People like you, Roger - you don't get to forgive people like me

Continuing my trip down The Guardian's Top 50 TV Shows of 2022.  

#20 : Bad Sisters

Sharon Horgan’s whodunnit got off to a good start – JP (played horribly well by Claes Bang) is dead, and all his sister-in-laws are suspects. Cue farcical flashbacks to the many times bullying JP drove each sister to dream up ways to kill him. All the while, two desperate, broke insurance agents are trying to work out what really happened. This show got better with each episode – as the yearning for our villain’s death grew stronger – finally hitting its crescendo with the most satisfying season finale reveal of the year. But with a cast including Anne-Marie Duff, Sarah Greene and Horgan herself, it was always destined to do great things.

I'd heard this was good from various people and we'd seen snippets on Gogglebox, but not got round to watching it - but this was a list entry that I offered up to the lovely Mrs Reed as a joint watch and she jumped at the chance.

And with good reason - this is really very good indeed.  As The Guardian tells us, we know very early on that JP (aka "The Prick") is dead, but details are very, very sketchy.  And it does a very good job of keeping the details sketchy until the very end - you feel like you're being drip-fed information, but when you think about it you realise they're not really telling you anything.  Going in to the last episode, you still have no idea even how he died, let alone who might have killed him - but it still manages to wrap things up in a very satisfactory manner.  And, believe me, it's best that I give you no further details on any of it - it's just an absolute joy to get lost in.

So, I'm not going to discuss the plot, but there are a FEW actors to talk about...

Firstly, the bad sisters (but are they actually bad?).  The known names for me were Sharon Horgan and Anne-Marie Duff and you certainly wouldn't expect them to put a foot wrong anywhere - the others were Sarah Greene, Eva Birthistle (how do you even pronounce that?) and Eve Hewson (daughter of Mr and Mrs Bono) and they certainly don't disappoint either.  If I had to pick favourites, I'd go for Anne-Marie & Eve but they all certainly take their moments in the spotlight and they interact as sisters really well.

Claes Bang is excellent as JP but the character is so well written as an absolute BASTARD that I suspect most people would be able to carry it off - I'd say that we generally slagged him off at least twice every episode because he got the most outrageous things to do and say.  But he was really enjoyably horrible.  The insurance agent "brothers" are played by Brian Gleeson and Daryl McCormack - you'll understand the quotes when you see it because it's fair to say they don't have a lot in common but they play the mismatched pair well and they do well to come out with our sympathies by the end.

There are quite a few other random characters that appear frequently across the series and they all fit in well, but I'm going to give name checks to Seána Kerslake for only leaving her bed once in the entire season (and almost immediately collapsing) and Michael Smiley because I've liked nearly everything I've seen him in since he was Tyres O'Flaherty in Spaced (and if you've never seen the A Team episode then shame on you!).

Without giving plot details away, I am going to praise the writing - the mood is generally very black, sometimes lending itself to humour and sometimes just leading us further into the darkness with episode 9 in particular being very dark.  As previously mentioned, it's also impressive how they give you the impression that you're being told stuff when in fact you're learning nothing and a lot of the things that happen are amusingly red-herringish.  The relationships depicted are also well thought out - I'd be lying if I said they were exactly realistic, but they take relatable elements and extend them in such a way that you can understand them, if not necessarily believe them.

It's also shot very well - being Ireland there's some gorgeous countryside involved (and they take every opportunity to send the drones up) but it also features some lovely houses which are used impressively.  And, given the quality of the actors involved, it would be a crime not to go for the close-up and you're not going to be disappointed here either. It also has a very cool title sequence!

A couple of random Wikifacts for you - the whole thing is based on Clan, a Belgian show from 2012, but when you watch this you'd struggle to imagine it being set anywhere other than Ireland.  Amusingly, three of the sisters have the same name in both series but I guess they just didn't think they could get away with Veerle and Goedele as Irish names.  Amusingly, the IFTA (think BAFTA, but Irish) supporting actress (TV) category had four nominations (out of six) for the sisters - and when Sharon Horgan is one of those that misses out, you realise the level is pretty high (Anne-Marie won).

So, it's well written, acted and shot - what's not to love?  We both really enjoyed this - it's a strong recommendation and another one I'll be surprised if it doesn't make it into my top three.  At time of writing, it's available on Apple TV and it's definitely worth paying for a month's subscription to watch - what higher praise can I give it?

#19 - A stunningly beautiful watch
#22 - Good rather than great