Bad Sisters returns with a less gripping, though no less funny, second season

Any season of television that starts with “Everybody’s Gotta Live” by Love as the camera glides over the rocky coast of Ireland in the dead of night can’t, officially, be half bad. And neither, for that matter, can anything that’s brought to the small screen by Sharon Horgan, who, as a writer, performer, and creator (she’s all three for Bad Sisters, an adaptation of the Belgian series Clan, as she was for Catastrophe and BBC Three’s very funny Pulling before it), has a real knack for banter that feels almost immediately lived-in. When these titular siblings bicker—as they do whenever they’re together, which, by the end of this new season, is basically all the time—one can sense the decades of in-jokes, ribbings, highs, lows, and, indeed, love.  

After that portentous, well-soundtracked intro, the second batch of this Apple TV+ series drops in on the present with one of those highs—specifically, the hen party for Grace (Anne-Marie Duff) at the race track, in which she and her sibs are all sunny smiles, donning Derby dresses and doling out champagne toasts. Yes, just two years after the murder of her shitbag husband, JP (Claes Bang), she is about to take the plunge again, this time with a gentle, bearded fellow (Owen McDonnell’s Ian) she met in a grief support group. (A quick catchup on the first season: After nine episodes of teases and red herrings about who killed JP, a.k.a. “The Prick,” it’s revealed in the finale that it was in fact the soft and cheery Grace, who choked him out after he gloated about raping her sister, Eva [Horgan].) 

But what happens when a darkly comedic whodunit—plenty of people had plenty of reasons to wipe out The Prick, and a lot of the fun was in theorizing who finally offed him and in what fashion—is no longer a whodunit? And without that central mystery fueling the story, can the show grab viewers like it did in its first outing? (And, although this is far less crucial, can you Airbnb any of these sisters’ incredible seaside houses?) In season two, that JP puzzle is obviously solved, but the cat is very much still coming out of the bag. (One person outside of the family knows what happened to The Prick and, racked with guilt, is thinking of talking, while another strongly suspects foul play.) This is all compounded when a dismembered body is discovered in a suitcase, essentially reopening The Prick’s case and leading an odd-couple pair of cops (a fresh-faced, ever-apologizing newbie played by Thaddea Graham and a gruff, about-to-retire vet portrayed by Barry Ward) back to the sisters’ doorsteps. 

Unfortunately, this the-walls-are-closing-in plotting doesn’t hit like the original recipe. And although this new season is two episodes shorter than the first, it feels decidedly longer and less hooky, sagging for a stretch of episodes that leads up to its admittedly fantastic finale, the aptly titled “Cliff Hanger.” Another piece that is missing from this round, as weird as it is to admit, is JP himself, a smug, posh douchebag (trying not to shudder or clench fists whenever he referred to his wife as “Mammy” was a constant chore in 2022) who made for quite the memorable villain. 

But luckily, these new episodes have a new secret weapon: the phenomenal Irish actor Fiona Shaw, the season’s clear MVP. As the shit-stirring and quirky oddball Angelica, the religious sister of Roger (Michael Smiley), she steals scenes with some remarkable comedic timing, always leaving one wondering whether there’s anything nefarious under her daffy, do-gooder exterior. (The moment when Angelica makes herself cozy in the family section of a funeral service, delivering “Can you believe this is happening?” to the bereaved might just make one spit out their drink.) That Shaw was able to command the screen in 2024 TV projects as tonally disparate as this and True Detective: Night Country speaks volumes about her talent. 

As for the show’s core sisters, each of them is at a crossroads: Grace with keeping her big secret from her betrothed, Eva with turning 50, Ursula (Eva Birthistle) with single life, Bibi (Sarah Greene) with family planning, and Becka (Eve Hewson) with a new boyfriend (Peter Claffey). Not all of these struggles or life changes unfold as engagingly as Horgan & co. likely planned, and some tie up a bit too neatly by season’s end. But that lived-in banter that made the show so watchable two years back is thankfully still there. (When Bibi gripes, “People don’t respond well to a one-eyed woman looking for a man,” Ursula immediately fires back: “Yeah, it’s a bit Kill Bill, alright.”) And their bond, particularly during a teary-eyed karaoke rendition of The Cranberries’ “When You’re Gone,” while certainly messier than before, has also never been stronger or easier to root for.

Bad Sisters season two premieres November 13 on Apple TV+