BLACK RABBIT: Episode 1.1

Name: BLACK RABBIT: Episode 1.1
Item: BLACK RABBIT: Episode 1.1
Author: Review

"One Man Brings Trouble to His Brother’s Restaurant"

Family Content: -3 Excessive sex, violence, immorality, and/or worldview problems. (Sometimes excessive content such as violence is in otherwise redemptive movies.)

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

Credits →

What You Need To Know:

BLACK RABBIT is a crime thriller series streaming on Netflix. The first episode of Season One follows Jack, the owner of an up-and-coming restaurant, who’s trying to keep things afloat. Complicating matters? The arrival of his brother Vince, who is on the run after accidentally killing someone. Trouble follows him, though, and now, Vince has to answer for over $100,000 in gambling debts.

Episode 1 of BLACK RABBIT is an excellent crime thriller that utilizes a nonlinear timeline to capture viewers’ interest. The leads, Jason Bateman and Jude Law, deliver strong performances, and the show boasts a cool, atmospheric feel, thanks to its Manhattan setting. However, the episode has a mixed worldview; while there are themes of family and friendship, BLACK RABBIT also features lying, theft, strong language, alcohol use, and some violence. MOVIEGUIDE® advises strong caution.

Content:

(B, LLL, VV, A, MM):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

A mixed worldview. One character has a strong relationship with his son, spending time with him and prioritizing his happiness. The same character is also shown to value his friendship, as well as the community his restaurant provides people. He also supports his brother, giving him money and a job. However, many scenes show characters lying and stealing, doing anything to further their own desires;

Foul Language:

128 obscenities, including 102 “f” words and 3 “GD”s, and 1 “J” profanity;

Violence:

One character runs over someone twice, but it is not shown onscreen. In another scene, someone cuts a character’s finger as a warning. In one scene, a man gets shot in the shoulder; some blood is shown;

Sex:

No sex;

Nudity:

No nudity;

Alcohol Use:

Scenes depicting alcohol use throughout, as many scenes take place in a restaurant/bar, but drunkenness is not shown;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

None; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

One character lies to another about why he has come back to town, hiding the fact that he accidentally killed someone. Other characters steal a set of coins from another character. One character is threatened and told that he must pay back gambling debts or suffer the consequences.

More Detail:

BLACK RABBIT is a crime thriller mini-series streaming on Netflix. In the first episode of Season One, viewers are introduced to brothers Jake and Vince Friedken. When Vince returns to town, bringing plenty of trouble along with him, Jake and his successful restaurant might go down with him.

Jake Friedken runs the popular New York City restaurant Black Rabbit. He and his staff are hard at work preparing for a visit from a New York Times food critic, but vendors claiming bills have gone unpaid and a bartender who has mysteriously disappeared are throwing a wrench into their plans.

Meanwhile, Jake’s brother Vince is dealing with some problems of his own. After an attempt to sell some rare coins goes awry and someone ends up dead, Vince heads back home to New York to outrun trouble.

Once he’s back in town, Vince lies to Jake about what brought him home but does admit he has some gambling debts. Those debts come back to haunt him when, upon hearing he’s back in town, loan sharks give Vince two weeks to pay back over $100,000.

Vince heads to Black Rabbit, where he fills in for the missing bartender — a girl named Anna who Jake had fired for refusing to come into work that night. After a successful night, Jake invites Vince to work at Black Rabbit, unaware of the trouble his brother is tangled up in.

BLACK RABBIT Episode 1 sets up an intriguing crime thriller, utilizing nonlinear storytelling to keep viewers engaged and eager to see what twists the story will take. Stars Jason Bateman and Jude Law are excellent, and the show makes good use of Manhattan’s atmospheric feel in its sets.

The first episode of BLACK RABBIT has a mixed worldview. While characters value family, friends, and community, there are also numerous plotlines involving theft and deception. The episode contains countless uses of strong language, as well as some light alcohol use and some violent scenes. MOVIEGUIDE® advises strong caution.