"Black Rabbit": Portrait of a Sibling on the Brink

Since "Ozark," we knew Jason Bateman was capable of marvelously playing ordinary people overwhelmed by events, those who seem calm and become strategists late in life. We also knew he was capable of directing some of the best episodes of this underrated series. Here, the former child prodigy of American television - he played in "Little House on the Prairie" and the loser in "Arrested Development" - plays a cumbersome brother, always ready to scrape together some money but endearing enough to be forgiven for his many missteps. Vince, a magnet for trouble, returns to the life of his brother Jake (Jude Law), owner of the Black Rabbit, the trendiest restaurant in New York.

While the latter embodies success for his entourage, his court, and the press, he remains nonetheless in debt when it comes to acquiring a new establishment. For Vince, returning after a long exile in Nevada, the situation is even worse: the local mob, with whom he was in trouble over a gambling debt, soon finds him. The sale of their mother's house having fallen through, the two men are now with knives at their throats and are doomed to put on a good show every evening in front of the restaurant's customers.

The series is as much a portrait of siblings on the brink, who can only survive by constantly putting their destiny at risk, as it is of New York City, a vast illusion where one only exists if one is successful. This time, Jason Bateman directs a few episodes (the first ones), as does Laura Linney, the actress who brilliantly played his wife in "Ozark."

It should be noted in passing that the series' co-creator, Zach Baylin, wrote the screenplay for "The Order" (released last February on Prime Video), a thriller in which Jude Law excels as an uncompromising cop.