Not All Streamers Are Created Equal

Channel surfing, my go-to streamers and Black Rabbit on Netflix

If your self care or love language is quality time on the couch, you may find yourself battling decision fatigue. When you want to chill out, there is nothing worse than the tv doom scroll. It is a dying art now but channel surfing really cannot be beat. This is not the same as the doom scroll on a streamer or on your instagram feed. Channel surfing gives you variety and a low stakes glimpse at what is currently on. It is like a Russian roulette of everything in syndication. It is likely that something up your alley will appear. There is a reason why Law and Order: SVU has endured. Those marathons on USA Network have educated many millennials on the criminal justice system. With channel surfing, the snippet of show you see as you click is crucial. You can get sucked in by the smallest thing - one cool chef on Chopped, one bizarre couple on House Hunters that seems like they don’t even know each other, one great scene from a classic movie that you swear you’ll watch for only a minute…and then that minute turns into the credits rolling. There is a hook within the channel surf that is just missing nowadays. There is no pressing play. You must give in.

A teaser for a streaming show just shows the first scene of the pilot or teases a plot line that seems way off base from the heart of the show. You start something based on the trailer and it turns out to be nothing like you expected. Sometimes streaming services just feel like a big gimmick. They suggest content to you based on what you chose to rot your brain with weeks ago. They should add a feature like incognito mode. This should be used when you do not want certain content to invade your algorithm. Spotify should adopt this too. Sometimes you listen to one song over and over and over again because you are learning it for an audition, or a routine, or filming something. Often, songs from my running playlist show up in my Spotify Wrapped. While I stand by my running jams, I don’t want them conflating my data. We do not need to see the overlap between reality TV, old comfort comedies and new dramas. And do not get me started on when someone watches something on your account and messes with your algorithm! You babysit once and put on some children’s cartoons and now it’s being fed to you nonstop! Let me opt out! Get me off the train! My profile is not to be messed with!

When I think about the television landscape of today, it is clear that not all streaming services are created equal. There are so many to choose from but I feel that there are two that reign supreme: HBO and Netflix. HBO has the best content and they have consistently been the model to follow when it comes to prestige television. That phrase was coined pretty much because of them. The early shows of HBO are pillars of the entertainment industry: The Sopranos, Oz, Six Feet Under, Entourage, Sex and the City, The Wire, Curb Your Enthusiasm and the list goes on. Sunday nights had a whole new meaning once HBO came onto the scene. It’s part of the reason why I just don’t think people should make plans on Sunday evenings. They have dominated the television industry and championed comedies and dramas and even put the miniseries on the map in a big way with a screen adaptation of the iconic Tony Kushner play Angels in America in 2003. This paved the way for things like John Adams, Watchman, The Night Of, Chernobyl and Sharp Objects. The production value and star power combined with a variety of genres to choose from makes HBO a no brainer and a must have on your streaming list.

Now my Netflix choice as a top streamer might surprise you. Netflix is a fickle friend. The content has such a range from trash TV to good trash to high intensity thrillers and compelling dramas to the latest documentary about some serial killer or abduction or murder in a small town. You just never know if what you select will really be worth it. I would argue that they are overproducing and the caliber of content suffers overall. I tend to rely on the names associated with the project. If I trust them, I’ll give it a go. Toni Collette was the singular reason why I started Wayward on Netflix a few weeks ago. If HBO began prestige television, it was Netflix who truly ignited the streaming era. Netflix still reigns supreme because they were the first to do it. It was the streaming service that you had first. I get sentimental thinking about those early Netflix days with the DVD rentals and full season drops of House of Cards and Orange Is The New Black. It is easier to keep rocking with the thing you’ve had for years than add on something new. Netflix has staying power because it is just the streamer we’ve had from the beginning. They were one-of-one at one point! They churn out shows of verifying quality but despite that it would be the hardest one to lose. I gotta give them credit for what they started.

While I have Apple TV, Hulu and Amazon (watching TV will cost you!), I just don’t frequent them as much as the other two. Netflix is a crap shoot. It’s a gamble and when you press play, you hope the risk pays off. Similar to when I start a new book, when I start a show, I really do intend on getting the whole story and watching a season till the end. The real Netflix come down though is when you start something that seems promising and it doesn’t quite stick the landing either. A show that has plateaued for me lately is Black Rabbit.

Black Rabbit has the makings of something good. Jude Law and Jason Bateman star as brothers. Law, as Jake Friedken, is the brother with his shit together while Bateman, Vince Friedken, is an unreliable ticking time bomb. Once he enters your orbit, you will be jumping through hoops to clean up his messes. The first episode was exposition heavy but I was intrigued enough to keep going. It did not have the cliffhangers endings that are typical for Netflix episodes.

What starts off as a good cop bad cop routine between the Friedken brothers morphs into a realization that both brothers are chaotic but one just keeps it together in a way that is societally palatable. The original brain child of Vince, Jake is the owner of Black Rabbit, one of the hottest new restaurants in the New York dining scene. Jake had to buy out his brother in order to gain control of the space and help the restaurant thrive because Vince is and will forever be a liability. After being AWOL for a few years, Hurricane Vince has now returned to the New York harbor. He owes gambling debts to some NYC goons and wants to reinsert himself into the business. Uh Oh!

Jake rests on his charm and dresses the part while Vince is disheveled and in desperate need of a haircut. I do think the performances of our two leads are quite good. I absolutely love Bateman’s dramatic work. He’s brilliant and did a great job directing the first two episodes too. His performance is unsettling because you just never know what he’s thinking. There is an internal life of mystery. He is smart, cunning and seems to say the right things. Vince has been a schemer for years and I want to believe his lies even though I know it is a folly. Law and Bateman have good chemistry and the history of their hard times together is evident from their first very first scene. They remain committed throughout and have a tension that is palpable even during the “good times” when they try to work together. I honestly prefer Vince because at least he is honest about who he is. Jake is such a wannabee and lets Vince’s shortcomings boost him up.

I always watch a few episodes before I really form an opinion on a show. But by episode 3, it was clear that something wasn’t working. But I just couldn’t quite pinpoint what was wrong and why things were not coming together. After some reflection, and mind you, I still have a few more episodes to watch before the season wraps up, I have determined that the subplots are just adding clutter. For a show about a restaurant, it is a little over stuffed, a little over baked. Everything but the kitchen sink is being thrown into this one pot meal. After doing some research, it seems that the show is based off the scandal and sexual harassment allegations at The Spotted Pig in West Village. The Spotted Pig story is compelling but this is yet another example of a show that is trying to be too many things at once. When the show is anchored to the Friedken family, it really has legs. Add on the restaurant business and some of their personal baggage, we can really start to cook. But the main throughline of the show is in doubt. We have loan sharks, with the top dog played expertly by Troy Kotsur - I was so excited when he popped up on my screen-, we have adultery, we have sexual harassment, we have a heist. As I continued watching, it seemed that a new plot line would be added but we wouldn’t get enough of the old one; therefore, we were never learning anything new. And to top it all off, the show was not passing my gut check. The gut check is about emotionality. I just did not care about what happened to our characters. Pay the debt, save the restaurant, call the cops, help the staff - fix the problems or don’t. But curiosity is getting the best of me and I want to stick around to see what happens. I guess that a win! As a viewer, it is clear that the stakes are high but I wasn’t troubled by it. It was easy to be detached.

Black Rabbit is not a bad watch but it’s just frustrating when a secret sauce is missing. It needs to be paired down and pulled back. In its efforts to be provocative and stylized (I do like the gritty direction of the episodes thus far) and discuss an important subject, it somehow has no soul. Jude Law and Jason Bateman are worth sticking around for. I hope that it picks up and charges to the end with a bang!