‘Black Rabbit’ Review: Law and Bateman Lead a Gritty NY Noir About Loyalty, Debt, and Self-Destruction

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Sep 7

Written By Jonathan P. Moustakas

(L To R) Jason Bateman As Vince, Jude Law As Jake In *Black Rabbit. -* **Cr. Courtesy Of Netflix © 2025**

A razor-sharp crime thriller anchored by a volatile Jude Law and Jason Bateman, Black Rabbit shreds the illusion of success while plumbing the depths of familial devotion.

Black Rabbit doesn’t just want to entertain—it wants to unravel you. In this grimy, intoxicating descent into Manhattan’s nocturnal underworld, creators Zach Baylin and Kate Susman deliver a slick crime drama with a psychological edge, elevated by the electric pairing of Jude Law and Jason Bateman. Streaming now on Netflix, the eight-episode limited series is a feverish meditation on brotherhood, guilt, and the illusion of control in a city that devours dreamers.

At its core, Black Rabbit is about two men and the empire they built on a lie. Jake Friedken (Law) is the face of Manhattan's buzziest downtown restaurant-slash-nightclub, a man whose crisp exterior hides a festering vulnerability. His brother Vince (Bateman), recently returned from a personal hell of gambling debts and addiction, is all frayed nerves and ragged charisma—a wrecking ball draped in leather and late apologies. Their past is not only unresolved, it’s actively haunting them—fueling their impulses, choices, and unspoken resentments.

Their shared venture, the eponymous "Black Rabbit," becomes more than just a trendy hotspot; it's a battleground, a pressure cooker, and a pulsing symbol of everything they've tried to outrun. The reentry of Vince into Jake’s tightly controlled world shatters any illusion of stability, and what unfolds is less a family reunion than a beautifully orchestrated collapse. Each night at the Rabbit feels like an ambush—by memories, by rivals, by the very city itself. Every flickering candlelit dinner service masks a fuse waiting to ignite.

Jason Bateman as Vince in episode 102 of Black Rabbit. **Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2025**

If Bateman’s haunted, greasy Vince feels like a revelation, that’s because it is. Shedding the composed charm of Ozark, he delivers a jittery, guttural performance—one of his best ever. As both actor and director of the show’s first two episodes, Bateman sets the tone early, establishing a world that is textured, dangerous, and deeply human. His Vince is never a caricature, even as he stumbles toward self-destruction. He moves like someone who knows how many bridges he’s burned and is still deciding which ones to jump off of next.

Law, meanwhile, proves why he remains one of cinema’s most quietly riveting leading men. His portrayal of Jake blends restraint with rawness, control with collapse. This isn’t the Law of The Talented Mr. Ripley or Sherlock Holmes—this is a man unraveling, frantically clutching the seams of a life built too fast on unstable ground. He’s as magnetic as he is maddening, a character who commands a room but can’t seem to hold onto his soul.

Jude Law as Jake in Black Rabbit. - **Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2025**

Together, the two form a magnetic core. Their scenes crackle with decades of unspoken history, filled with warmth, blame, and betrayal. They are both mirrors and foils, drawn together by love and legacy, repelled by old wounds and fresh chaos. Their dynamic is the dark heart of the series—watching them collide feels inevitable, like two asteroids spinning toward mutual ruin.

Directors Laura Linney, Justin Kurzel, and Ben Semanoff carry Bateman’s aesthetic torch across later episodes, using increasingly handheld, intimate camerawork to underscore the brothers' unraveling grip on their surroundings. Black Rabbit is obsessed with space—tight kitchens, smoky lounges, half-lit stairwells, and private booths where secrets are currency. The camera lingers in uncomfortable moments, catching the minor tremors before the quake.

(L to R) Jude Law as Jake, Jason Bateman as Vince in Black Rabbit. **Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2025**

Baylin and Susman drew from their 18 years in New York, and it shows. This isn’t the glamorized city of skyline shots and sanitized streets; it’s the downtown scene of a decade past: grimy, electric, and filled with people clinging to relevance and redemption. From Coney Island to the East Village’s Russian and Turkish baths, the show paints a portrait of a city that never sleeps because it’s too busy surviving. These aren't just locations—they're spiritual battlegrounds. The Rabbit’s interiors alone deserve their own spotlight: lush, layered, claustrophobic spaces that seem to breathe with the ghosts of bad decisions.

The supporting ensemble pulses with presence. Amaka Okafor's Roxie, the restaurant's head chef, balances fierce control with quiet vulnerability. She’s the eye of the hurricane—a woman running a kitchen like a battlefield while hiding a storm of her own. Troy Kotsur’s Joe Mancuso brings an ominous stillness that threatens every scene he inhabits. Kotsur communicates menace without words, a silent storm cloud hanging over the Friedken brothers' fragile détente.

Cleopatra Coleman and Abbey Lee add dimension as women navigating this testosterone-fueled battleground—partners, survivors, casualties. Coleman’s performance in particular offers moments of emotional clarity when the series most needs it. These aren’t just women in orbit—they’re caught in the undertow, fighting just as hard to stay afloat.

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Black Rabbit explores addiction, legacy, masculinity, and the corrosive cost of ambition without ever spelling them out. Its noir bones are evident—crime, shadow, betrayal—but the show plays out less like a genre exercise and more like a family tragedy unfolding in slow motion. It lingers in conversations, in silences, in glances across rooms thick with memory.

There are moments where Black Rabbit leans too heavily on genre tropes, particularly in Vince’s downward spiral and some of the crime-world entanglements. But the show consistently redeems itself through character and craft. This is prestige television with an edge—not because it's trying to shock, but because it understands how people can break themselves in pursuit of control, family, or love. What makes it work is that it never lets the criminal stakes overshadow the emotional ones.

This is Ozark meets The Bear meets The Talented Mr. Ripley in a dive bar on the Lower East Side. And you won't want to leave.

RATING: ★★★★☆

That's A Wrap

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Black Rabbit

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That's A Wrap | Black Rabbit |

“Black Rabbit is a pulsing crime workout—Jude Law’s sleek desperation meets Jason Bateman’s untethered wildness in a show that bleeds both heart and havoc.”

— Jonathan P. Moustakas

Credits

Airdate: all eight episodes available as of Sept. 18, 2025 Streaming on Netflix
Cast: Jude Law, Jason Bateman, Troy Kotsur, Amaka Okafor, Cleopatra Coleman, Abbey Lee, Dagmara Domińczyk
Creators: Zach Baylin & Kate Susman (Youngblood Pictures)
Directors: Jason Bateman (Eps. 1–2), Laura Linney, Justin Kurzel, Ben Semanoff
Genres: Crime, Drama, Thriller, Mystery
Distributor: Netflix