The Better Sister is a series I knew next to nothing about before I saw an add advertising it the day it dropped on Prime Video. That’s how I feel about most thing that land on Prime.
Anyway, I was influenced to watch it right away because Elizabeth Banks and Jessica Biel were its titular sisters. I don’t quite feel like these two could pass as sister in real life, though there are plenty of people in this world who look absolutely nothing like their siblings. Biel plays Chloe, the editor-in-chief of some lifestyle magazine. Her warmth to her employees seems a little put on because she presents very frigid. No hair is out of place, and she speaks in such a polished manner that it’s a surprise and normal plebe could form a sentence around her. But under the surface of her pristine life, it’s actually pretty dang messy.
Her husband, Adam, is actually her sister’s ex-husband. And her son, Ethan, is also her sister’s! Messy! I could not imagine ever having a relationship with my sibling after they snatched them away and claimed them as their own. Things somehow become even more complicated in Chloe’s life when she arrives home one night after some prestigious awards dinner to find Adam very, very dead in a large pool of blood in their country home. She panics, but the authorities don’t waste any time placing blame on the teenaged Ethan. His alibi is not as airtight as it could be, but Chloe can’t gain any traction on this development because guardianship of Ethan still belongs to her sister, Nicky.
Nicky makes her way to town claiming to have really changed. We get flashbacks of her life as a mother and an alcoholic. We also learn that the reason she no longer has her husband and her son in her life is because an infant Ethan almost drowned on her watch. To me, it seemed like Nicky’s alcoholism stemmed from post-partum depression, but as the season wears on, you learn it’s definitely another reason. Chloe is chilly and unbelieving that Nicky has changed, but the two of them ultimately want the same thing. For the court to announce Ethan’s innocence and get him back. Though this is a little bit of a spoiler, after hiring a top notch lawyer, they do manage to achieve that goal.
Given how early that issue is resolved in the series, it’s clear the rest of the time is going to be spent on finding out who actually killed Adam. Turns out lots of people had reason to. Some are a little over-the-top, but others are more grounded in reality and make it difficult to truly pinpoint someone. There are a lot of morally compromised people in this series, but that just kind of makes it more interesting to try and figure out the real killer. My only gripe with this series was how Chloe and Nicky’s relationship seemed to do a 180 almost overnight. Even after they got Ethan back they seemed to be at each other’s throats. Then all of a sudden it’s “I would do anything for you” and “I love you most in this world.” I mean don’t get me wrong, I liked it, but the delivery was a bit jarring.
All in all though, this was a fun and alluring series to watch! With everything that there is to choose from out there, this is a pretty strong selection you could make for 2025 at the moment.