Whodunits are 10 a penny on television. Usually, they involve a miserable detective desperate to solve the suspicious death of a defenceless woman in an effort to save his career or his own marriage, or something equally disconnected from the actual case. Bad Sisters, Apple TV+’s new entry to the canon, which is based on the Flemish series Clan, flips that entire concept on its head.
From the start, it’s rather clear who is responsible for the cold, stiff (in more ways than one, if you catch my drift) body in the casket in the opening scenes.
Sharon Horgan serves as executive producer, co-writer and part of the starry ensemble cast in this new thriller, the first sign that the 10-episode dark comedy is worth your time. She plays Eva Garvey, one of five Irish sisters – alongside Grace (Anne-Marie Duff), Ursula (Eva Birthistle), Becka (Eve Hewson) and Bibi (Sarah Greene) – whose bond was made unbreakable when their parents died when they were children. Now adults, the sisters have their own lives but remain extremely close… you might say they would kill for one another.
The deceased is John Paul (played spectacularly by Claes Bang of Dracula fame), husband to Grace and brother-in-law to the rest of the sisters. He is, as the title of the first episode, “The Prick”, suggests, an abhorrent human being. He is controlling and abusive towards Grace, convincing her that she is weak and useless, while also exerting his power over their 12-year-old daughter.
His ire extends to his sisters-in-law, too, especially Grace, with whom he works and constantly undermines with quips about her single status, calling her a “spinster”. In making the victim so irredeemable and therefore making his killer the good guy (at least in my eyes), Bad Sisters sets itself apart from its contemporaries.
It doesn’t take a genius to work out that Grace’s four sisters were most likely responsible for, or at least directly involved in, John Paul’s demise. Proof of that comes with the arrival of Matthew (Daryl McCormack) and Thomas Claffin (Brian Gleeson, providing most of the comedy), from the insurance company from which Grace is claiming compensation for her husband’s untimely death.
Desperate to keep their family business afloat, Thomas will do anything to prove that it was no accident that caused John Paul’s death, but a malicious attack by someone who wanted him gone. That they have no real authority to investigate such matters has no bearing on his hilarious, no-holds-barred intentions.
After the two episodes airing on Apple TV+ today, it is still up in the air whether or not the sisters actually killed John Paul, and the series keeps alive just enough of the classic whodunit spirit (or at least, howdunit).
We know they certainly want to kill him: a discussion about his behaviour on the beach after he told Grace she couldn’t attend their annual Christmas Day swim turns into a list of all the ways they would do away with John Paul, and by the end of the second episode Eva and Bibi have already made an attempt on his life. But other than the fact that he does die, nothing is set in stone and anything is possible.
Horgan’s involvement in a series, particularly behind the scenes, is usually a sign that it will be good. That was true of Frank of Ireland, Pulling, Catastrophe and Motherland, and while it’s certainly true of Bad Sisters too, it would be nothing without its incredible ensemble cast.
Other than a nuanced portrayal of domestic abuse, there’s not much to ponder. Instead, Bad Sisters is a brilliantly engaging thriller, with lots of laughs and an unpredictable storyline. While murder is never the answer in the real world, here you won’t be able to stop yourself rooting for whoever you have pegged as the murderer. My money is on Becka…
