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| Guy Ritchie’s |
Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen has never been interested in subtlety. The 2019 film was a breezy, slightly flimsy crime caper about gangsters, aristocrats and English landed wealth. Critics were hardly unanimous, but audiences clearly enjoyed the combination of swagger, violence and cheeky British class warfare.
That popularity eventually produced a Netflix spin-off series, which proved successful enough to return for a second season. Now, with rumours already swirling about a possible third season and the potential involvement of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, The Gentlemen has become considerably more talked-about than its pulpy premise might suggest.
But before worrying about season three, there is season two to survive.
Eddie and Susie are back in business
Theo James returns as Eddie “the Duke” Horniman, the impossibly handsome aristocrat who has discovered that running a criminal enterprise can be considerably more profitable — and perhaps more entertaining — than managing an inherited estate.
His partner remains Susie Glass, played by Kaya Scodelario, whose cool-headed criminal instincts complement Eddie’s aristocratic connections. Together, they are expanding the enormous marijuana operation originally built by Susie’s father, Bobby Glass, played with tremendous comic energy by Ray Winstone.
Bobby has handed control to his daughter, but there is no reason to expect the transition to be peaceful.
The central relationship works because neither Eddie nor Susie completely trusts the other. They are partners, but they are also competitors, and both understand that a criminal empire built on money and power inevitably attracts people who want a piece of it.
Their expansion takes them into new territory, including an Italian contessa and her lavish palazzo. Inevitably, the local mafia is less than thrilled about outsiders arriving to claim their share of the business.
In other words, the weed empire gets bigger, the enemies get nastier, and the body count starts climbing.
Aristocracy meets organised crime
One of the show's more interesting recurring ideas is the collision between Britain's old elite and its criminal underworld.
Hugh Bonneville joins the cast as Lord Hawthorne, whom Eddie recruits as part of his attempt to secure a hereditary peerage. It is a familiar Peaky Blinders-style ambition: the criminal outsider doesn't simply want money; he wants legitimacy.
That distinction matters. Eddie already has wealth and social status. What he wants now is greater institutional power — the kind that comes with titles, connections and acceptance by the establishment.
The joke, of course, is that the aristocratic world is hardly presented as morally cleaner than the criminal one. It simply has better manners, older houses and more complicated rules.
The season also throws in some deliberately unexpected casting. Maya Jama appears as Aisha, a fixer who arrives at the estate to negotiate deals and get involved in the increasingly ridiculous machinery surrounding Eddie's operation.
Same Guy Ritchie formula, different playground
If you come to The Gentlemen expecting Guy Ritchie to suddenly abandon his trademark style, season two will disappoint you.
The show moves quickly, rarely allowing a conversation to remain merely a conversation. Deals become threats, threats become betrayals, and betrayals tend to end badly. There are art schemes, bribes, criminal negotiations and enough double-crossing to make genuine loyalty seem almost quaint.
The violence is deliberately excessive, often bordering on cartoonish. The comedy operates in much the same way.
Ritchie isn't asking you to believe that this is a realistic portrait of organised crime. He's asking you to enjoy the ride.
That approach works surprisingly well when the show leans into its own absurdity. The best moments are often those in which the supposedly respectable world of English country estates collides with the blunt, practical instincts of the Glass family.
The class conflict gives the familiar gangster material another layer. Old money has its rituals and codes; new money — particularly criminal money — has little patience for them.
Not everything has aged well
The problem is that some of the show's attitudes feel less playful than the creators presumably intend.
The series occasionally slips into an uncomfortable squeamishness around male homosexuality, while some of its female characters are too readily positioned as suspicious rivals rather than being allowed to develop more interesting relationships with one another.
These elements don't completely derail the season, partly because The Gentlemen operates in such an exaggerated register. But cartoonish storytelling doesn't automatically make every choice harmless or clever.
There is also a broader problem: the formula is becoming increasingly familiar.
The opening once again puts Eddie in danger before jumping back three months to explain how everything went wrong. It is an efficient storytelling device, but hardly an inventive one. If you've watched Ritchie's recent work, you'll recognise many of the rhythms immediately.
So, is season 2 worth watching?
Yes — provided you know what you're ordering.
The Gentlemen isn't prestige television pretending to be a gangster story. It is entertainment built around velocity, style, violence and jokes. The plotting exists largely to keep the characters moving from one outrageous situation to another.
That can be frustrating if you're looking for deeper character development or a genuinely fresh take on the genre. But if what you want is an easy binge with sharp suits, English country houses, criminal schemes and spectacularly messy betrayals, the series delivers exactly that.
Think of it as fast-food television: slick, heavily seasoned and not particularly nutritious.
You probably won't finish the season feeling intellectually transformed. You may not even remember every twist a few weeks later. But sometimes television doesn't need to be a carefully prepared seven-course meal.
Sometimes you just want something loud, fast and satisfying.
The Gentlemen understands that craving — and season two is perfectly happy to feed it.
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