I’ve never been a big fan of either Jude Law (Firebrand, 2023) or Jason Bateman (Game Night, 2018) so I admit I’m coming to this Netflix series with some hesitation. Despite his deuce of Oscar nominations I’ve never been convinced by Jude Law as an actor – he always seems to me one of the actors who “acts.” And sticking a beard on Jason Bateman and growing his hair long does not turn him into a badass. He’s directing himself here, at least for the two opening episodes, so I’m not sure he’s cracked that skill either.
And I can’t be the only one fed up with these movies or series that start at the end. You get some decent piece of action – here a robbery – and no sooner have you become interested than the action stops dead and up pops the legend “one month earlier” or “one week earlier” or “one day earlier” as if someone has got it into their heads that that automatically adds a hefty dose of tension.
So, basically, this looks like some sort of whodunit. Not revolving around murder as would normally be the case. But around the aforementioned robbery which has the hallmarks of an inside job. Possibly the finger won’t point at Jake Friedkin (Jude Law) who is after all the restaurant co-owner. More likely, you’d suspect his hustler brother Vince (Jason Bateman) who you learn in short order has stolen his father’s collection of rare coins, taken out loans against the family property, killed a guy and owes $140,000 to loan sharks.
But that last large debt brings Jake solidly into the frame. He’s had to, according to one of those unwritten laws that get trotted out at convenient times in gangster pictures, assume his brother’s debt. Worse, he’s not able to pay his own bills, a born hustler, has his eye on a bigger prize and just has to raise the presumably insignificant sum of $5 million to set up another more upmarket operation in a building built by Mies van der Rohe (famous architect in case you don’t know).
He’s planning to take his head chef Roxie (Amaka Okafur) with him so you’d think she wouldn’t bear a grudge. But, in fact, she’s pretty pissed off at her boss because he’s taken no action to prevent the sexual predatory activities of his partner Wes (Sope Dirisu), a successful recording artist who drinks the place dry (of high-priced champagne I should add). Wes has raped bartender Anna (Abbey Lee) and she’s been sacked and already taking revenge on TikTok.
Jake has hired Wes’s interior designer girlfriend Estelle (Cleopatra Coleman) to give the new place a decent lick of paint, but Wes, who’s not in on the deal, has discovered his partner is soon going to be his ex-partner.
So from there on, every possible attempt to jack up the stakes occurs. Vince wins enough ($150,000) at the gambling tables to pay off his debt, but that wouldn’t make much of a story nor be true to his character, and he loses it all. And when the sale of the family property falls through he’s back to square one and the digital accounting begins – as in digit accounting as a hot-headed gangster saws off his little finger. Oh, and promises that next on the hit list would be Vince’s estranged daughter Gen (Odessa Young) a tattoo artist.
There’s a big chunk of back story to be fitted in. Jake was originally Wes’s manager, Vince was responsible for coming up with the idea of turning a derelict dump into a trendy bar and restaurant. So emotional debt is owed all round never mind the $140,000 outstanding plus whatever else Jake has clocked up.
So part The Bear, part sub-Scorsese with psychopathic hoods, and part the double-dealing that comes with running any business and soon enough I guess there will be a proper murder to deal with because glancing down the cast list I see a detective so that will be more suspects.
I’m not entirely sure there’s enough here to keep me pinned down in my seat for another six episodes. And part of the problem, I guess, is the all-action beginning which had me believing this wouldn’t just degenerate into a slow, draggy family saga (more family based than usual given the restaurant we are told is one big family). Created by Zach Beylin (Creed III, 2023).
I’m not optimistic.
The Magnificent 60s 