Bad Sisters is a dark comedy-thriller from Apple TV+ that arrived with little fanfare in 2022 and promptly became one of the most celebrated television series of the decade. Created by Sharon Horgan, who also stars, the series follows the four Garvey sisters in Dublin who conspire to murder their abusive brother-in-law John Paul Williams — a man so comprehensively awful that audiences are cheering for his death before the end of the first episode. The show's masterstroke is its dual-timeline structure, which reveals in the opening minutes that John Paul is dead, then spends ten episodes showing how he might have gotten that way.
The ensemble is uniformly brilliant: Anne-Marie Duff, Eva Birthistle, Sarah Greene, and Eve Hewson each bring distinctive textures to the Garvey sisters, creating a family unit so believable and warmly drawn that viewers will want to be adopted into it immediately. Claes Bang is magnificently hateable as John Paul, a performance that requires the audience to understand exactly why murder feels justified while also illuminating the specific and insidious ways such men operate within families. The comedic timing across the ensemble is impeccable, arriving in moments you least expect and making the darkness all the more bearable.
What elevates Bad Sisters beyond its clever premise is its profound emotional intelligence about grief, family loyalty, and the way women are conditioned to endure harm rather than name it. The series was renewed for a second season, which expanded the universe while maintaining the tonal balance that made the original so distinctive. Bad Sisters is that rare achievement: a show that is genuinely funny, genuinely suspenseful, and genuinely moving, often within the same scene.
Emma Becker (Alexandra Chando from Medium, As The World Turns) is a big hearted girl who grew up in foster homes and has nearly always had bad luck. When she finds out she has a sister that is her identical twin (Sutton Mercer also played by Chando) she must meet her and when she does discovers her sister was adopted and the parents are wealthy so her life must be ideal, right? After getting acquainted the two sisters decide to swap lives for a time and soon we see Sutton pursuing leads to find her birth mother. But when Sutton turns up missing Emma needs to find her and there comes the dilemma, whether or not to tell her folks she's been deceiving them by portraying her sister. Through the twists and turns that follow her Lying Games she and her sister will discover the truth leading up to why the had originally become separated at birth. Also starring Andy Buckley (The Other Guys, The Office) as Ted Mercer adoptive father of Sutton) and Helen Slater (City Slickers, Ruthless People) portrays Kristin Mercer, Suttons adoptive mom.
The pretty young Cassie Scerbo (Make It or Break It, CSI: Spring Breakdown) knows very well how to play snobbish and mean. She even says it's absolutely fun to be that never boring and totally spicy character. Proclaiming herself to be the "Queen of the Beam" in her high school, Amber Pollack (Scerbo) is confident to a fault. Amber Pollack is also deceased! Apparently she died after a freakish accident on prom night but must come to the aid of a rather unpopular girl named Lisa, played by Lindsey Shaw (Pretty Little Liars) before she can ascend to heaven. Tim Gunn (The Smurfs, Sex and the City 2) is an angel who gives Amber Pollack the orders to help out the less than popular young girl and give her the self confidence to go on and become the new prom queen. As she works on Lisa's personality she finds some of her own worse qualities are becoming part of Lisa's own dreadful qualities and comes to realize she was a truly poor human being before she died.
That may well be the title to a dream sequence by some brilliant but unqualified attorney "want to be's" who can only imagine how they could accomplish what Mike Ross has done. He bluffed his way in by convincing Harvey Specter, one of the finest lawyers in Manhattan to hire him in spite of the fact he has no law degree. Although Ross is brilliant and extremely personable he could not afford the schooling and his choices in friends and recreational drugs did not help his situation. However he can pass the bar without attending any law school simply because he has an eidetic memory. Now clean and dedicated to becoming a first rate attorney, Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams from FlashForward, Raising the Bar) must prove himself to the man who put his trust in and hired him, Harvey Specter (played by Gabriel Macht from Love and Other Drugs, Middle Men). Mike Ross must convince the other attorneys he graduated from the Harvard Law school because that's the only place they hire new recruits from. And he is a fast learner who's wit and conviction works well in the court room.
What do most single ladies want out of life? They want a stable man who will allow them to do their "thing" and make a career that is as fulfilling as their relationships. We all want happiness and completion in our lives and these fine ladies have their own great jobs going for them, they just need the right man to complete them. Val Stokes (Stacey Dash of House Arrest, Close Quarters) wants to be a fashion mogul and owns a fashion boutique in Atlanta. April Goldberg-Jenkins (Charity Shea from Toxic, Primal Scream) who is married to Darryl for the past seven years has the desire to become an executive with A&R records, a move up from being the record label owner's assistant. But her marriage may be getting in the way. Keisha Green is played by LisaRaye McCoy (Beauty Shop, All of Us) has performed in music videos and wants romance in her life. Each of these single ladies has their own agenda regarding their love life and it's fun to watch as they try and fail then pick themselves up and try again.
Marti Perkins lost her scholarship to Lancer Universities law school and finds she must get one some other way. Cheerleading can provide just the financial boost for her pre-law schooling she needs in the way of a scholarship. Along the way she befriends the team cheerleading captain (Savannah Monroe) who becomes her roommate. Vanessa Lodge (played by Sharon Leal from Dreamgirls) is the cheerleaders coach who has high hopes of winning the national championship. Gail O'Grady (NYPD Blue) is Wanda Perkins, mother of Marti and an embarrassment to her daughter quite often with behavior more expectant of a young child. Marti Perkins is played by Aly Michalka (Easy A, Bandslam), a determined young woman who is wise beyond her years and dedicated to becoming an attorney at any cost. Ashley Tisdale (High School Musical, Aliens in the Attic) is coach of the cheerleading team Savannah Monroe and when Marti comes applies to join up realizes the able young woman is just what the team needs to get into and ultimately win the cheerleading finals. This comedy drama ultimately shows how dedication and hard work will pay off big time!
Two half brothers (same father) begin their relationship by hating each other but bond and become best friends through teamwork and learning the truth about their father. Lucas Scott is played by Chad Michael Murray (House of Wax, Home of the Brave) who is recruited onto the basketball team by Coach Durham (played by Barry Corbin from Urban Cowboy & Monte Walsh). Lucas proves to be a talented player and starts out as a rival of his own half brother, Nathan Scott (James Lafferty from A Season on the Brink & Get Real). But soon the brothers learn to care for and respect each other while finding out their father Dan Scott (Paul Johansson from The Drew Carey Show & The District) is the natural father of Lucas yet he never claimed to be. As in real life, the characters on One Tree Hill have their ups and downs relationship wise and when they make mistakes they must pay for them somehow. Each season brings up more interesting reflections on family and life in high school, college, and ultimately after they have become adults proving we all need time to reflect on what we want in our lives.
Haven't we all wondered if we had perhaps been switched at birth when we disagreed with our parents? Now how about if it turns out that the hospital actually did switch babies, purely by accident? And the families don't find out until the children are teenagers. Bay Kennish (played by Vanessa Marano from Without a Trace and the Gilmore Girls) has a high school project that includes learning about blood types and she inadvertently finds out her parents blood types do no match hers, showing she absolutely cannot be related to either of them. The family has their DNA tested and confirms the results Bay has come up with in school. Finding that the hospital made a huge error by mixing up the babies, they find the other child and discover how different her life is. Lea Thompson (Back to the Future Trilogy) is Bay's stay at home mom Kathryn and her father, John is played by D.W. Moffett (Friday Night Lights). Bay's new found sister is Daphne (Katie Leclerc from Veronica Mars) who unfortunately suffered deafness due to a case of meningitis as a young child. Daphne, her mother, and grandmother have a hard life and soon the Kennishes invite them to live in their guest house. Deaf actress Marlee Matlin also stars as friend of Daphne's mom, Regina.
