What happens when sibling comparisons go a little too far? 

Prime Video’s latest series, The Better Sister, explores the nuances of sisterhood and unpacks the layers that go into the making of a sibling rivalry.

Based on the book by bestselling author Alafair Burke, The Better Sister is an eight-episode thriller limited series. According to the official synopsis, the show is “about the terrible things that drive sisters apart and ultimately bring them back together. Chloe (Jessica Biel), a high-profile media executive, lives a picturesque life with her handsome lawyer husband Adam (Corey Stoll) and teenage son Ethan (Maxwell Acee Donovan) by her side. At the same time, her estranged sister Nicky (Elizabeth Banks) struggles to make ends meet and stay clean. When Adam is brutally murdered, the prime suspect sends shockwaves through the family, reuniting the two sisters, as they try to untangle a complicated family history to discover the truth behind his death.”

Why sisters are at the heart of ‘The Better Sister’

“For both of us, it was always the sisters at the heart of this story,” Olivia Milch, executive producer and showrunner, told Blavity’s Shadow and Act 

“And the thing that drew me: the idea that you get different versions of your parents than your siblings, particularly if a parent gets sober at some point in your childhood,” she continued. “My dad got sober when I was 10. My brother was 13, my sister was 15, so we had very different experiences of our childhood and then of the story we told ourselves about childhood and our father’s sobriety. So immediately, that was the thing I connected to in this book, on top of the fun twists and turns and whodunit. I think that we felt we had such a great foundation in the book to take this mystery and then find the deeper mystery that was the emotional mystery and the psychological mystery, and wanting to really explore what happened to these sisters. So, getting to spend more time in the past, knowing their mother, and then doing that with all of our characters, thinking about their backstory and what they were each bringing.”

Painting a story of womanhood, ambition and redemption

To ensure that this story stretches beyond the notion of sisterhood and dives deeper into the intricate layers of womanhood and acceptance, Regina Corrado, who also serves as a showrunner and executive producer on the show, said it was important to find a delicate balance between making this a thriller and touching on deep topics like generational trauma, alcoholism and beyond.

“I think to make them equally as important,” Corrado said when asked how she balanced the tones across eight episodes. “The mystery, the twists, the turns, the unexpectedness — but also the unexpectedness of what these women are learning about themselves, and how they learn so much about themselves, and how they learn so much from each other, and who brings out which. And not just the sisters, but the other cast members as well, and how one person’s strength diminishes you in a certain situation. And who am I as a powerful woman? But how am I in a room with another powerful woman? I think that we’ve had a lot of fun with pairing the women off with each other and seeing what fireworks happen. And it’s all about being open to that discovery and openness in general.”

Fragility and strength, exhibited through Chloe and Nicky

The Better Sister explores the fragility and strength of sisterhood, something that both Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks said was revealed through their characters, Chloe and Nicky.

“I think [what] I uncovered is that it’s those two things [that] are like right next to each other, that the strength and fragility of that kind of relationship is literally happening all at the same time. And they serve each other, I guess, on some level, right, the fragility is the strength, maybe, and vice versa,” Biel said. “I don’t have any biological sisters. I just have chosen life sisters. And I feel like I understand that relationship, but I feel like I understand it even more now to really explore that kind of thing with Elizabeth on the show.”

Banks added, “I feel like the way you said it, two sides of the same coin, is right in that you don’t know you’re strong unless you’ve overcome something. Unless you have to be vulnerable and go through it. And it’s the going through it that gives you that feeling of strength. So these two have been through a lot together. I think that they deeply understand each other, which has been clouded by their sort of life circumstances.”

“I also think they’re both deeply intelligent and loving, good people in their hearts. But my character, Nicky, has had to really come through some things through her addiction and watched her sister go live her dream life,” she added. “I feel like Nicky could have had that if she didn’t get in her own way. She’s really had to come to terms with, like, a bit of being content with what she did ultimately end up getting — and also now getting a little bit to dream about a life where they can be back together, not estranged.”

The Better Sister is now streaming on Prime Video. Check out the full cast interviews below: