Netflix’s newest hit TV series feels sort of like what you’d get if you combined “The Bear” with the vibe and aesthetic of a crime drama like “Uncut Gems” — and built the story around two brothers instead of a shouty, dysfunctional family.
The 8-episode “Black Rabbit,” created by Zach Baylin and Kate Susman, is the #1 Netflix TV title in the U.S. today (based on the daily Top 10 ranking that can be found inside the app), and the brothers in this story are a successful and charismatic restaurant owner played by Jude Law and his self-destructive, wayward brother played by Jason Bateman (who seems sort of like how a loser Marty Byrde might have turned out). The logline, per Netflix: “When the owner of the hottest restaurant in New York allows his troubled brother to return to the family business, he opens the door to old traumas and new dangers that threaten to bring down everything they’ve built.”
The show, which hit Netflix just before the weekend, has a 76% Rotten Tomatoes audience score after essentially rocketing straight to #1 on the streamer. All in all, not a bad start for a new crime story set against the throbbing pulse of the nightlife scene in a city that never sleeps.
Black Rabbit debuts at #1 on Netflix
The two brothers in “Black Rabbit” couldn’t be more different. Law’s Jake owns New York City’s Black Rabbit — a combination restaurant and hip VIP lounge. Business is great, and Jake is even considering an expansion. That is, until Bateman’s Vince (a former addict complete with a scraggly beard) shows up and messes up Jake’s otherwise perfect life.
“It’s really about these brothers who love each other but don’t match — one’s a screw-up, and the other is much more buttoned up,” Bateman said in an interview with Netflix’s Tudum. “Everybody can relate to that. Everybody’s either got a sibling or a friendship where you love being with one another, but it’s kind of dangerous; where that person usually gets you in trouble, but they’re really exciting to be around.”
Episode 1 of “Black Rabbit” opens in the future, with an armed robbery unfolding inside Jake’s restaurant. The show then takes us back into the past, and we watch how all the pieces gradually fall into place leading up to that explosive chaos. Vince’s trail of debts, loan sharks, the city’s criminal underworld — it all threatens to unravel the life and successful business that Jake has worked so hard to build. But, of course, brothers will be brothers. “Everything’s falling apart,” Jake confesses to Vince at one point. “I’m holding on by the skin of my teeth. I didn’t budget… for you.”
All in all, “Black Rabbit” doesn’t bring anything revelatory or boundary-pushing to the crime genre — but there are worse ways you could spend eight hours as far as streaming content goes. This show is entertaining, it’s escapist, and sometimes you can’t ask for much more than that. “I’m glad Jason Bateman is done with doing stupid romantic comedies,” one Rotten Tomatoes reviewer opines. “He is such a better actor than that. This was really good, very gripping, and very suspenseful. One of the better shows I’ve seen on Netflix this year.”
