Secrets, Sisters, and Shattered Truths

TV SERIES REVIEW
The Better Sister
TV-14 -     

Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Year Released: 2025
Runtime: 8 x 54m episodes
Director(s): Craig Gillespie (101), Leslie Hope (102/103), Azazel Jacobs (104), Dawn Wilkinson (105/106), Stephanie Laing (107/108)
Cast: Elizabeth Banks, Jessica Biel, Corey Stoll, Kim Dickens, Maxwell Acee Donovan, Bobby Naderi, Gabriel Sloyer, Gloria Reuben, Matthew Modine, Lorraine Toussaint
Where to Watch: premiering on Prime Video May 29, 2025

RAVING REVIEW: If THE BETTER SISTER proves anything, it may be that blood is thicker than water, but it also stains deeper. Based on Alafair Burke’s novel, this eight-part limited series is the kind of domestic thriller that wraps you in familiar genre pacing and slips something sharp beneath the surface. It’s a story about guilt, control, and survival—but more than anything, it’s about the complicated connection of sisterhood, where old wounds rarely heal in a straight line.

Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks play Chloe and Nicky, sisters estranged not just by circumstance but by choice, by past betrayals, and by the ghost of a shared history that refuses to stay buried. Chloe, a media executive with a spotless reputation and a resume as tight as her press conferences, has left the chaos of her upbringing behind. Meanwhile, Nicky’s life is a tangle of recovery efforts and dead-end restarts.

The murder mystery, on its surface, is familiar: a person key to the cast's world is killed, the people within the inner circle are scrutinized, and layers of deceit gradually fall away. But THE BETTER SISTER is less concerned with procedural twists and more invested in character implosion. It’s the unraveling of Chloe and Nicky—both separately and together—that fuels the tension. The question of who the killer is becomes just one piece of a larger, messier puzzle about addiction, ambition, trauma, and the corrosive pull of the past.

Biel leans into the cold composure of Chloe, a woman who’s spun a narrative so tight around her life that any sudden tear sends everything into chaos. A steeliness beneath the surface makes Chloe feel more dangerous than lustrous, and Biel never lets us get too comfortable in her presence. On the other hand, Banks brings a kind of raw, exhausted energy to Nicky. Her performance never begs for sympathy, and that’s its strength—this isn’t a redemption arc. Nicky is still figuring out what kind of sister, mother, and woman she’s allowed to be when she’s not being defined by other people’s mistakes… or her own.

Kim Dickens as Detective Nancy Guidry becomes the de facto third lead across the season. She doesn't simply serve the investigation—she helps to shape it. Guidry isn’t just another investigator with a tragic backstory or a suspicious scowl; her scenes bristle with controlled heat, especially as the emotional stakes rise. Her focus on Ethan (Maxwell Acee Donovan), Chloe’s son and Adam’s stepson, adds layers to the family dynamic, hinting at buried tensions that long predate the crime.

Each episode cleverly reshapes the narrative, offering just enough to keep the viewer on edge. Episode 1, “She’s My Sister,” lays the groundwork with Chloe’s career triumph quickly eclipsed by the horror of the unexpected death. The call to her estranged sister feels almost cruel in its timing. “Lotta Sky” pushes the tension further, as both sisters deal with not only the trauma of the death but the grinding discomfort of forced proximity. These two women don’t just mistrust each other—they often seem to mistrust themselves when the other is in the room.

By “Incoming Widow,” the show veers away from its central mystery to explore how grief gets politicized—who can mourn and in what fashion. Chloe’s stoic shell is tested in ways she doesn’t expect. “Gazpacho” is one of the series’ most emotionally loaded entries, leveraging a memorial event to dissect memory, bias, and the slippery nature of truth. When two people live through the same moment and remember it in opposite ways, THE BETTER SISTER suggests, the truth isn’t somewhere in the middle—it might not exist.

As the trial looms and finally begins (“Just Ask,” “Steadying Hand”), the legal backdrop functions more as a pressure cooker than a delivery system for justice. The sisters’ testimonies are less about facts and more about performance—how much of themselves they’re willing to reveal under oath. It’s here that both Biel and Banks shine, delivering the kind of frayed, hesitant, but ultimately honest moments that define strong television drama.

“Back from Red” sets off the show’s biggest twist. The implications hit everyone differently, but for Chloe and Nicky, it forces a reckoning with who they’ve been. Guidry, reeling from how close she was to missing the truth, strips things down and digs deeper, with Bobby Naderi’s Detective Bowen grounding the investigation with no-nonsense resolve.

The finale, “They’re In Their World,” offers resolution but not closure. That’s intentional. Not every thread is tied up in a pretty bow. Instead, it asks whether rebuilding is even desirable. Can you truly move forward with someone when the foundation you shared was cracked from the start? 

Visually, the series leans into muted, sterile tones, reflecting Chloe’s curated existence and the emotional coldness she’s wrapped herself in. But there are moments of grit, particularly in scenes featuring Nicky, where the lighting gets harsher and the spaces tighter. The contrast underscores the worlds of these characters better than any exposition ever could.

THE BETTER SISTER isn’t interested in absolutes. No one is a hero. No one walks away clean. Even the victim becomes harder to mourn once the truth is laid bare. That moral ambiguity, layered with strong performances and a refusal to sacrifice realism for sentiment, makes the series sit with you. This is not a show about solving a murder—it’s about surviving one.

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