The Garvey sisters are back. Season 2 of Apple TV+’sBad Sistersfound an inventive way to give this brooding and beleaguered Irish clan we’ve all come to love yet another opportunity to freak out. To be sure, there are plenty of reasons for the sisters to do just that. The outing leaps off a big plot twist early on, making the travails that follow good enough to track, yet oddly just reminds us of how much better the first season was at guiding us through the messes these gals create.
We’re talking about what went down surrounding the “accidental death” of Grace’s (Anne-Marie Duff) abusive husband John Paul (Claes Bang) and the emotional turmoil that followed. Season 2 picks up two years after that brouhaha, and the sisters have happily moved on, especially Grace, who’s walking down the aisle to marry Ian (Owen McDonnell). He’s a kind chap who knows nothing about how Grace killed her husband by choking him to death and covered it up with the help of her sisters.
That secret is put to the test in Season 2 and, no surprise here,creator/star/executive producer Sharon Horgan(Catastrophe, This Way Up) knows how to create suspense, grief, and intrigue in the dark comedy thriller. She also gives audiences a new antagonist to fret over — and find wicked delight in. The dilemma is that the grief, the brooding, the uproar, and the frenzy overstay their welcome. Then again, if there wasn’t anything to fret over, there would be little reason to watch. That said, Season 2 ofBad Sistersmanages to hit just the right tonal notes but struggles as it heads toward the final stretch.
Bad Sisters
Bad Sisters is an Apple TV+ exclusive series based on the Flemish TV original Clan. The Garvey sisters are a group of five blood-related siblings bonded closely after the untimely death of their parents. Tragedy strikes once again when the husband of Grace Williams (Anne-Marie Duff) dies. The other four sisters, however, haven’t hidden their disapproval of Grace’s husband, John Paul Williams, due to his poor treatment of her on an abusive level. His life insurer notes this and launches an investigation into John’s death. Bad Sisters will take viewers back and forth into the past and present as they unveil the truth about what happened around John’s death.
Bad Sisterswas adapted from the brilliant Belgian seriesClan. Season 1 immediately captured our interest in the way creator Sharon Horgan balanced dark comedy with thrilling suspense.The Irish seaside settingdidn’t hurt either, and Claes Bang stood out as the season’s biggest foe. Fiona Shaw (Killing Eve) grabs the creative baton for that role this time around, playing Angelica, a churchgoer who can’t mind her own business. You see, her brother Roger (the wonderful Michael Smiley), helped Grace make John Paul’s (Bang) death look like an accident.
The arrival of Angelica isn’t the biggest twist of the season — that one is significant, and you’ll experience it early on — but it offers these next rounds of episodes a clear direction to go because, well, Angelica is bound to uncover more about what went down between Grace and Roger.
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The ramifications of that affect the Garvey sisters in different ways, but the common thread is: WTF. Some sisters turn inward. Others are openly concerned. Some find themselves pitted against one another. And the series tends to milk these reactions (often overreactions). There are times when these bursts of emotions put a distance between them and the audience.
At times, you can predict the emotional roulette and outcome of, oh, say, Sharon Horgan’s Eva flipping out about XYZ. The rest of the clan — Sarah Greene’s Bibi, Eve Hewson’s Becka, and Eva Birthistle’s Ursula — follow similar suit with the material they are given and their individual subplots. While there’s not much creative wiggle room into how we experience how these sisters react, we’re left with the brightest gem of the season: the always reliable Fiona Shaw, who steals scenes every step of the way.
Another Mess, Another Confrontation
The biggest thing that occurs here, which cannot be discussed (yet), is a game-changer for the series. Horgan knows how to write for “the group,” and this is a rare and engaging ensemble cast, of course. More often than not, they keep us thoroughly captivated. Standouts this time around, aside from Shaw, includeMichael Smiley (Bookworm, Spaced), who’s suddenly troubled by the events that occurred several years back. It doesn’t help that his sister is pecking around. There’s some nuance to all that, too, as Horgan is a master at taking us into the seemingly ordinary lives of her characters. Throughout Season 2, just as before, the locals become as fully realized characters as the main sisters themselves.
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Meanwhile, after a surprising discovery in the beginning of the season, two police officers begin snooping around the sisters again as it raises concerns again about John Paul’s death. The most worrisome of those two is Una (Doctor Who’sThaddea Graham), an ambitious new detective who wants to establish herself as a trusted law enforcement official. The character, while amusing, is more “one note” than needed, but Una’s naive pestering becomes yet another foil for the sisters.
Another potential threat to having the big secret unravel is Grace’s new husband, Ian. Him being left in the dark is enough to keep the plot and suspense moving along initially, but the series winds up spinning too many creative plates, and the bounce between one dilemma and another becomes challenging.
The Second Season Curse Isn’t So Bad
As a result, there’s a smack ofBig Little LiesSeason 2 going on here, where a core group of characters frantically try to avoid a major conflict.Big Little Lieswas great viewing, but viewers were begging for more drama from the characters Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, et al. after the first season ended. They got their wish, but the result can often be a blessing and a curse, as in the second season ofBad SistersandBig Little Liesalike.
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Bad Sisters is returning for its second season, and the murder of John Paul continues to haunt the ladies.
Especially here, asBad Sistersspends a lot of time looking at how each of these characters responds to the challenges they face. Fortunately, Sharon Horgan is a great storyteller, and must have realized the challenges she was up against after a brilliant first season, which would have stood on its own just fine. Hence, we have this season’s big twist, which is bold and shocking. After the initial shocks in the first two episodes, another jaw-dropping event occurs in the fifth episode, fueling the last few episodes with greater intrigue.
The season ultimately wins us over, though, and there’s great fun in watching these sisters paint themselves in corners, then have to scramble to repair the damage. So tune in. These are some of the finest actors you’ll find on television and, despite the hiccups, the show remains smart and darkly comedic, and perfectly sets up Season 3.Bad Sistersis streaming on Apple TV+. Watch it through the link below:
