Elizabeth Banks Gives a Career-Best Performance in Prime Video’s Must-Watch Summer Thriller

Summer is in full swing, which means steamy murder mysteries are also all the rage. Every streaming service is firing at full-speed with prestige television dramas, and it’s easy to get lost in its waves with the volume of content out there. One surprise hit at the beginning of the summer came out on Prime Video and featured a tour-de-force dramatic performance delivered by Elizabeth Banks. The murder mystery limited series The Better Sister, co-starring an equally intense and chilling Jessica Biel, follows Banks as a woman in turmoil in a career-best role that’s perfect for your next binge.

What Is Prime Video’s ‘The Better Sister’ About?

Based on the book written by Alafair Burke, The Better Sister is a slow-burning mystery that has everything you want from a good summer thriller, including affairs, secret identities, and, of course, a dumbfounding murder at its center. Corey Stoll stars alongside Banks and Biel, and across 8 episodes, the cliffhangers and twists make it an easy, fun binge-watch. But, the main reason to tune in to The Better Sister is Banks’ performance. She’s never been more vulnerable and terrifying as a woman willing to do whatever it takes to save her son.

Biel stars as Chloe Taylor, the editor-in-chief of the successful women’s magazine, The Real Thing, whose life is extremely publicized as she skyrockets further into fame. Chloe finds her cutthroat lawyer husband, Adam, brutally murdered in their beach home one night after returning home from a work function, sending ripples through her entire family. Their son, Ethan (Maxwell Acee Donovan), is arrested for the murder by two close-minded detectives played with gusto by Kim Dickens and Bobby Naderi. This leads Ethan’s estranged birth mother, Nicky, to arrive in town, and further complicates the devastating new reality.

Nicky is Chloe’s now-sober sister, who was once married to Adam and had Ethan with him, only to be stripped of custody due to her alcoholism. Chloe then stepped in to help raise Ethan, which led to her and Adam falling in love, and getting married. As Nicky arrives back in town to help save her son from life in prison during trial, she moves back in with Chloe, and the two estranged sisters relive old wounds, as Chloe remains a cold, cruel sister despite Nicky’s attempts at redemption.

Elizabeth Banks Doesn’t Hold Back in Her Gripping Performance in ‘The Better Sister’

Banks might be best known for her work in comedies, with hilarious turns in projects such as Pitch Perfect, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Wet Hot American Summer, and Modern Family. However, in addition to pivoting her focus to directing with Charlie’s Angels and Cocaine Bear, she’s also chosen more dramatic projects to star in, such as Mrs. America, Call Jane, and the thriller Skincare. In The Better Sister, she continues to lean into her dramatic side, giving a nuanced, understated depiction of alcoholism and addiction. The A.A. meetings, especially, are one of the series’ highlights.

In a small, dull room, Banks simmers and shines, unveiling the childhood trauma from her father which led to addiction. Her strong, steady voice amid so much vulnerability in her monologue makes Nicky the complex, fascinating character she is, always teetering between destruction and strength. Her breakdowns in the meetings show a completely different side to Banks, in her rawness and misery, with a bare face to match. She still manages to infuse wit and humor, which is a nice respite from Biel’s tightly-wound, vicious portrayal as her younger sister.

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In one of the most suffocating, tense episodes, Banks’ and Biel’s characters have to go to a performative wake for Adam, hosted by Biel’s wealthy cohorts, and it’s stifling. Banks has the most fun throughout the entire series during the episode, but it’s also anxiety-inducing to watch in the swanky, claustrophobic home, as she acts out among the decadence by relapsing. Downing martinis and handing out zingers to the snobby guests, she deals with her complicated feelings over Adam’s death by getting drunk.

Banks plays Nicky like a loose cannon that explodes before our eyes, and unravels as the episode continues. With a sulking, crumbling physicality as she stumbles through the home, Banks’ has never been more raw as she hits rock bottom, much to her sister’s obvious chagrin. She plays Nicky like a teenager at times, and is deliriously immature as she drives home the message that, due to her trauma as a child, she was never really able to grow up.

Elizabeth Banks and Jessica Biel Elevate a Semi-Predictable Murder Mystery

Banks and Biels’ performances are the stand-out of the sometimes-predictable mystery series, and their fraught, pained relationship makes it a must-watch. Banks’ against-type performance as a woman battling the ghosts of her childhood, while mending her relationship with her sister, gives The Better Sister substance. Chloe and Nicky couldn’t be more different, as Chloe is almost painfully put together, while Nicky is always a moment away from spiraling out. Their chemistry as sisters is one of the most vivid, bold depictions of sisterhood in recent memory, and perfectly captures the competition that often arises from it. Their best scenes aren’t big fights or blow-outs, but intimate, small moments between sisters that were stolen from them when they were young, thanks to their father’s alcoholism, and now Nicky’s.

Such moving scenes come when Banks does Biel’s hair before Ethan’s trial in the mirror, and for once, she gets to be the older sister she never got to be. She handles Biel’s hair like glass, which also symbolizes the fragility of their wavering bond, and how easily it breaks again and again. As the series progresses, Chloe and Nicky go from enemies to allies as the two unlikely mothers of Ethan, and the thriller kicks into high gear when they become amateur sleuths trying to solve Adam’s murder.

Alongside Banks, Biels’ career has also taken an exciting, darker turn, having recently turned in an equally dark, violent performance as a real-life killer in the Hulu limited series, Candy. Together, the two actors make The Better Sister worth the watch, and it’s a triumphant return to form for Banks. Always enthralling in every role she touches, Banks walks on the thin line of vulnerability, sobriety, and motherhood masterfully in The Better Sister.