Black Rabbit: A New York Resto is the Focus of Family Turmoil and Crime in New Netflix Series
By Karen Gordon
Rating: A
Two brothers are bound by family and by blood. One is aiming to be a successful businessman. The other is what my grandmother would have called a no-goodnik.
Their relationship, personal and business, form the spine of the eight-part Netflix series Black Rabbit.
And why bury the lead? It’s fantastic. It deserves to be the next big streaming show.
Jude Law and Jason Bateman are brothers on the run.
I would have given it a shot, just based on the leads alone. Jude Law plays the serious minded Jake Friedken, a divorced father, who runs Black Rabbit, a restaurant and bar in New York and keeps things on the level. Jason Bateman is his brother Vince, who in spite of having brilliant ideas and ambitions, is trouble in almost every way possible.
Those two actors are always a pleasure to watch, and casting them as brothers seems like a stroke of brilliance.
But the series itself, created by Zach Baylin and Kate Susman, is solid: a well-plotted, tense, engrossing thriller, populated by strongly drawn, richly interesting characters.
Black Rabbit moves back and forth in time, a popular technique these days because it helps hold our attention while the series goes back to introduce characters and smaller moments that as the series progresses begin to play a role as the story gets increasingly fraught, increasingly tangled.
But the basics are that things start to go south when Vince is forced to return New York after a two year absence in Reno. He’s broke and needs Jake's help.
Jake is reluctant and unhappy to have his brother back in proximity. It’s not hard to see why. Vince is dragging a trail of trouble behind him, and that includes a major, unpaid debt. But, of course, there’s the thickness of blood. Vince is family. He's also the driver behind the idea of Black Rabbit, although he blew town and hasn’t been part of its growing success, and is certainly not an investor.
Black Rabbit has a dedicated team: the brothers found a young, talented chef they believed in, Roxie (Amaka Okafor) and gave her carte blanche. Along with her sous chef Tony (Robin de Jesus), Roxie's talent and her menus, have helped put the Rabbit on the map.
It also benefits from the presence of superstar multi-millionaire Wes (Sope Dirisu), and his beautiful girlfriend, designer Estelle (Cleopatra Coleman), who worked on the Rabbit’s look.
But of course, nothing is simple. Vince fled New York, owing a local underworld kingpin, Mancuso (Troy Kotsur) a lot of money. the interest on the debt has since doubled the amount. Mancuso’s henchmen, including his son Junior (Forrest Weber) don’t waste time with pretty talk. The threats and violence start up as soon as they track Vince down.
Vince turns to Jake for help, and the two meet with Mancuso. There’s a family connection between Mancuso and the brothers, suggesting that perhaps that he’ll go softer on the two of them. Maybe he does. But still, Jake steps up, making us question whether he could he have left his brother to sort out his own problems. But Jake doesn’t let his brother down. Instead he figures out how to pay the money back.
The problem is that the solution is not totally legal, and requires that their partners in Black Rabbit don’t ever notice. Vince, who has an answer for everything, and is apparently fearless in the worst situations, assures Jake that it will be fine.
But there are a lot of balls in the air. And some problems that have yet to come to light for the brothers and their staff. Their bartender Anna (Abbey Lee) walks out for reasons that she refuses to discuss, and Jake is forced to fire her. Ultimately that will plant the seeds that make the ambitious Roxie see Jake as a problem.
There are investors who are keeping an eye on things, frequently in person. Relationships with other characters become more complicated as the story unfolds.
And a murder investigation leads back to the Rabbit, with the smart tough Detective Ellen Seung (Hettienne Park), sensing something simmering behind the scenes.
Black Rabbit has a tremendous cast, and there will likely be break out actors in this series. But the best known actors, Law, Bateman and Kotsur are riveting. If the last time you saw Kotsur was as the charming father in Coda, for which he won an Oscar, then wait until you see him play an unrelenting heavy here.
Black Rabbit plays like an intense New York crime story, but doesn’t let down the personal stories. The characters don’t feel like stereotypes.
It also boasts a terrific behind the scenes team. Episodes are directed by Jason Bateman, Australian Justin Kurzel (Nitram), Ben Semanoff (Ozark), and Laura Linney, who proves her chops are as formidable behind the screen as they are in front of it.
Black Rabbit. Stars Jason Bateman, Jude Law, Tony Kotsur, Amaka Okator, Robin De Jesús. Streaming on Netflix, beginning September 18.