Illustration by Michael DiMilo
My Sister’s Keeper: Review of Bad Sisters
★★★★☆
By Geoff Carter
One of the great pleasures of watching streaming series like The Sopranos, Yellowstone, Slow Horses or the dozens of other offerings on premium stations is the anticipation. From week to week—or episode to episode—the viewer is constantly presented with burning questions: Who will die? Who will come out on top? Whodunit? Surprises, twists, and edge-of-your-seat suspense combined with increasingly excellent production values (which have equaled and sometimes surpassed the Hollywood gold standard) have made streaming series a cultural phenomenon.
Not that serialized series are a new invention. Many of Charles Dickens’ novels, including Oliver Twist, were serialized in magazines and periodicals. From the early days of the Flash Gordon serials in movie theaters or early radio programs like The Shadow or episodic television shows like Hill Street Blues or St. Elsewhere or the back-to-back Batman episodes of the 1960s, audiences have always enjoyed some version of episodic storytelling, but today they have reached new highs in quality and popularity.
An increasingly common tendency in these series is the unexpected twist—the cliffhanger. When Tony Soprano was shot or Janice retaliated against her fiancé in The Sopranos, the collective jaw of thousands of viewers dropped. To say the red wedding episode in Game of Thrones was a shock is probably the understatement of the decade.
Twists and surprises abound in Apple TV’s brilliant series Bad Sisters, the story of the Garveys, a family of five Irish sisters who will go to any lengths to protect one of their own. The sisters are very close but have been plagued with sister Grace’s (Anne-Marie Duff) husband John Paul (Claes Bang) a malignant and nasty man who has it in for each and every one of his sisters-in-law. He was responsible for the accident in which Bibi (Sarah Green) lost her eye, has deceived and caused Becka (Eva Hewson) to lose her business, and has destroyed Eva’s chances at promotion by spreading nasty rumors about her at work. He also bullies, manipulates, and terrorizes his own wife and daughter Blanaid (Saise Quinn).
Things have gotten so bad for Grace that the sisters decide to take action. During the family tradition of swimming on Christmas Day, while complaining about John Paul and wishing he were dead, Bibi floats the idea of “hurrying nature along” or bringing about JP’s early demise. The girls joke about it, but then, because his bullying and nasty behavior toward Grace becomes so extreme, Bibi persuades Eva to take action.
After he threatens to expose Ursula’s affair, and when he destroys Becka’s dream of owning her own business, the two join the conspiracy, After one, then another, and then another botched assassination attempt, the conclusion of the story takes a wildly unexpected turn.
Not that the final denouement is the only twist. Over the course of ten episodes, the wild plotting of the sisters is matched only by the nastiness of JP and the comic turns of insurance man (not investigator) Tom Claffin (Brian Gleeson).
Bad Sisters is a finely balanced production that toes the line between a suspenseful crime drama—sort of a cross between a cozy murder and a forensics investigation—and a tongue-in-cheek comedy of errors that at times crosses into straight screwball.
Parts of Bad Sisters reminded me of Monty Python’s criminal comedy A Fish Called Wanda, particularly the part where the animal-loving Michael Palin character is trying to kill off a witness but only succeeds in eliminating her pet dogs. Unlike Wanda, however, Bad Sisters has a dark underbelly of misogyny, fear, and hate lurking just under the surface comic tone.
JP’s evil behavior is a counterbalance to the well-intentioned sisters’ charming sibling camaraderie, their murderous intent, and Claffin’s blundering attempts to prove a crime has been committed.
Oldest sister Eva, who raised the family after the sudden death of their parents, is the mother figure, the responsible one. Second sister Grace is a fragile woman who has been systematically beaten down by John Paul. Ursula, a self-absorbed nurse and a mother of three, is having an affair with her photography teacher. Bibi, who lost an eye thanks to John Paul, is tough, decisive, and assertive. Becka, the youngest, is flighty, flirtatious, and fills the role of the baby of the family.
The relationships between the sisters range from supportive to envious to disapproving to protective and everything else in between. The actresses have created a charming and believable family chemistry. The Garvey sisters are realistically flawed and eminently believable. The writing and direction, especially in the kitchen family scenes, are brilliant.
Bad Sister is a compelling watch and completely bingeable. The murder plot(s) as well as John Paul’s inveterate malignancy are despicable and sometimes frightening while the sisters’ missteps and complex relationships are charming—and funny. While the humor sometimes descends into goofiness and off-color jokes, the show maintains its beautiful balance throughout.
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