Netflix's Thrilling Ozark Successor Shines With Bateman & Legislation

Netflix’s riveting new crime thriller, Black Rabbit, is without doubt one of the finest restricted collection out this yr on any streaming platform. Following Adolescence’s massive win within the class on the 2025 Emmys, Netflix accomplished a three-peat for Excellent Restricted or Anthology Collection after Child Reindeer gained final yr and Beef gained in 2023. Simply days after the 2025 ceremony, Black Rabbit seems to already be a frontrunner for Netflix in 2026.

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The eight-episode Black Rabbit, which debuted in the course of the Toronto International Film Festival, stars a number of Ozark alums — each in entrance of and behind the digicam. Bateman co-stars and directs two episodes, Laura Linney directs two episodes, and Ben Semanoff, who was nominated for an Emmy for his work on Ozark, directs two episodes.

The collection can also be partially directed by Justin Kurzel, who collaborated with Black Rabbit co-creators Zach Baylin and Kate Susman on the underrated 2024 film The Order, which stars none aside from Jude Legislation. It is such an ideal mixture that it is virtually as if an algorithm put collectively the principle artistic group. For crime thriller followers, it is an absolute match made in heaven.

Netflix’s Ozark Substitute Is Even Higher Than Ozark

A number of current Netflix collection have been in comparison with Ozark, its Emmy-winning crime drama masterpiece, similar to The Waterfront earlier this yr. Black Rabbit proves that none of these collection come near the standard story, performances, and rigidity that’s constructed all through eight wildly bingeable episodes.

Black Rabbit would not be half the present it’s with out the powerhouse performances by co-stars Jude Legislation and Jason Bateman, who’re fantastically convincing as two hustling brothers toxically bonded for all times. Legislation’s Jake Friedkin runs one of many hottest eating places and bars in Manhattan, whereas Bateman’s vagabond older brother Vince runs to and from bother round each road nook, regardless of how he might attempt to stop it.

There hasn’t been this sturdy a bond between two dysfunctional but devoted grownup brothers in a Netflix collection since John and Danny Rayburn in Bloodline, performed by Kyle Chandler and Ben Mendelsohn. Each collection basically have the identical premise in that regard. One’s the native hero with a tender spot for household, and the opposite is cursed by self-destruction and sure to trigger hurt to those that assist.

Whereas Black Rabbit encompasses a gifted ensemble by means of and thru, Oscar winner Troy Kotsur steals the present from his supporting function with a commanding efficiency as feared mob boss Joe Mancuso. Your complete slate of actors gave extremely impressed performances that elevated Black Rabbit to elite territory.

Black Rabbit Is Darkly Thrilling, Technically Sensible & Tragically Human

Jason Bateman looking at Jude Law in Black Rabbit — Jason Bateman taking a look at Jude Legislation in Black Rabbit

Black Rabbit is just not Netflix’s Ozark substitute; it is Ozark’s successor. Much like how Vince is to Jake, Black Rabbit is the grizzled, life-hardened, much less polished model of Ozark that’s extra relentless, uncooked, and unhinged. It is a remarkably lean collection all through, trimming all of the fats and leaving each superfluous body on the slicing room ground.

The kitchen dynamic within the Black Rabbit restaurant typically makes the present really feel like a less-romanticized model of The Bear. It is one more nice 2025 collection set within the Massive Apple, arriving on the heels of the critically acclaimed Dexter: Resurrection. Whereas the similarities to Ozark in tone and ambiance are apparent, the ferocity and desperation of many of those characters really feel instantly linked to the kind of vitality that Baylin put into The Order.

Black Rabbit’s cinematography and path are the true triumphs of the collection, subsequent to the performances. You possibly can inform each single shot and body was intentional, even in the course of the handheld moments that set up a frantic kinetic vitality. In most of the compositions, we watch these characters from afar, like a fly on the wall of the restaurant lamppost, generally seeing them virtually trapped or remoted inside their environments.

Above all, what Black Rabbit demonstrates greater than something is likely to be one of many rarest qualities in any trendy streaming collection, particularly on Netflix – inventive imaginative and prescient and care. The varied minute visible particulars and narrative subtleties will reward attentive viewers with an array of crops and payoffs. Black Rabbit is the kind of present that, should you look away for one scene, you may lose your house, and you will not need to miss a second of Netflix’s subsequent massive factor.