Sharon Horgan has become known for dark comedy, and things didn’t get any darker than with the first season of Bad Sisters, where five sisters conspired to kill one of their husbands, a man who is so evil and manipulative that each and every one of the five has a story about how he made their lives miserable. It seemed like the first season was pretty self-contained, but Horgan has come up with a story for a second season with the Garvey sisters.
Opening Shot: Cliffs above the ocean at night. A car drives and parks at a particularly precarious spot.
The Gist: Four of the five Garvey sisters — Eva (Sharon Horgan), Bibi (Sarah Greene), Ursula (Eva Birthistle) and Becka (Eve Hewson) — are in the car, and something is bouncing around in the trunk. Eva almost backs them and the car over the cliff, but pulls back and opens the trunk. They’re shocked and run when it pops open on its own.
Two years later, the fifth Garvey sister, Grace (Anne-Marie Duff), is getting married again after the suspicious death of her husband John Paul Williams (Claes Bang). As far as the Garda are concerned, the death was a suicide, though Detective Inspector Fergal Loftus (Barry Ward), who investigated that case, has never been sure. Grace’s new fiancé, Ian Reilly (Owen McDonnell), has no idea about what really happened to JP, or “The Prick,” as the Garvey sisters called him.
The sisters have a hen party for Grace at the Irish Derby, where they run into Grace’s neighbor Roger Muldoon (Michael Smiley). Roger, who was one of the many people victimized by The Prick, knows what happened and vowed to Grace to keep it a secret. Along with Roger is his sister, Angelica Collins (Fiona Shaw), who recently moved in with him for support. She seems to be very curious about Grace and her sisters. The two of them also attend Grace’s wedding at Eva’s house, which seems to consist of a lot of salmon; Roger dances with Grace and tells her that the two of them have a pact.
Behind the house where JP’s late mother lived, a dismembered, decomposed body in a suitcase is pulled up from a pond. Loftus is called off the golf course by a new detective, Una Houlihan (Thaddea Graham) to go to the scene. The audience is told that the body is “Charles, The Prick’s Father (Also A Prick),” but it doesn’t take long for the authorities to identify the remains. Charles left JP’s mother over a decade ago, and the prevailing thought was that he walked out on her.
Loftus and Houlihan go to Charles’ only next of kin, which happens to be Grace. Of course, she’s shocked, and Loftus is surprised that she’s married again. He asks her about the insurance claim on JP that she filed, thoroughly investigated by Thomas Claffin (Ben Gleeson); Grace decided to withdraw the claim because she didn’t want JP’s suicide to go public.
When Roger tells Grace that he’s starting to waver on keeping their secret, Grace decides to tell Ian everything, putting their new marriage in immediate peril.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Bad Sisters definitely has the black comedy elements that we’ve seen in other shows Horgan has had a hand in, from Catastrophe to Shining Vale to This Way Up.
Our Take: Horgan came up with the story for Season 2 of Bad Sisters, which she created with Brett Baer and David Finkel, basing it on the Finnish TV series Clan. It seemed that Season 1 had a closed-ended finale, but the idea that the body of JP’s dad reappearing after a number of years is going to give the sisters new reasons to scheme and cover things up.
As happy as Grace seemed being with a man who on first blush looks like the polar opposite of the manipulative and evil JP, we knew that the happiness she was experiencing wasn’t going to last very long. And by the end of the first episode, Grace’s new marriage seems to be in tatters, and her teenage daughter Blánaid (Saise Quinn) is running over to her aunt Eva’s house for some support and comfort.
As with the first season, it seems that Grace is at the center of the storm, with Eva being the gang’s ringleader. But what we hope is that we get back to what made the first season so interesting, which was examinations of each sister’s lives. Ursula is divorced, for instance, and it seems that Becka is with a new guy named Joe (Peter Claffey), while Eva might be starting something with a guy at work and Bibi and her wife Nora (Yasmine Akram) are doing some family planning.
Like in the first season, it seems like all of these plans will be affected by what Loftus and Houlihan dig up during the investigation about Charles’ death, but what that is isn’t clear during the first episode.
Sex and Skin: For some reason, Becka holds her hands over her breasts as she looks for her clothes after waking up next to Joe. Didn’t he just see her naked?
Parting Shot: Grace lies in bed alone, contemplating the news she just revealed to Ian.
Sleeper Star: While we love seeing Fiona Shaw interacting with this great cast, we’re curious to see how much of a detriment to the sisters Angelica is going to be. The graphic for her has labeled her “The Wagon,” which means… we’re not sure. But we’re thinking it will become clear at some point early in the season.
Most Pilot-y Line: When Grace throws the bouquet, Angelica literally elbows Eva out of the way to the point where Eva falls down. That’s some extreme behavior right there.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Bad Sisters continues to be a fun show to watch because all five actors playing the Garvey sisters have great chemistry with each other and look like they’re having fun with this dark comedy. It also helps that Horgan and company continue to write smart dialogue for them. We just hope the second season story keeps the focus on the sisters and their lives.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.