Sharon Horgan: "Bad Sisters"

A few years ago, a law professor made his way through a nasty divorce. His controlling behavior became unbearable; it seemed he wanted to crush his ex with his boots. He had been an insufferable spouse; in divorce, he was worse.

So the ex-wife's family arranged a murder. The mother paid cash for the death of her former son-in-law.

(I'm thinking of the murder victim Dan Markel.)

This might seem to be an odd source of inspiration for an intermittently comedic TV show, but it's basically what we're watching when we watch "Bad Sisters." There is a man; he is almost cartoonishly awful. His in-laws try several times to murder him, and he ends up dead. (I'm only halfway in, so I don't know if the actual death results from a murder plot. Regardless, the in-laws have "sinned" in their minds.)

The writer, Sharon Horgan, asks: Is it really so hard to sympathize with murderers, in certain cases? She has great fun inventing the victim. He kills a cat, then finds a way to blame his wife. He lets a friend believe that he'll act as an "angel-status" donor in a new business, then he pulls a "gaslight" move and withdraws all his money. In one brilliant scene, he misses a major bit of news from his wife. She has to repeat the news twice before the words reach their target; of course, the good news isn't celebrated. At the office, the villain tries repeatedly to ruin an in-law's chance at promotion; he starts a whisper campaign to persuade various "chairmen" that the in-law has a drinking problem.

Before Horgan wrote "Bad Sisters," she wrote "Divorce," which featured Amy Sedaris as a memorably toxic sister-in-law. I believe, if Horgan hasn't been thinking about Dan Markel, she has certainly been thinking about her "Divorce" blueprints.

I do also like some of the other people in Horgan's creative universe. Horgan herself has several sisters; it's a great (writerly) idea to have so many siblings living so close together. Family can be challenging; bombs detonate when it's disclosed that one child has enlisted an aunt for a bra-buying mission. ("Mom, if I'd asked you, you would have just told me I'm too young.") Several sisters encourage the Horgan character to get out there and "shag" her colleague; clues have been missed, and the colleague is, in fact, gay. Adults wonder aloud how to behave around their children; parenting "guides" are quoted; one star tells the other, "You need to wait for *calmness* before you consider disciplinary consequences." (The offending parent shrugs and says, "Apparently, we're all going to be waiting for a very long time....")

I love these people, and I love Sharon Horgan's writing; I'm inspired by this thinker and artist who is still only in her early fifties (and who keeps working, working, working). I hope that Horgan will push herself in a "Larry David" direction; I hope that she has much, much more to say.

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Liars and Saints

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