The Better Sister Review
Director: Craig Gillespie, Dawn Wilkinson, Leslie Hope, Azazel Jacobs and Stephanie Laing
Date Created: 2025-05-29 03:30
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The Better Sister Review: Directed by a group of talented names like Craig Gillespie, Leslie Hope, Azazel Jacobs, Dawn Wilkinson, and Stephanie Laing, this eight-episode limited series on Prime Video Is a crime with Olivia Milch and Regina Corrado as showrunners and a cast that includes Elizabeth Banks, Jessica Biel, Corey Stoll, Kim Dickens and others, the expectations were high. Based on a bestselling novel by Alafair Burke, the show revolves around a high-stakes murder case that reunites two estranged sisters.
The Better Sister Review
Set in the stylish but emotionally charged centre of cosmopolitan New York, Prime Video’s The Better Sister follows Chloe, a successful media executive who appears to have it all: a beautiful family, a loving husband, Adam and a precocious son, Ethan. Her peace is shattered after the body of Adam is discovered, and the prime suspect turns out to be someone intimately connected with the family. This horrifying event drives Chloe to reunite with her problematic, drug-abusing sister, Nikki. As the two sisters uncover more about the murder, they come to grips with their painful history, hidden truths and longstanding resentment.
The Better Sister Series was a bit of a disappointment for me, frankly. I was looking forward to seeing Elizabeth Banks and Jessica Biel on screen together when I first read about the casting. Both are such good actresses, and I assumed they would bring down the house together in the show. But unfortunately, the writing doesn’t give them quite enough depth or room to breathe. But instead of the gripping murder mystery we were promised, we have a long, slow and often boring courtroom drama.
The opening episodes are excruciating. Nothing of consequence is achieved, and most scenes feel as if they’re marking time. There are a lot of long court or home conversations that don’t add a whole lot to the story. The whole time, I was expecting something cool to happen, and it didn’t until late in the series. By that point, it was difficult to remain entirely engaged.
The Better Sister on Prime Video also failed to work for me because of its storytelling. The story really is stretched out. Some episodes you could barely watch, and the show would’ve still tracked. A more concentrated story would have served to sharpen the series. The show, instead, smacks back and forth between intense family drama and murder investigation, without doing due diligence to both.
The mystery itself is not very good. So as a fan of thrillers, I have to say, I was counting on some huge twist or some clever clues. But the surprises here seem forced, and the climactic reveal doesn’t stick the landing. And as an investigation, it felt a little lazy, and not entirely convincing. The police were clueless, and the suspects behaved in odd, unrealistic ways. It seemed to me the writers were more interested in displaying the conflict between the two sisters than solving a murder.
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At the centre of the series The Better Sister are Chloe and Nikki, whose relationship is meant to be fraught and complex. Their personalities, however, are rendered in a manner that is difficult to connect with either of them. Chloe seems icy and controlling, and  Nikki seems like an airhead and a slob. There were a few times throughout their bonding that it almost seemed real. A show like this has to have characters you can believe in, and here those were lacking.
Plus, the teenage son, Ethan, plays an important role in the story, but his character was never developed into what seemed to be his potential. At times, it also felt like the show was trying to get us to suspect him, just to throw us off with Kelly’s shocking announcement and then wanted us to forget about all that business and focus on something else. This back-and-forth is the sort of thing that makes for a confused and poorly plotted story.
Now, it’s not that The Better Sister Series is all bad. The actors try as hard as anyone could with this material. Jessica Biel attempts to add emotion and depth to the role of Nikki, and Elizabeth Banks brings the no-nonsense and ambitious Chloe to life. Their scenes together certainly have some spark, and you get a sense of the hurt and love between the two sisters. But the performances aren’t enough to rescue weak writing and deliberately slow pacing.
And the production value is respectable. The show is slick, the sets and costumes are good, and the music provides some anxiety where it’s needed. But a handsome show alone can’t hide the fact that you need a solid story, and that’s where The Better Sister is lacking.
The Better Sister Series Review: Summing Up
On the whole, The Better Sister is sort of disappointing. It had everything going for it — a great cast, and a best-selling book to adapt the show from, to begin with, and a good premise. But the delivery just doesn’t add up. The narrative is rather drawn out,  the characters are uninteresting, and the mystery is hardly gripping. In the meantime, I can only wait until I see Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks in something else, preferably that makes better use of their talents.
The Better Sister 2025 is now streaming on Prime Video.
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