Bad Sisters (Apple TV+) is an adaptation of The Out-Laws – the Belgian series by Malin-Sarah Gozin, which was described by this here very organ as “the blackest comedy ever”. To know that it has been retooled by, and stars, Sharon Horgan is to be reassured that nothing will be lost in translation. This well-founded hope is confirmed within the first few minutes, which see widow Grace (Anne-Marie Duff) pressing down hard on her dead husband’s genitals to try to rid him of the erection she has just noticed he is maintaining in his coffin. “Post-mortem priapism,” explains her sister Ursula (Eva Birthistle). “It’s not uncommon. Especially after a violent death.”
The stage, in so many ways, is set. There are five Garvey sisters – Eva (Horgan) is the oldest and took on the maternal role after their parents died. Ursula is a nurse, a mother of three and sensible, except for the affair she is having with her photography teacher. Bibi (Sarah Greene) is fiercely uncompromising, Becka (Eve Hewson) is the slightly aimless baby of the family, and Grace is the only one even slightly mourning the death of her spouse John Paul (Claes Bang).
