Jessica Biel hasn’t acted since 2022’s Candy, a miniseries about Candy Montgomery and Betty Gore’s 1980 murder. Before that, her most lauded role was on The Sinner, a 2018 crime drama co-starring Bill Pullman. Biel, who has a young family and an adult toddler husband, doesn’t (have to) work much these days, but when she does, she seems to gravitate to twisty thrillers and complicated, unlikeable characters. So it’s no surprise her latest is a twisty thriller in which she plays a complicated, unlikeable character.
The Better Sister is an upcoming thriller series from Olivia Milch—daughter of Deadwood creator David Milch—and Regina Corrado, herself an alum of Deadwood, adapting from Alafair Burke’s novel of the same name. Already I’m in based on Deadwood connections, but the trailer for The Better Sister dropped yesterday and it looks pretty good. Maybe I’m still high on Another Simple Favor’s c-nty fumes (review will be posted today), but I’m into Biel and Elizabeth Banks playing a pair of contentious sisters at the center of a murder mystery.
Biel stars as Chloe, the uptight “perfect” sister, while Banks stars as Nicky, the messy one. Kim Dickens—another Deadwood veteran—stars as the detective investigating the death of Chloe’s husband (played by Corey Stoll, and he does have a perfect “guy who gets murdered in act one” face). I love this casting, and the trailer is selling The Better Sister as part psychological thriller, part f-cked up family drama, like The Perfect Couple except maybe not deliberately bad. It’s hard to tell, though, because we’re in the phase of murder mystery entertainment where it’s equally likely a series will be a straightforward thriller as it will be a cheeky riff on a thriller. But I think this one is supposed to be straightforward, and it’s just the presence of Elizabeth Banks, who is a great comedic actress, throwing me off a little.
Jessica Biel has never been my favorite actress, but I do sort of love that she’s throwing herself into a character actor era, and that she is consistently picking these difficult roles. She could totally coast at this point, but she isn’t. When she takes an acting role, she makes it count. I love that for her. And if The Better Sister lives up to its Deadwood foundation, I will love it for us, too.
