seen “Bad Sisters.” Is it a hit? If so, how big? Apple TV+, following the lead of its secretive parent company, barely hints at its programs’ audience size, but one positive sign already arrived: the Season 2 renewal. Less than a month after releasing the first season’s finale, Apple announced the Garvey clan would return.
Horgan is already writing Season 2 scripts, but she took a break to speak with IndieWire about the trajectory of her latest Emmy contender, from the initial pitch to its ongoing reception — and what she heard from Apple about those oh-so-precious ratings.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
IndieWire: As an adaptation, what did the pitch to Apple entail for “Bad Sisters”?
Sharon Horgan: Apple approached me to do the show. Jay Hunt, who’s the head of Apple TV+ in Europe and the UK, had been a fan of the original Belgian series, so she brought it to me. Clearly, I loved it, but I’d never adapted anything before. It was for our company, Merman, to make, and it was our first big hour[-long program], so they weren’t just going to say, ‘See you later.’ First, we had to write our pilot script. We assembled a room for that because with the pilot script, we had to bring them a breakdown of how we would tell the series and how we would make it our own. What was my version of the story, but also what’s the Apple version of this adaptation? We had to satisfy that it would feel like an Apple show.
We wanted to change the style of comedy, No. 1. We wanted it to feel much more of a world that you’d recognize. We wanted to believe the sisters and the situations that they find themselves in, and we wanted the stakes to feel very heightened in that we’re not just worrying if they’re going to get caught, we’re worrying what’s going to happen to their relationship. Instead of saving their sister, is it going to tear them all apart? We wanted to have a lot less murder attempts and a lot more emotional collateral damage.
We did this map of where we were going to set it in Ireland, because all our different locations are spread far and wide. Some are in Belfast, some are in Dublin, some are in Wicklow, some are in London, and some were in Apple’s studio, and so we had to just pitch them the world as we saw it. It took a while — I think we had to write a second script then — but then it got greenlit and we were full steam ahead.
Did anything you ended up making turn out drastically different than the pitch?
Yeah. Quite a lot. Stuff changes all the time. We had a completely different introduction to the Garveys. We met them as young kids in our original story idea — we filmed it, in fact. What was really interesting was with their background and when they lost their parents and who took what role and when. Not that we would be showing that on screen, but we did a lot of head work and a lot of character work around that, and how they ended up the people that they are, so we wanted to show what brought them together as this extremely tight unit that would always look out for each other.
There’s that scene at the end of the first episode where they’re sitting around the fire and they’re like, “She can’t find out what we did,” and “We’ll always look out for each other.” They all take each other’s hands, and Eva holds out her hand and Bibi’s like, “I’m not doing that now.” And then she’s like, “Come on.” That was because we had a scene at the beginning where they were very young and they were all doing the same thing. It was after something traumatic happening. So we had this completely different intro and then by the time we put it together, it was wonderful on so many levels, but it just wasn’t really necessary. And in some ways it was a little confusing because you were trying to work out which sister is who, and we felt that we needed to hit the ground running. As soon as an audience sees that The Prick is dead, they want to find out what happened and meet all the sisters.
What we have just felt like a good introduction to the tone. We always had to market ourselves as a drama that has black comedy within it. Sometimes the show can be a bit tongue-in-cheek, and sometimes it can really push it both dramatically and comedically. That scene we cut was just a little too dramatic to suit the tone of the whole thing.
Was there a moment before “Bad Sisters” premiered when you felt like you had something special? Where it felt like it was going to find an audience?
When I saw the sisters together — when I saw that their chemistry was alive and well. That’s a huge part of it: when you could feel the atmosphere and the magic of them together. A big fear was, “Will people buy into them attempting to kill him several times? Will we be able to keep an audience, and will they love the sisters enough to go on that journey with them and remain sympathetic, and will they hate him enough to want to see them continue to try?” There was definitely a point where we were mid-filming — we had a couple of episodes in the edit, and we were beginning to gear up for the paintballing scene — and I did think, “This is really fun. I certainly haven’t done anything like this before.” Outside of the original Belgian version, I hadn’t seen anything like that before, and I thought if people got behind it and they did connect with them as characters then we were onto a bit of a winner.
But it is hard to know, isn’t it? There’s an enormous amount of content made. An enormous amount of TV made. How do you stand out in that sea? How do you end up the final six shows or whatever the people are talking about? It’s bonkers. It’s about human connection, isn’t it? But it’s about timing as well, don’t you think? It’s a little bit what people are waiting for at that time.
So when did you realize that it worked? That it was out there in the world, finding an audience?
It took a while. It was a bit of a slow burn. By the time we were hitting Episode 7, 8, that’s when the audience really started to build, and by the time we were back in the U.S. to promote the finale, we were like, “Jesus, everyone knows this show.” So I think we were very lucky that we were put out week by week, so it had a chance to build and it also had a chance for people to speculate — to try and work out who did it and how they did it and how he died in the end. So we had the benefit of the thriller to push us forward and get people talking.
As it was rolling out, did you get any feedback from Apple? How many people were watching or what metrics they used to gauge its success?
Everyone holds that information very close to their chest now, but the main thing they gave me was how much it was increasing week to week. It was significantly doubling up on numbers week by week and across the world, so that was exciting. It makes a big difference.
Is getting viewership information important to you? Do you want more transparency regarding how many people are watching?
Yeah, I think so. It is important to me. In some cases it can take three years to write and shoot and produce a show, and the least you want is an audience watching. Of course, the first show I ever made, the figures were tiny, but the people who loved it loved it. It becomes a cult viewing thing, and that’s fun when someone finds that show and they feel part of this little gang. But it’s not great for residuals. It’s not great for getting your next project greenlit.
I feel like it was always my ambition to make things that have a broader appeal, if I’m honest. I loved writing stuff that was a bit culty, but deep, deep down I always wanted to have as many people sit around and watch it on their TVs altogether on a Friday night as possible.
Rightfully, you’ve showered your cast, writers, and crew with credit for the show’s success — as have audiences around the world — but is there any other factor that you feel really helped “Bad Sisters” break out?
It was Ireland, as well. I really think there was something about capturing a modern Ireland on screen — not trying to be too twee with it, not trying to be too cozy, just showcasing this insane, beautiful, small country. There was an escapism within that. We weren’t being super aspirational, but we were giving people a place they could escape to and imagine themselves — imagine themselves in that large family and imagine what it would be like if they got to kill the person that they have to sit opposite at the dinner table.
I thank my lucky stars because it didn’t have to be set in Ireland. It was just an idea I had. I think it was when I was watching the original, and I started thinking about my own very large family and feeling that was the right spot for it. And then going to the Forty Foot and going, “We have to put this on screen because I haven’t seen anything like this.” There were lots of little things that pushed us toward shooting there, and I feel like it made a big old difference.
I don’t want any spoilers, but before I let you go, is there anything you want to share about Season 2?
Well, I’m writing it now. As soon as I hang up from you, I’m going to do another half-hour and then take my kid to football. It’s fun to be back in that world, and yeah, I’m just looking forward to going back to the Forty Foot, even though it’s freezing.
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