Do It Like a True Gentleman

We recently discussed the Guy RitchieThis British filmmaker has been working in the industry for practically his whole life, and has practically created a genre of crime comedies all his own. film The Gentlemen on this site. It’s a film about a massive marijuana ring in England, with the twist being that the various grow houses are stored underground on a number of English noble estates. The nobles get the money needed to maintain their lands and titles, the pot growers can continue to operate with minimal interference, and a drug that really isn’t that bad (at least, in comparison to some) is made with (presumably) few of the users getting hurt. The film itself is an interesting, twisty little tale of criminality, as Ritchie is fond of making, and it worked as another solid title for his repertoire.

It’s a solid film, but The Gentlemen isn’t exactly a story that you would think could lend itself to some kind of continuation. Ritchie hasn’t made many sequels, with only Sherlock Holmes and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows coming to mind. While the director hasn’t been against sequels, it’s usually in the larger, blockbuster fare that he seems interested in franchise building (such as when he tried to build a cinematic universe around King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, which didn’t end up coming to fruition). But for his smaller, street crime tales, Ritchie has kept those stories self contained. He’s only continued any of his crime stories once before, with Lock, Stock…, a spin-off of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrells, his first feature film, and even that went only one season and seemed like a one off.

Clearly the director saw something, though, in his 2020 film The Gentlemen because, by 2024, he’d developed a television spin-off of the film for NetflixOriginally started as a disc-by-mail service, Netflix has grown to be one of the largest media companies in the world (and one of the most valued internet companies as well). With a constant slate of new internet streaming-based programming that updates all the time, Netflix has redefined what it means to watch TV and films (as well as how to do it).. Same concept, pot growers working with the English gentry, but with new characters and a slightly different version of the scenario. The series debuted its first season on Netflix and did well enough that the streamer greenlit a second (although who knows when that will come out). And after having watched the film, it seemed only right to see if the television series could live up to the potential of the concept. The good news is, it mostly does.

Theo James stars as Edward "Eddie" Horniman, a UN Peacekeeping Captain who is called home by the imminent death of his father, the 12th Duke of Halstead. Tradition dictates that when the Duke dies, his eldest son, Freddy (Daniel Ings), would take the title, but Freddy is a bit of a fuckup and his father doesn’t trust him with the land, money, or titles. Instead. In his will, he leaves everything to Eddie, a surprise move that upsets his older brother, for more reasons than one.

As it turns out, Freddy needed the money from the estate to pay off a sizable gambling debt which he owed to some very not nice men, the Dixon brothers. The younger Dixon, Tommy (Peter Serafinowicz), doesn’t like Freddy and now that Freddy is in hock to the man for eight million pounds, Freddy has to pay that fast or he’ll wind up dead. Eddie isn’t sure how to pull together that kind of cash, but that’s when he stumbles onto the arrangement his father had with some gangsters, the Glass family. An arrangement was made where the Duke’s land hosted a pot farm, and Susie Glass (Kaya Scodelario), daughter of gang boss Robert "Bobby" Glass (Ray Winstone), has been overseeing the operation. Freddy turns to her for help, but in doing so he might just be putting himself deeper and deeper into a life of crime.

If you’ve seen The Gentlemen, all you really need to understand for this film is the presence: pot farms on gentried estates. Beyond that, all the details of the original movie have been thrown aside. It’s a different cast, a different set of characters, and functionally a different story. It’s curious that Ritchie and his production team did this as, presumably, they wanted to tell this television tale because of the success of the 2019 film, but maybe they just couldn’t arrange to bring the A-list cast back for a Netflix project. Netflix has a fair bit of money to throw around, but they may not have wanted to spend what would have been required to get Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, and Colin Farrell back for the show.

Clearing the field does have the advantage, though, that it means we can get a fresh story free of any baggage of the previous version. That film had a very solid, lived-in world, but the concept is strong enough to survive a functional reset with new cast and stories to tell. And on that front I will say that the television version of The Gentlemen does populate itself well. It has a strong set of leads with Eddie, Freddy, and Susie, along with a colorful, interesting cast of side characters to make this new version of the world feel just as lived-in as the original movie. Credit Ritchie for that; the man knows how to create a fleshed out, criminal movie world.

The stand out is Theo James, an actor who has moved from project to project, seemingly searching for something that really fit him. I didn’t really think he worked well in the Divergent films, nor in The Time Traveler’s Wife, but Eddie is a role that really fits his style. He’s able to blend his natural charisma, his way of carrying himself like a noble, alongside a darkness that befits Eddie’s growing role in the criminal world. His performance makes it clear that his role as a gangster was something Eddie was meant for, even if he didn’t ever want to admit it. It’s the kind of role clearly designed for the actor.

Credit where it’s due, though, the other actors are just as good. Scodelario is great as Susie, finding that right blend of charisma and edge as well. She is a proper equal for James’s Eddit, and you can easily see how he could be swept into the criminal world by her. Meanwhile, Ings is solid playing Freddy the fuckup. It’s not an easy role to play as, normally, this is the kind of character you want to see die. Freddy has his moments, but somehow Ings always keeps him just on the right line where you hate him a bit but never want to see him bite the bullet. It’s a thin line and he walks it well. Like just about everyone in the series, he’s perfectly cast.

The Gentlemen is a story about corruption. Eddie was a clean soul, more or less, before he came to this life, and that’s all Freddy’s fault. Without Freddy’s debt, Eddie likely would have found a way to extract the family estate from the gangsters, but because of it he has to dive deep in and try to find a way out. But you can tell that each mission he goes on, each time he has to compromise himself, he gives a little more away until, likely, he’ll end up just as dirty as everyone else. The question which drives the show, though, is, “does he like it?” That helps carry the story and keep you invested in each adventure, episode to episode.

That is the strength and weakness of the show, though. You want to watch it because you want to see what happens with Eddie. But if you can’t get behind his slow slide into criminality then the whole premise of the show would put you off. This isn’t a story of redemption, that becomes quite clear early on. You have to be able to enjoy a good crime show. If you can, this first season of The Gentlemen has a lot to like. Just give it time to build and you’ll find yourself on a rewarding, albeit somewhat dark, journey. It’s a lot of fun.