‘Bad Sisters’ Season 2: Breathtaking twist throws a grenade into a major storyline

Easily one of the best reasons for an Apple TV Plus subscription, the darkly comedic Irish drama Bad Sisters is back for a second time, with the Garvey sisters’ grim past about to catch up with them in unexpected ways. Season 2 arrives on the platform on November 13, and CNET recently had the chance to interview Sarah Greene, Anne-Marie Duff, Eva Birthistle and Fiona Shaw about what’s in store.

The show’s first season seemed to finally come to an end with the “accidental death” of Grace Garvey’s abusive husband, John Paul – arguably one of the best TV villains of the 21st century, expertly played by Claes Bang. With JP out of the picture and the original inspiration for the show, the critically acclaimed Flemish series Clan, having only extended for one series, fans may have been concerned that a second season wouldn’t make it to the finale. awarded heights of its first episode.

However, the returning ensemble cast had no such problems. “We took our chance,” explains Sarah Greene, who plays the tough sister Bibi with an eye patch. “Actually, I think we were probably all pushing for it.”

The cast found out that Season 2 had been greenlit while they were doing press for Season 1. “It meant that it gave us confidence early on,” she said. If Apple wants to invest more money in it, then it must be great.”

That confidence was not unfounded. Showrunner Sharon Horgan, who also plays the eldest sister Eva, and director Dearbhla Walsh have surpassed the first season, with an even more exciting and emotional storyline. There’s also a masterstroke in casting with the addition of Fiona Shaw as new antagonist Angelica, a nosy church lady who threatens to reveal the sisters’ big secret.

Set two years after the events of its predecessor, the new season opens with a lovelorn Grace remarrying, while youngest sister Becka (Eve Hewson) has a new boyfriend. However, that newfound bliss is short-lived when the body of John Paul’s father is discovered in a lake, bringing the Garveys back to the attention of the police.

Against the backdrop of the recent suspicion surrounding them and Angelica’s meddling and meddling, the sisters ultimately deal with the pressure in very different ways.

The perpetually stressed nurse Ursula, played by Birthistle, is crumbling. “She’s trying to keep up the facade that everything is fine,” Birthistle said. “She is separated from her husband and living with Eva again, returning to the family home to be with the children and still working in the hospital, but she is stealing drugs and medicine and she is just ready to unravel.”

“I don’t think it affected Bibi in the same way,” Greene countered when talking about her character’s new arc. “Now that JP is gone and no longer this huge thorn in her side, she has a lot less anger.”

Greene says viewers will “see a softer side of Bibi” as she and her partner Nora embark on an IVF journey, but at the core of her character there remains a fierce drive to protect her sisters. The key to the show’s success was the plausibility of those family ties and the on-screen chemistry between the sisters, which perfectly captured the salty bickering and exasperation of sibling relationships.

“I think Sharon does that brilliantly,” Birthistle said. “It’s just so natural…silly little things that siblings pick up on and you can never get away with. It’s so perfectly observed.”

Grace’s isolation under her husband’s coercive control poignantly meant that she was excluded from that sisterly banter in season 1. Although we finally see her happy with her new husband at the start of this new series, the events of season 2 gets her started. once again the edge of the show’s lighter moments.

Duff admits that playing a character who couldn’t participate in the sisters’ arguments and the show’s more comedic moments was difficult as an actor, especially since they’ve all been left off-screen.

“Yes, it was hard in the first season,” she recalls. “I saw them all going after scenes in their glamorous clothes. And yeah, I was always like, I’m here, you know? But I think it helped me as a storyteller, because of all the sadness and the feeling of being separated are from my girls, you know?”

She admitted that she sometimes felt lonely on set and described a “kind of strange blurring between the story and my own experience.” She added: ‘The fascinating thing was watching the show back and seeing how many times the girls talked about Grace.’

“So even though I was never in the room, I was always in the room. And I think it happens again in season 2, she’s still in the room. And it’s fascinating that she’s always kind of a presence,” said Duff.

The actor also has high praise for Horgan’s handling of the dramatic change in her character’s circumstances for season 2.

“I always think it’s a lot of fun, and there’s a huge reward when you throw a grenade into the middle of a storyline on a successful show and take the audience’s breath away,” she said.

The new series was filmed in the Dublin seaside town of Donabate and added Irish actors to the tight-knit cast. Greene admitted that the on-screen sisters were happy with the addition of Shaw.

“She’s a master,” she murmured. ‘That’s the word, yes. She is fantastic, extremely talented, but also just sweet and wonderfully crazy.’

Shaw is best known for playing Harry Potter’s rigid, disapproving Aunt Petunia Dursley and troubled witch Marnie Stonebrook in HBO’s True Blood, and amateur sleuth Angelica will likely go down as one of her best roles there. She said it was one of her more fun characters to play.

“She becomes a busybody because she’s sad and lonely and desperate, and she’s a little bit religious and a little bit conservative, and the sisters are a lot wilder, and so that’s really where the comedy of that is.”

There’s no official word yet on a third season for the show, but there will certainly be clamor for a new season after fans see the satisfying yet open-ended conclusion to this final season.

Shaw has no doubt that she would like to revisit Angelica’s character if the opportunity arises. “My immediate answer would be yes: Donabate’s cycling queen needs to ride again!”