In episodes like “Alligator Man,” which culminates in an actual alligator strutting out of a house, and “Woods,” which ran Brian Tyree Henry’s Alfred through a gantlet of physical and emotional terror, Mr. Murai took cues from David Lynch, Takeshi Kitano and Joel and Ethan Coen. He admires Mr. Lynch’s ability to create a “soup of ambiguity” and declared that the Coen Brothers “play with comedy and drama and sudden bursts of violence better than anybody.” And he has been obsessed with the “dry, deadpan delivery” of Mr. Kitano (better known by his stage name, Beat Takeshi) since his film school days at the University of Southern California.

A recent rewatch of Disney’s animated “Alice in Wonderland” also made an impression. “It has this playfulness, but also this underlying ominous tension,” he said. “Donald and I often talk about how the kids’ movies from our childhood are memorable because they’re so tonally complex. That has influenced both of us.”

“A lot of what we do on the show is an extension of ideas that we were playing with in our music videos,” he added, referring to his collaborations with Mr. Glover’s musical alter ego, Childish Gambino. “Whether it’s blending comedy with a dramatic performance or with a heightened sense of surrealism, all the things that we were playing with sort of found their way into ‘Atlanta.’” (Their video for the new Childish Gambino single, “This Is America,” released after this interview was conducted, similarly hinges on unexpected bursts of chaos.)

Below, in edited excerpts from a phone interview, Mr. Murai discusses some of the show’s most memorable moments.