A vile man was found dead, and the prime suspects are a group of women who wanted to protect one of their own numbers from his constant oppression. becomes obvious. Lots of driving up and down the picturesque coastline. It’s a “Big Little Lies” scenario, but “Bad Sisters,” which premieres on his Apple TV+ on Friday, adds something new and refreshing to the formula: a sense of humor.
Irish writer and performer Sharon Horgan, who created “Bad Sisters” with Dave Finkel and Brett Baer, is one of the most ironic on British television this century, including “Pulling” (Boisterous Female Friendship) and “Catastrophe”. I’ve been behind some of the most interesting shows. (marriage confusion). Earlier this year, she remade ‘The Shining’ with her Starz’ ‘Shining Vale’ as her family sitcom.
‘The Shining Veil’ and ‘Bad Sisters’ don’t send the horror or revenge female thriller genre. They employ humor strategically and lovingly, breathing new life into the genre. Her 10-hour episode of “Bad Sisters” (based on the Belgian series “Clan”) is a serious tale that ripples outward from one enraged man, but Hogan and her collaborators It utilizes the structure of comedy to maintain its energy. And keeping our attention, they mostly eschew the moralism and tendencies towards melodrama that this kind of story tends to fall into.
The villain in “Bad Sisters” is John Paul Williams (Cress Bang), who works in the finance department of a Dublin architecture firm. This is where the title’s five sisters are introduced: Grace, his long-suffering wife (Anne-Marie Duff), and his stepsisters Eva (Hogan), Ursula (Eva Berthisl), and Bibi (Sarah Greene). ), Becca (Eve Hewson).
The circumstances of John Paul’s death aren’t revealed until later in the series, but a pair of slightly reckless half-brothers, Tom (Brian Gleeson) and Matt (Daryl McCormack), own a small house. Therefore, we know that it was judged to be an accident. A failed insurance agent set out to prove otherwise. Grace doesn’t have to pay off her life insurance policy if she can prove it was murder.
Their stumbling but bullish progress – they’re like Edward G. Robinson’s low-rent cousins in “Double Compensation” – is one of the show’s clever comic storytelling devices. The research they do is very effective. The main reason is that no one really thinks about talking to them and the audience is always a step or two ahead in summarizing the facts they are uncovering.
Tom and Matt subconsciously lead us into the larger story. There, constant flashbacks show the terribleness of John Paul and the increasingly disastrous measures the sisters take in response. The most baroque of these subplots is Vivi losing one of her eyes and Green wearing a pirate-like eyepatch. should be worn and is a neat visual joke in itself.
Trickiness and delayed revelations mean that “Bad Sisters” is a spoiler forest. For this one could say that the sister-in-law has found her willingly contemplating murder, and John Paul proves it through a series of ill-fated adventures. Comically indestructible until he is no longer, in a terrifying, slapstick form in nature.
Beyond wise composition and sharp dialogue, “Bad Sisters” thrives, especially in episodes (4 out of 10) written or co-written by Hogan. for the better. The characters are of the strong and overprotective Eva type, the angry Vivi, and the capricious but sensible Becca, but the performers make them stand out and make you feel their fierce devotion to each other.
Especially good is Duff playing Grace’s difficult and thankless role. It would be easy to write her off and leave her off the show, but Duff keeps us with her, showing the layers of anxiety, dread, and honest devotion that make her character come to life.
But the real key to the show is to do an even more impressive feat with John Paul, skillfully portraying his terrifyingness while presenting him as an absolutely human being, never for a moment falling into a caricature. Bang’s performance. John Paul’s sociopathy, with a few exceptions, is a matter of verbal malice and tactical manipulation rather than physical violence, and Bang makes his carry out the attack. Instead of playing a monster or soulless, he puts a twinkle in John Paul’s eye, a hint of uncertainty beneath his bravado, and you just can’t take your eyes off him.