One of the highlights of the ATX Television Festival this year was a screening and panel for Hulu’s Casual.

We caught up with creator Zander Lehmann and actor Tommy Dewey on the opening night of the festival to chat about the series and what makes it so unique.

“I think it’s unflinchingly honest. I think when these writers get to a point where you can do the easy thing — go for the easy joke, they never do it,” Dewey said.

He described the thought process of the writers as considering, “‘Let’s be honest with ourselves as adult, sexual human beings. How do we behave in these scenarios?’ And then they go there.”

“I would also say our actors are fantastic. They are game to do anything,” Lehmann added.

“Anything!” Dewey laughed.

Lehmann and Dewey also shared their thoughts on how the fact that this is a Hulu series affects the show overall.

“I wonder if this show was on a network, if it wouldn’t have been canceled early on. Because I think people had to find it. And once they found it, it really picked up, and there’s been a sort of groundswell,” Lehmann said.

“I think with a network, they might have panicked after those first couple episodes, saying, ‘this is really dark, this is really specific, we may have to change this.’ But Hulu, to their credit, stayed the course and said ‘no, you guys know what you’re doing. You know what you’re trying to do,'” Lehmann continued.

“The energy level at Hulu is fantastic,” Dewey added. “We get to tell a really special, long serialized story, which is cool.”

You can check out all of our coverage of the ATX Television Festival right here. (There is a lot more to come!)

Additional reporting by Christine Laskodi.

Casual is currently available for streaming on Hulu, with new episodes airing each Tuesday.

Photos from the ATX Television Festival Opening Night Event:

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