Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for The Better Sister.Prime Video’s mystery thrillerThe Better Sisteris an adaptation of an award-winning novel, but it takes quite a few creative liberties with its source material.The Better Sisterwas originally written by Alafair Burke in 2019, and it was quickly placed on several “best book of the year” lists and adapted into the Prime Video drama show. With Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks leading thecast ofThe Better Sister, and such prodigious source material, it’s clear to see whyreviews forThe Better Sisterare so praiseworthy. With a thrilling plot, complicated characters, and a fascinating mystery,The Better Sisterhad a lot of advantages.
Curiously, and unlike many other book adaptations, one ofThe Better Sister’s biggest advantages was the changes it made from the original novel. There were plenty of things that Prime Video retooled when adapting the book into a live-action show, and most of them worked out tremendously well. They helpedThe Better Sistershow stand on its own, and in some cases, they turned somewhat forgettable characters into true highlights of the story. These eight changes are the biggest inThe Better Sister, and almost all of them turned out to be for the best.
8The Better Sister Show Examines Chloe & Nicky’s Relationship In Much More Depth
The Book Is More Focused On The Mystery Of Adam’s Murder Than Nicky & Chloe’s Relationship
The single biggest difference betweenThe Better Sister’s book and show concerned the relationship between Chloe and Nicky. In the book, Chloe and Nicky’s sisterhood takes a back seat to the mystery surrounding Adam’s death.There are still the same reveals about Nicky’s bad childhood and Adam’s abuse of both of the sisters, and there are plenty of heartbreaking moments in the book, but their sibling dynamic is much more fleshed out inThe Better Sistershow. The show devotes much more time to highlighting how the sisters interact with one another and how their years of bad blood have affected them, which benefits the series.
7Nancy Guidry & Matt Bowen Are Very Different In The Better Sister Book
Guidry Is A Much Simpler Character, While Bowen Is Depicted As A Misogynist
The two main detectives ofThe Better Sister- Nancy Guidry (Kim Dickens) and Matt Bowen (Bobby Naderi) - are also significantly different in the show than they are in the book.Matt, for instance, is depicted as a misogynist and something of an incompetent detective inThe Better Sisterbook. His show counterpart, on the other hand, is a fairly normal man with strong ties to his family and no clear bigotry in his work. He also has a much better relationship with Guidry because of his lack of sexism in the show.
There were even more changes to Guidry’s character.In the book, Guidry’s first name is Jennifer instead of Nancy, and she’s a much more strait-laced, predictable character than Dickens' character in the show. Jennifer Guidry is essentially portrayed the same way the show portrays Matt: as a good, competent detective who gets fooled by Chloe’s frame job. Nancy Guidry, however, is a mean, sarcastic, and brutal police officer with a dark past and a burning hatred of both Chloe and Nicky.The Better Sister’s version of Guidry is much more complex and fascinating.
6The Better Sister Book Doesn’t Cover Nicky’s AA Meetings Or Include Ken
Nicky’s Sobriety Isn’t A Big Part Of The Better Sister, & She Never Meets Ken
5Nicky Doesn’t Have Hallucinations Of Her Father In The Book
Hank Comes Up In Memories, But Nicky Isn’t Literally Haunted By Him
The Better Sistermade another big change to Nicky outside her sobriety. ThroughoutThe Better Sister, Nicky has hallucinations of her father, Hank (Frederick Weller). She often speaks to him and sees him in moments of doubt, as his abusive presence is a real strain on her.While Nicky’s memories of how Hank abused her as a child were important toThe Better Sisterbook, he never appeared as a vision to her. She reckons with the memory of her father, and many of the show’s reveals about Nicky’s childhood are the same, but she never sees a literal ghostly visage of Hank.
4Nicky Doesn’t Relapse In The Better Sister Book
Nicky’s Sobriety Wasn’t Ever In Jeopardy In The Book
Another offshoot of the show’s decision to focus more on Nicky’s sobriety influenced a big moment midway through the season.During Adam’s wake, Nicky briefly relapses and gets drunk again for the first time in five years. It leads to a bad night where she sleeps with a waiter, nearly drowns in a pool, and ends up seeing her dad in a seedy bar. The book isn’t interested in Nicky’s sobriety, however, so she never relapses and many of those scenes simply don’t happen. TheBetter Sisterbook draws more drama out of Nicky by focusing on her history of abuse, rather than her sobriety issues in the modern day.
3The Better Sister Show More Clearly Explains Gentry Group’s Crimes
Jake Reveals That Gentry Group Is Involved In Indentured Servitude & Human Trafficking
A major subplot inThe Better Sisteralso got a much clearer explanation in the show than it did in the book. ThroughoutThe Better Sister, Chloe was trying to investigate Gentry Group, a conglomerate Adam represented and was trying to spy on for the FBI.In the book, it’s not entirely clear what Gentry Group’s crimes are, though there are some references to an international bribing scheme. The actual crimes Gentry committed aren’t very important in the novel, and they’re just used as an excuse to make Braddock’s downfall more justified.
The show, however, fleshed Gentry Group out quite a bit more.Through bits and pieces of dialogue, mostly from Jake (Gabriel Sloyer), we learn that Gentry Group was involved in human trafficking, indentured servitude, and manslaughter. Gentry was involved in building arenas and stadiums for sports and other events overseas, and Jake made it clear that the only way they could operate at such low costs and fast timetables was by effectively practicing slavery. It made Gentry a much bigger villain inThe Better Sister, and it made Braddock’s sins even more heinous.
2The Better Sister Book Doesn’t Delve Into Guidry’s Police Brutality Or Leave Of Absence
Guidry’s Book Ending Just Has Her Arrest Bill Braddock, Not Face Any Consequences
One of the best additionsThe Better Sistermade while adapting the book concerned Nancy Guidry again. In the book, Guidry just arrests Bill Braddock and her story ends, similarly to what Bowen does in the show. In the show, however,Guidry’s past police brutality is outed, she’s put on administrative leave, and she has to face the consequences of her actions. She also doesn’t figure out that Nicky killed Adam in the book, and she’s mostly just a tool for Chloe’s frame job rather than an adversary for them to take down.
Because Guidry was a better, meaner detective than her book counterpart, The Better Sister had to give her a much more involved conclusion to her story.
The changesThe Better Sistershow made to Guidry’s ending were really a result of the changes to her personality.Because Guidry was a better, meaner detective than her book counterpart,The Better Sisterhad to give her a much more involved conclusion to her story. It wouldn’t have made sense if Guidry just blindly accepted Braddock as the killer, and it wouldn’t have been poetic justice if she just got to continue hiding her police brutality under the rug at theend ofThe Better Sister.
1Jake Doesn’t Die At The End Of The Better Sister Book
The last plot point that was wholly unique to the show version ofThe Better Sistercame in the season’s final moments.After Chloe revealed how she framed Braddock, the show briefly featured Michelle (Gloria Reuben) searching for Jake, only to find him dead on the beach. In the book, Jake doesn’t end up dead under mysterious circumstances. After his affair with Chloe is outed in court, Jake kind of fades from relevancy, as he didn’t kill Adam and he didn’t have much to do after providing a second possible suspect.
It’s possible thatThe Better Sisterincluded Jake’s death when it wasn’t in the book to set up a second season.The book doesn’t have a sequel, andThe Better Sisterwas marketed as a limited series, but there are still plenty of loose threads that Prime Video could tie up with another season. Jake’s death is the most obvious, as there was no confirmation if he had been killed by Gentry Group or if he had died by suicide. While unlikely, there is room for another chapter ofThe Better Sister.
