‘The Better Sister’ (2025) Prime Video Series Review - A Half-Baked Mystery Drama

You can, for a while, interest yourself in figuring out who's the better sister between Nicky (Elizabeth Banks) and Chloe (Jessica Biel) while watching The Better Sister. At first glance, it's Chloe who seems worthy of this compliment. She's the editor-in-chief of The Real Thing, lives in a penthouse with her lawyer husband, Adam (Corey Stoll), and his son, Ethan (Maxwell Acee Donovan), and near the beginning of the first episode, she celebrates the biggest night of her career. What's more, between Nicky and Chloe, the latter has the best hair. It's short and sharp and grabs your attention so often that it might as well be a leading character in this show. Nicky, on the other hand, is an addict or ex-addict who tries to stay clean and doesn't look financially stable. She's what you would call a mess. But she has better "street knowledge" than Chloe, which becomes evident when she talks about legal matters. She knows how the police work and when lawyers should be involved. Nicky, after all, has previously served time in prison. She's also Adam's ex-wife and Ethan's biological mother. Wait, what? Did Chloe "steal" Adam? Is she not the better sister?

The debate is ultimately settled when the whole picture becomes clear and you get the answer to the above question. I don't think that answer is too complicated, which is why the runtime (8 hours!) seems unnecessary and absurd. I am tired of repeating myself, but The Better Sister could have been a film. Its thin material is tediously stretched for eight long episodes that are always busy but rarely intriguing, exciting, or fun. Most of its juice comes from Banks and Biel. As estranged sisters, they bicker over almost anything, and their testy bond can be comical. They argue like caricatures when a lawyer, Michelle Sanders (Gloria Reuben), sends them out on the terrace so that she can privately talk to Ethan. Banks and Biel bring their characters' emotional states to the foreground through their performances. When you look at Nicky or Chloe, you are able to perceive their current mood and even infer some things about their past. The Better Sister is largely watchable due to the two lead actresses. Yet, they aren't able to hide the fact that the show itself is unimaginative and a slog. It wants to be about too many things at once. As a result, it's unable to do justice to any one thing in particular, giving the impression that it's half-baked and undeveloped.

Somewhere in The Better Sister is a drama about two estranged sisters trying to reconnect with each other. Another part of it is a courtroom thriller in which cunning strategies are employed to navigate a complex situation. When it's revealed that a boy had posted some ugly, creepy comments, The Better Sister reminds you of Adolescence. A successful woman like Chloe receives disturbing packages, which can be seen as the show's commentary on misogynistic trolls. The Better Sister also has an abusive relationship/domestic violence angle, and it's, of course, a murder mystery, as everybody wants to know who killed Adam. Let's not forget the presence of FBI agents, shady companies, and powerful white men. The Better Sister also has a "race angle." This dish has too many ingredients - it has that thing known as ambition. But ambition without depth and vision comes across as dull and unremarkable. There is a scene in The Better Sister where Chloe, after arguing with her sister, starts stuffing her mouth in such a way that you suspect she has a history of an eating disorder. The series, though, quickly drops this suggestion. And that's the main issue with this adaptation of an Alafair Burke novel (which I have not read): The various elements present here merely fill the runtime. Nothing is fleshed out or elaborated. Even visually, The Better Sister isn't any better. The unadorned images look active only due to the presence of Biel and Banks. The filmmaking here is all about handing the script to the viewers one page at a time. Much of the content on these pages is repetitive, offering little new information. This Craig Gillespie creation knows how to numb your senses. You respond to nothing except for two or three moments (and the performances). Gillespie's motto could have been, "If you can't win them over, you can always render them unresponsive, thus effectively stripping them of the ability to react." In this respect, he's a winner. Or, The Better Creator.

Final Score- [4/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times
Note: All 8 episodes are screened for this review.
Premiere Date: May 29, 2025, on Prime Video