Easily one of the best reasons for an Apple TV Plus subscription, darkly comedic Irish drama Bad Sisters is back for a second run, with the Garvey sisters’ grim past about to catch up with them in unexpected ways. Season 2 arrives Nov. 13 on the platform, and CNET recently had a chance to interview Sarah Greene, Anne-Marie Duff, Eva Birthistle and Fiona Shaw about what’s ahead.
The show’s first season appeared to come to a definitive 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 now out of the picture and the show’s original inspiration, acclaimed Flemish series Clan, having only stretched for one series, fans may have been concerned that a second season wouldn’t reach the award-winning heights of its first installment.
There were no such qualms from its returning ensemble cast, however. “We jumped at the chance,” explained Sarah Greene, who plays tough-talking, eye-patch wearing sister Bibi. “In fact, I think we were all probably pushing for it.”
The cast found out season 2 was green lit while they were doing press for season 1. “It meant it gave us confidence at an early stage,” she recounted. If Apple wanted to invest more money into it, then it must be great.”
That confidence wasn’t ill-founded. Showrunner Sharon Horgan, who also plays eldest sister Eva, and director Dearbhla Walsh have outdone the first season, with an even more tense and emotional plotline. There’s also a masterstroke in casting with the addition of Fiona Shaw as new antagonist Angelica, a nosy church lady who threatens to expose the sisters’ big secret.
Set two years after the events of its predecessor, the new season begins with a loved-up Grace remarrying while youngest sister Becka (Eve Hewson) has a new boyfriend. That newfound bliss is short-lived, however, when the body of John Paul’s father is discovered in a lake, returning the Garveys back to the attention of the police.
Amid the backdrop of recent suspicion surrounding them and Angelica’s meddling and interference, the sisters end up dealing with the pressure in very different ways.
Forever-stressed nurse Ursula, played by Birthistle, is crumbling. “She’s trying to keep the facade on that everything’s OK,” said Birthistle. “She’s broken up from her husband and back living with Eva, popping back to the family home to be with the kids and still working at the hospital, but she’s stealing drugs and medicating and she’s just ready to unravel.”
“I don’t think it’s affected Bibi in the same way,” countered Greene when talking about her character’s new arc. “With JP gone and no longer this massive thorn in her side, she has a lot less anger.”
Greene shares that viewers will “see a softer side of Bibi” as she and her partner Nora embark on an IVF journey, but at her character’s core there remains a fierce drive to protect her sisters. Key to the show’s success has been the plausibility of those family ties and the chemistry between the on-screen sisters, perfectly capturing the salty bickering and exasperation of sibling relationships.
“I think that’s what Sharon does brilliantly,” said Birthistle. “It’s just so natural… silly little things that siblings pick up on and never let you get away with. It’s so perfectly observed.”
Anne-Marie Duff has likened Grace’s arc to “throwing a grenade into the middle of a storyline.”
Grace’s isolation under the coercive control of her husband poignantly meant that she was excluded from that sisterly banter in season 1. While we see her happy at last at the beginning of this new series with her new husband, bombshell events in season 2 means she’s on the periphery of the show’s lighter moments once again.
Duff admits that playing a character unable to partake in the ribbing between the sisters and the show’s more comedic moments was tough as an actor, particularly as they’ve all become close off-screen.
“Yeah, it was difficult in the first season,” she recalled. “I used to see them all going after filming scenes in their glamorous clothes. And, yeah, I used to be a bit like, I’m over here, you know? But I think it helped me as a storyteller, because of all the sadness and the feeling of being separate from my girls, you know?”
Admitting to sometimes feeling a sense of loneliness on set, she described a “sort of weird blurring between the story and my own experience.” She added, “What was fascinating was watching the show back and seeing how often the girls talked about Grace.”
“So, although 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 a kind of a presence,” said Duff.
The actor also has high paise for Horgan’s handling of her character’s dramatic change in circumstances for season 2.
“I always think it’s great fun, and there’s a huge payoff to throwing a grenade into the middle of a storyline of a successful show and taking audiences’ breath away,” she said.
Season 2 sees Fiona Shaw added to the cast as curtain-twitching nuisance Angelica.
The new series was filmed in the Dublin coastal town of Donabate and saw Irish acting royalty added to the close-knit cast. Greene admitted that the on-screen sisters were thrilled by the addition of Shaw.
“She is a master,” she gushed. “That’s the word, yeah. She’s fabulous, supremely talented, but also just lovely to boot and great craic.”
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 is likely to be marked up there as one of her best roles. She said it was one of her more fun characters to play.
“She becomes an interference by virtue of being sad and lonely and desperate, and she’s a bit religious and she’s a bit conservative, and the sisters are much wilder, and so that’s really where the comedy of that lies.”
There’s no official word of a third season for the show, but there’s sure to be clamor for another after fans see the satisfying yet open-ended conclusion of this latest season.
Shaw has no doubt that she’d want to revisit Angelica’s character if the opportunity arises. “My immediate answer would be yes: The bicycle queen of Donabate should ride again!”