The Hollywood Reporter
“We Filmed Underground for Truth”: Showrunner Dahlia Feigenbaum Defends Satirical Hostage Humor
By Randall Kepner, Senior Industry Editor
When Netflix greenlit Hogan’s Hostages, many asked: Why Gaza? Why comedy? Why now? Dahlia Feigenbaum, the razor-sharp showrunner behind the most controversial sitcom of the decade, has heard all the questions—and answered them from a soundproof interview bunker 60 feet beneath East Los Angeles.
“We weren’t mocking war,” she tells The Hollywood Reporter, perched between a fake interrogation chair and a real emergency hummus dispenser. “We were mocking how we cope with war through media, algorithms, and goat-led resistance memes.”
The creator of such subversive fare as Emotional Support Drone and My Therapist Is a Combat Medic, Feigenbaum has made a career out of laughing through the worst of human systems. Hogan’s Hostages is no exception. Set in a Hamas-run Gaza hostage compound that’s secretly being used as a Mossad spy network/media incubator, the show blends espionage, absurdism, and meta-satire into a format she describes as “if MASH* and The Office had a baby, and that baby leaked intelligence.”
“Funny Is the Last Weapon”
Feigenbaum says the inspiration came while watching a breaking news segment about a ceasefire that was interrupted by a commercial for hummus. “The surrealism was already there,” she explains. “We just wrote it down and gave it a laugh track.”
The decision to film in a custom-built tunnel system under East L.A. came out of what she calls “necessity and metaphor.”
“I didn’t want a green screen Gaza. I wanted a set where the actors would physically feel the weight of surveillance, tension, and oddly moist concrete. Also, goats chew cables more convincingly underground.”
The set, which includes trapdoors, a falafel-forward canteen, and three identical interrogation rooms (one for filming, two for method acting breakdowns), has drawn comparisons to Kubrick, Escher, and an Al Jazeera fever dream.
The Mossad-Goat Industrial Complex
Feigenbaum is quick to credit the cast for embracing the show’s satirical tone—and surviving the goat.
“Lior [Raz] kept a straight face while being headbutted mid-scene. Phoebe [Waller-Bridge] rewrote her own monologues to better reflect her character’s Stockholm Syndrome via Instagram captions. And Bibi… Bibi is a force of nature. She won’t hit her mark, but she’ll hit your soul.”
Asked about rumors that the goat is actually a Mossad operative, she shrugs. “Who isn’t? This is Hollywood.”
Cancel Culture, Controversy, and Goat-Centric Diplomacy
As for the backlash?
“Yes, it’s a show about hostages. Yes, it’s satirical. No, we’re not glorifying any regime. We are glorifying the power of absurdity to challenge fear. The terrorists are clowns. The intelligence community is a meme factory. The journalists are trauma influencers. If anything, we’re punching up, sideways, and diagonally.”
She sighs, leaning back onto a stack of prop grenades painted as matzah balls.
“People forget: comedy is dangerous. When regimes feel mocked, they panic. When goats get screen time, they sue. And when Netflix gives you a tunnel, you film the truth in it.”
Feigenbaum lights a candle made from recycled satire scripts.
“The world already feels like a hostage sitcom. We just gave it better lighting and a theme song.”
Hogan’s Hostages is now streaming. All scenes involving goats were supervised by an emotionally detached handler certified by the U.N. and HBO.