''The Better Sister'' is an American

thriller Thriller may refer to: * Thriller (genre), a broad genre of literature, film and television ** Thriller film, a film genre under the general thriller genre Comics * ''Thriller'' (DC Comics), a comic book series published 1983–84 by DC Comics i ...

television limited series created by Olivia Milch and starring

Jessica Biel Jessica Claire Timberlake (née Biel ; born March 3, 1982) is an American actress. Biel began her career as a vocalist appearing in musical productions until she was cast as Mary Camden in the family drama series '' 7th Heaven'' (1996–2007 ...

and

Elizabeth Banks Elizabeth Irene Banks (; February 10, 1974) is an American actress, director, and producer. She is known for playing chaperone Effie Trinket in ''The Hunger Games'' film series (2012–2015) and an ICCA commentator in the ''Pitch Perfect'' ...

. It is based on the 2019 novel by

Alafair Burke Alafair S. Burke (born October 1969) is an American crime novelist, professor of law, and legal commentator. She is a'' New York Times'' bestselling author of twenty crime novels, including ''The Ex, The Wife,'' and ''The Better Sister,'' and ...

. The series premiered on May 29, 2025, on

Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming television service owned by Amazon. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced or co-produced by ...

Premise

Two estranged sisters, one married to, and the other divorced from the same man, are forced together after he is murdered.

Cast

Main

as Chloe Taylor, the editor-in-chief of ''The Real Thing'' magazine *

as Nicky Macintosh, Chloe's estranged, alcoholic older sister *

Corey Stoll Corey Daniel Stoll (born March 14, 1976) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Congressman Peter Russo on the Netflix political thriller series ''House of Cards'' (2013–2016), for which he received a Golden Globe nomination in ...

as Adam Macintosh, Chloe's husband and Nicky's ex-husband *

Kim Dickens Kim Dickens is an American actress. She is known for starring as Madison Clark in the AMC (TV channel), AMC horror drama series ''Fear the Walking Dead'' (2015–2018; 2022–2023), Joanie Stubbs in HBO's ''Deadwood (TV series), Deadwood'' (2004 ...

as Detective Nancy "Nan" Guidry, an East Hampton detective who is investigating Adam's murder * Maxwell Acee Donovan as Ethan Macintosh, Nicky and Adam's biological son * Bobby Naderi as Detective Matt Bowen, Nancy's police partner who is also investigating Adam's murder *

Gabriel Sloyer Gabriel Sloyer (born December 2, 1986) is an actor who is best known for his recurring roles on ''Inventing Anna'' and ''Griselda (miniseries), Griselda'' and his performance capture as Javier Escuella on ''Red Dead Redemption 2''. Filmography ...

as Jake Rodriguez, an attorney at Adam's law firm and Chloe's lover *

Matthew Modine Matthew Avery Modine (born March 22, 1959) is an American actor and filmmaker. He shared the Venice Film Festival‘s Volpi Cup for Best Actor as part of the ensemble cast of Robert Altman film ''Streamers'' (1983). He went on to play lead rol ...

as Bill Braddock, a founding partner of the law firm where Adam and Jake work *

Lorraine Toussaint Lorraine Toussaint ( born April 4, 1960) is a Trinidadian–born actress based in the United States. She is the recipient of various accolades, including a Black Reel Award, a Critics' Choice Television Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. To ...

as Catherine Lancaster, ''The Real Thing''s publisher who is also Chloe's mentor and friend *

Gloria Reuben Gloria Elizabeth Reuben (born June 9, 1964) is a Canadian-American actress, producer, and singer. She is well-known for her role as Jeanie Boulet on the medical drama '' ER'' (1995–1999, 2008), for which she was twice nominated for an Emmy Aw ...

as Michelle Sanders, the lawyer recommended by Jake to represent Ethan

Recurring

* Michael J. Harney as Doorman Arty, the doorman at the building where Chloe, Adam, and Ethan live in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

Janel Moloney Janel Moloney (born October 3, 1969) is an American actress, best known for her role as Donna Moss on the television series ''The West Wing'', a role for which she received nominations for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress ...

as Sheila, Chloe and Nicky's mother *

Frederick Weller Frederick Breithoff Weller (born April 18, 1966) is an American actor known for portraying Johnny Sandowski on ''Missing Persons,'' Shane Mungitt in ''Take Me Out'' and Marshall Mann on ''In Plain Sight''. Early life Weller was born in New Orl ...

as Hank, Chloe and Nicky's father *

John Finn John Joseph Finn (born September 30, 1952) is an American character actor known as one of the leads of the television programs ''Cold Case'' and '' EZ Streets''. Finn has also had supporting roles in the films '' The Hunted'' (2003), ''Analyze ...

as Clark, the East Hampton chief of police and Nan and Matt's boss *

Paul Sparks Paul Sparks (born October 16, 1971) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as gangster Mickey Doyle in the HBO period drama series ''Boardwalk Empire'', writer Thomas Yates in the Netflix political drama series ''House of Cards'', mal ...

as Ken, Nicky's love interest whom she meets at an AA meeting in East Hampton * Frank Pando as Edward Olivero, a FBI agent who has been blackmailing Adam and Jake

Episodes

Production

The series is an adaptation by Olivia Milch and

Regina Corrado Regina Corrado is an American television writer. She has been nominated for two Writers Guild of America Awards for her work on '' Deadwood''. Biography Corrado joined the crew of HBO Western drama '' Deadwood'' as a writer for the second season ...

of the 2019 novel ''The Better Sister'' by

. Burke acts as a consultant on the series which has

as co-star and executive producer via Brownstone Productions, and

as co-star and executive producer via Iron Ocean Films, along with Michelle Purple.

Craig Gillespie Craig Gillespie (born 1 September 1967) is an Australian-American film director, film, television director, television, music video director, music video, and commercial director. He is best known for directing the films ''Lars and the Real Gir ...

will direct in addition to being an executive producer, along with Annie Marter through Fortunate Jack Productions. The series is a co-production between Tomorrow Studios and Amazon MGM Studios, with Marty Adelstein, Becky Clements, and Alissa Bachner of Tomorrow Studios executive producing. In June 2024,

, Bobby Naderi,

and Maxwell Acee Donovan joined the cast. Filming began in New York in June 2024, and wrapped in October 2024.

Release

The series was released on

Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming television service owned by Amazon. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced or co-produced by ...

with all eight episodes on May 29, 2025.

Reception

The review aggregator website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

reported a 70% approval rating based on 33 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "A dense mystery with nods towards moral ambiguity, ''Better Sister'' is too derivative for its surprises to properly land but gets a dramatic lift from the appealing pairing of

and

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which uses a weighted average, gave a score of 56 out of 100 based on 13 critics, indicating "mixed or average".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Better Sister, The 2025 American television series debuts 2025 American television series endings 2020s American drama television series American English-language television shows American thriller television series Amazon Prime Video original programming Television series about sisters Television series by ITV Studios Television series by Amazon MGM Studios Television shows filmed in New York City Television shows based on American novels