The appetite for high-stakes restaurant dramas seems to be at an all-time high. Hot on the heels of the fourth season of Disney+’s The Bear comes Black Rabbit, Netflix‘s latest crime drama about rising-star restaurant owner, Jake (Jude Law), whose dreams of making his buzzy, New York hot spot a success are thrown into jeopardy when his former drug addict brother Vince (Jason Bateman) returns to town and drags him into the city’s criminal underworld. While it’s unlikely Black Rabbit will have the same cultural impact as the critically acclaimed The Bear, it takes the toxic, high-stress workplace setting and goes darker, adding more grit, moody cinematography and a healthy dose of Ozark-esque criminality.
The opening scene of Black Rabbit is a climactic and stressful one. The show begins in medias res, with Law’s character, Jake Friedken, giving a speech at his trendy titular restaurant-cum-nightclub, when a pair of armed robbers break into the building in search of diamond-encrusted jewellery, which is being paraded around the dimly-lit, packed bar. Before we find out who the culprits are, the narrative cuts to one month earlier, with Jake preparing for a visit from a New York Times food reviewer.
It’s not long before we’re introduced to Vince, Jake’s chaotic and impulsive brother and magnet for trouble, who is getting robbed of his coin collection in a Nevada car park when we first meet him. With no money and no one to turn to, Vince calls on Jake to bail him out with a flight back to New York in the hopes of returning to their joint venture, Black Rabbit.
Law and Bateman’s authentic chemistry makes it easy to believe the brotherhood between Coney Island boys, Jake and Vincent, despite their major differences. While Jake is an ambitious, charismatic and sharply dressed restaurateur who is willing to do whatever it takes to make his bar a success, Vincent is a down-and-out former drug user with a gambling addiction who is constantly dodging danger and repeatedly saved by his brother.
It’s easy to get frustrated with the pair, who make one bad decision after the next, but it’s impossible not to root for the two weirdly lovable antiheroes. Plus, two brothers who find themselves on the wrong side of the law has proven to be a successful TV trope over the years. We’ve seen it time and time again, from Peaky Blinders‘ Birmingham-based gangster Shelby brothers to Max and Jack McCall in the BBC’s Guilt, about two Edinburgh brothers who try to cover their tracks after an accidental murder.
“Black Rabbit is a study of loyalty, survival and the power of familial bonds.”
Black Rabbit moves along at a propulsive pace, making it difficult not to press ‘Next episode’ when the credits roll.It’s a study of loyalty, survival and the power of familial bonds, with plenty of high-stakes drama and violence to make for compelling, yet stressful, viewing. Law and Bateman both deliver brilliant performances in this moody crime drama, which will keep you guessing until the end.
