Some shows have a lot of characters, and even if you just see them in passing, you have enough knowledge of each character that they’re distinctive in their brief on-screen moments. But there are other shows that are packed with characters that are relatively anonymous and hard to keep track of. Netflix’s new thriller Black Rabbit is the latter, but it’s saved by two pretty compelling lead performances.
Opening Shot: A closeup of a black rabbit wallpaper pattern. We pull out to see a man with his head down next to a bathroom sink. He rallies, splashes water on his face, and walks out to a very busy restaurant.
The Gist: Jake Friedkin (Jude Law) runs The Black Rabbit, one of the hottest restaurants and event spaces in New York City. As the restaurant downstairs is hopping, the event space upstairs is loaded with VIPs. At the same time, two masked thieves are making their way into the upstairs office area, knowing that the safe has some high-end jewelry in it. When they see that the safe is empty, they realize their target is in the VIP room, and they run into the crowded space with guns drawn.
One month earlier, Jake wakes up at the restaurant after a particularly busy night. He usually sleeps on a cot in the office, because he’s in a mode where he’s looking to take advantage of the restaurant’s high profile. He gets word that a New York Times critic will be making her third visit that night, and makes sure his chef Roxie (Amaka Okafor) and the rest of the staff are on their toes. A good review from the Times is key to Jake expanding the business, and he’s eyeballing a premium space in order to open a new restaurant.
In the meantime, a scruffy guy sits in a casino in Reno, but isn’t gambling. Vince Friedkin (Jason Bateman), Jake’s older brother, is there to sell a coin collection. But the buyers pull a gun and take the coins instead. Vince doesn’t take the robbery lying down, and things go very sideways. Soon, Vince is calling his brother, asking him to buy a plane ticket back to New York.
Jake and Vince used to run The Black Rabbit together, until Vince’s gambling and drug issues became overwhelming and he left New York. Jake knows that this is the absolute wrong time for Vince to be back in his orbit, but he can’t refuse when his brother needs his help.
Vince thinks he can lay low for a few days, but he’s attacked by two thugs, Junior (Forrest Weber) and Babbitt (Chris Coy); Vince owes the loan shark they work for about $140k and they want to collect. Vince promises he’ll get them the money when the family home that Jake is selling closes in a couple of weeks.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Black Rabbit is The Bear crossed with Ozark.
Our Take: There are times when Black Rabbit, created by Zach Baylin and Kate Susman (Bateman and Law are both executive producers), feels overstuffed and too busy for its own good. Scenes where Jake is doing restaurant business feature lots of noise and hard-to-discern dialogue, with characters that flit in and out of the scene without much context as to who they are.
But there are other times when the show feels like an intriguing story about two brothers who have family ties so strong that one brother’s chaotic existence doesn’t stop the other from giving him a hand when he needs it. The scenes between Law and Bateman are electric, showing that the differences between the two seemingly opposite personalities are smaller than they both think. Both are driven and passionate, and both are edgy and anxious. But while Jake’s energy is channeled towards making The Black Rabbit a hotspot, Vince’s energy is channeled towards his vices. When the two brothers talk, it feels like Jake could have tipped over to where Vince is and vice versa if things had only been slightly different.
While Law’s floating New York-ish accent can sometimes be a distraction, Bateman is especially riveting as Vince. Sure, he’s pretty much a scumbag, but he’s a likeable scumbag, one who left a lot of people behind in New York who love him and want him to do well, including old friends Wes (Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù), a musician and investor in the restaurant, and his girlfriend Estelle (Cleopatra Coleman). This likeable scumbag personality is all Bateman’s doing, because he channels his usual good guy persona through a character who can’t seem to get out of his own way.
What we wonder is if the show is going to get bogged down with all the side characters we barely got introduced to, like Jake’s ex Val (Dagmara Dominczyk), chef Roxie, or troubled bartender Anna (Abbey Lee). After stumbling out of the restaurant the morning the Times critic is supposed to attend, Anna bails on Jake that night. It’s an opening for Jake to bring Vince in as a fill-in bartender, but it seems like more is going on with Anna. The problem is, right now she only seems to be an employee, but we get hints that she’s more than that. We see that a lot in the first episode, which can be frustrating.
Sex and Skin: Nothing in the first episode.
Parting Shot: Back to the VIP room and the robbery. We hear shots and bodies thudding to the floor, but we’re not sure who has shot who.
Sleeper Star: Oscar winner Troy Kotsur plays Joe Mancuso, who is criminal boss to whom Vince owes the $140k. Odessa Young plays Gen, Vince’s estranged daughter. We don’t see the former in Episode 1, and only a glimpse of the latter.
Most Pilot-y Line: We used to review restaurants, and the whole part of the story where Jake knows the Times critic is coming and preps the staff to have a perfect night just annoyed the living crap out of us.
Our Call: STREAM IT. We get the feeling that Black Rabbit is going to be problematic and overstuffed as the series moves along, but Law and Bateman are so compelling as Jake and Vince, we’ll keep watching, just to see how far Vince pushes his brother’s goodwill.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.