- Network: Prime Video
- Series Premiere Date: May 29, 2025
Critic Reviews
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As if the show's writing and story didn't stand well enough on their own, The Better Sister also benefits from having an excellent roster of performers turning in great performances.
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Sure, there’s a corpse at the contemporary thriller’s center, and a killer, and a kooky cop. But the fun is in watching Biel and Banks stretch out and strut in complicated roles with ample opportunity to demonstrate their acting chops.
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Judging by “The Better Sister,” a series can start out being stupid and obvious and eventually make fun of the stupid and the obvious, all the while upscaling its own genre. .... “The Better Sister” finds a groove with characters who are so vile you can’t stop watching them.
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The series is put together with a high degree of structural intelligence; it loops back to key moments and developments with a nimbleness that encourages full attention.
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Sharply crafted show, but far too long at eight hours.
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For all its storytelling sins, The Better Sister handily skirts the most damning one of them all: It’s not boring.
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Whether you want catharsis and consolation in the form of Biel and Banks trading poor taste zingers between flashbacks to their communal childhood trauma is a matter of personal taste. But when it comes to reassuring downfalls, this decent-enough drama knows how to play the game.
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All of these characters end up flattened by the needs of the plot, which asks them to merely be cogs in an increasingly complicated story with a convoluted ending that doesn’t quite warrant the absurd twists it takes to get there.
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Their bickering, at turns tense and mildly funny, is where the show is at its best, when Biel and Banks aren’t being asked to play types, but to connect on a more fundamental level.
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What makes the show entertaining, at least in fits and starts, is also what throws it repeatedly and frustratingly off balance.
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There are intriguing ideas set up in The Better Sister, but unfortunately, the show wastes too much time on boring subplots to truly explore them with the nuance they deserve.
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Unfortunately, despite all of its compelling components, the show quickly loses its way. “The Better Sister” begins to unravel because it’s tonally chaotic. .... Additionally, the show drags on endlessly and would have been more engaging if it weren’t stretched across eight lengthy episodes.
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The finale is all dry plot machinations, even scattering breadcrumbs for a repetitive second season despite Amazon billing the show as a limited series. Like Sirens and Long Bright River, this is an over-extended movie that nobody would make as a movie, even with big names like Biel and Banks as its stars.
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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.
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Tt ultimately reads as a stale and redundant crime thriller that doesn’t thrill at all. In fact, at times I struggled to stay interested in one part of the show. .... You’re better off queueing up Defending Jacob, Bad Sisters, Presumed Innocent, or The Sinner instead.