Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud
Oct 8, 2026 · 32 min · 15 segments
The Irish actor and creator Sharon Horgan has seen us through several stages of life with hit comedy-dramas like Pulling, Catastrophe, Motherland and Bad Sisters. Now in her 50s, Horgan is back with a…
Elamin AbdelmahmoudHost
Kathryn VanArendonkGuestAoife BarryGuestSteacy EastonGuest
Morgan CampbellGuest
There are not many showrunners and TV writers who have the relationship with the medium that Sharon Horgan does.
And what I mean by that is that she has had this extended, um, engagement with television over many phases of her career and her life where she creates what are essentially auto-fictional shows.
They're not her saying, like, "Here is a legitimate thing that happened to me," but they are very clearly engaging with and inspired by wherever she has been.
And so, um, her- one of her early shows was Pulling, which is about being a 30-something and, uh, sort of the friend group and the challenges of that period of adulthood.
She then had a show on Amazon Prime several years later, uh, called Catastrophe, which is, I think how many, um, many audiences came to know her, which is about, um, getting unexpectedly pregnant, and that one's a, a two-hander with her and, uh, actor Rob Delaney.
Uh, there's a delight to me in watching someone who's unabashedly auto-fictional, and I feel like there's something really enjoyable about that because some people maybe feel a little bit too bashful about sort of letting themselves do that, and I wanna get to that in a moment.
But yeah, Aoife, let me ask you the, a similar question just in terms of this idea of, like, when you think about the thread that runs through Pulling, Catastrophe, Bad Sisters, I've heard Sharon Horgan say, "Ah, listen, I- men are allowed to watch my shows.
"But I specifically make shows that are about women," 'cause she's pulling so much from her experience.
What's a thread, you think? What's, what's the thing that makes it a Sharon Horgan show?
... as this massive part for arsenal, and I think she also, like Catherine says, mines from her real life.
So she brings you these real-life situations, and you have this realism, but you've a little bit of escapism in how she kinda amps up what happens to the characters.
And I think she tends to have, with her storylines and her characters, the idea that, like, we don't live in a benign world, you know? That, like, the world isn't always gonna be very nice to you.
There are not many showrunners and TV writers who have the relationship with the medium that Sharon Horgan does.
And what I mean by that is that she has had this extended, um, engagement with television over many phases of her career and her life where she creates what are essentially auto-fictional shows.
They're not her saying, like, "Here is a legitimate thing that happened to me," but they are very clearly engaging with and inspired by wherever she has been.
And so, um, her- one of her early shows was Pulling, which is about being a 30-something and, uh, sort of the friend group and the challenges of that period of adulthood.
She then had a show on Amazon Prime several years later, uh, called Catastrophe, which is, I think how many, um, many audiences came to know her, which is about, um, getting unexpectedly pregnant, and that one's a, a two-hander with her and, uh, actor Rob Delaney.
Uh, there's a delight to me in watching someone who's unabashedly auto-fictional, and I feel like there's something really enjoyable about that because some people maybe feel a little bit too bashful about sort of letting themselves do that, and I wanna get to that in a moment.
But yeah, Aoife, let me ask you the, a similar question just in terms of this idea of, like, when you think about the thread that runs through Pulling, Catastrophe, Bad Sisters, I've heard Sharon Horgan say, "Ah, listen, I- men are allowed to watch my shows.
"But I specifically make shows that are about women," 'cause she's pulling so much from her experience.
What's a thread, you think? What's, what's the thing that makes it a Sharon Horgan show?
... as this massive part for arsenal, and I think she also, like Catherine says, mines from her real life.
So she brings you these real-life situations, and you have this realism, but you've a little bit of escapism in how she kinda amps up what happens to the characters.
And I think she tends to have, with her storylines and her characters, the idea that, like, we don't live in a benign world, you know? That, like, the world isn't always gonna be very nice to you.
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