For Isobel, the eccentric strangers and guests that come through her home — played by the likes of Shiri Appleby of UnReal and Girls’ Jemima Kirke — unwittingly cause her to be amenable to change, and, in an unconventional way, give her the fresh perspective she’s been looking for. “I think it’s this idea of entering thirty and life is supposed to be laid out for you, and the idea that you’re only just starting to figure out who you are and what this life could look like,” Lidofsky says. “And it’s that kind of journey and that idea that we can start fresh and start new at any point. Any person can now come into your life and change the course of it.” Strangers is also an unapologetically queer story that not only explores the vast spectrum of sexuality, and what that might look like. It depicts the realities of dating, heartbreak and reconciliation in a frank, funny way. It’s a story that Lidofsky knows all too well, because it’s hers. “Especially post-Trump and what feels like Armageddon, it feels like it is my job as a gay creator to change the narrative of normal,” she says. “And so I think that that’s exciting about this series: It portrays these honest, open, genuine women struggling to find themselves in all these different capacities, and one of those means is through their sexuality.” Kirke, who had previously worked with Lidofsky on Girls, says that she was interested in Strangers precisely because of the heightened “importance of gay art and female art” in our ever-changing world. “The freaks need to come out now, more than ever. That’s where all the art needs to come from now,” she says. “Nothing is going to stop us making what we want to make now. That’s a freedom that is not going to be taken away. It’s a very basic one. We need to be exploiting that as much as we can, because that’s really all we’ve got right now. Now is the time for artists to step up and make exactly what they want to make; there’s no room for anyone to be scared right now.” Hagerty, who plays Isobel’s lesbian best friend Cam in the series, nods in agreement. “You’re so frickin’ right! It’s true, what we need to do is the opposite of homogenise.” It’s no surprise that the success of Strangers ultimately rests on the fact that it shines a bright spotlight on narratives that are often untold, and refuses to cast them into the shadows as a side story. “I was trying to create visibility for the gay and queer community that I know within the self,” Lidofsky says. “But what I didn’t quite realise at the time is that it’s about the invisibility of women.” Strangers is also radically changing the game in terms of representation, too. “To be a person of colour, and to see that face on that poster is just...really rad,” Chao says, smiling. Lidofsky looks back at the poster and grins, too. “It was important to me, because I think it’s its own racism when you say ‘I don’t see colour.’ It’s like, we see colour. I see Zoe. I see her face. I love those eyes, that skin tone. You need to see more of all of us out there