Is there a more odious villain on television right now than Bad Sisters’ JP? I can’t think of a character I have hated more, and with such conviction, than Claes Bang’s irredeemable baddie, who measures out his days in how much he can terrorise not only his wife, Grace, but her close-knit sisters, too. He is petty, sadistic, selfish and controlling. He is a gaslighter extraordinaire, a man so unjustifiably full of himself that it’s a miracle he fits on to the screen. His nickname, “the Prick”, is the kindest thing anyone has to say about him.
Domestic abuse and ceaseless cruelty are not your typical comedy fodder, yet few shows this year have been as relentlessly entertaining as Bad Sisters. It helps that JP is dead at the very start, with most of the story told in flashback, so the audience has the small relief of knowing that somewhere along the line, he will get his comeuppance. As its final episode approaches, we still don’t know whodunnit, but there is no want of potential suspects: JP gives everyone a reason to want him dead, and almost all of the Garvey sisters are willing to step up to the plate.
