Jessica Biel is no stranger to crime thrillers. First was “The Sinner” back in 2017, which saw the actress delivering a career-best performance, and then “Candy” in 2022, which was equally entertaining. Now comes “The Better Sister,” Prime Video’s newest limited series, one that focuses on estranged sisters Chloe (Biel) and Nicky (Elizabeth Banks), who are forced to reconcile when a murder and the following trial upend both of their lives. Based on the novel of the same name by Alafair Burke, the series buckles under the weight of the novel from which it’s adapted, shackling Biel to its restrictive formula and unfolding like a dull book you desperately want to put down.
Chloe is presented as a strait-laced working woman. Her hair is meticulously cut into a sharp bob that rivals even Nicole Kidman’s most entertaining wigs, and she commands each room she walks into at her magazine job. Underneath the surface, Chloe’s life is crumbling. Her marriage is strained, and there are threats levied at her and her company, which grow increasingly vulgar and terrifying by the day. When she arrives home late one night, she finds her husband Adam (Corey Stoll) dead on their living room floor.
But, because this is a modern thriller series, the murder of Chloe’s husband isn’t the most shocking reveal in the show’s first episode. It becomes apparent that Nicky, Chloe’s sister, is Adam’s ex-wife and also the biological mother of Chloe and Adam’s son, Ethan (Maxwell Acee Donovan). Newly sober, Nicky seems unrelated to our protagonist, brash and imperfect in a way that Chloe seems incapable of being. It’s as if one sister is tethered to their childhood and the other is desperate to isolate herself from it, which continues to test both of them as the series unfolds.
While this twist is a great idea, this series never reaches the heights that a series like this should. It’s fun to watch the two sisters argue and regress into their most child-like parts, but the mystery at hand never shapes up into something this genre hasn’t given audiences before. The cinematography is unusually stark and grey, while the unfolding story becomes equally unremarkable and messy. It feels like the great miniseries of our time have come and gone, which means shows like “The Better Sister” are now burdened with the task of reaching the heights that “Sharp Objects” and “Mare of Easttown” did years ago. What might have once seemed fresh now feels desperate and predictable after years of similar programs.
At its most engaging, the series dives deep into the strain our childhoods can put on us. Nicky gives us an empathetic look at traumas that have haunted her into adulthood, and how these ghosts have led to her ruin. She utters lines that feel like they belong in a different show, ones which reveal the serviceable story that lays inside this bloated mess. Nicky sees herself as “the part of [her] sister that she denies,” but, instead of focusing on two women warring with their separate perspectives on their upbringing, the show doubles down on its formulaic structure.
A character like Nicky demands a type of gravity that this series is incapable of. Unfortunately, the performances are just as stilted all around, as if the actors themselves are also exhausted by this overwhelmingly dull story. The only actor who seems to be having a good time is Kim Dickens, who plays Detective Nancy Guidry. She’s sharp and witty to the point that she feels like she belongs in a completely different show. Desperate to solve the case by pointing fingers instead of actually bringing Adam to justice, Dickens breathes some much-needed life into the series. It’s a shame that her presence is dulled by everyone she shares the screen with, and when she’s not present, she leaves in her wake a significant dip in quality.
Thriller series—either limited or expansive—dominate our television screens each year. Because of their prominence, there needs to be something special to keep audiences entertained, and to warrant their existence. “The Better Sister” does neither, forcing you to question whether or not it’s worth dedicating 8 hours of your life to watching these mysteries unfold. What we’re left with is a dull series based on a bestselling novel that should have stayed on airport bookstore shelves instead of being adapted for the screen.
All episodes were screened for review.
