The Gentlemen Season 2 Is Splashy And Stylish Business As Usual

Life is good for Eddie Horniman (Theo James.) Having successfully retained control over the vast cannabis empire growing underneath his family's estate, he's eager to expand the market. His business partner Susie (Kaya Scodelario) helps keep things running, even if it's her father Bobby (Ray Winstone) who is still pulling the strings from prison. The next stop: landing a seat in the House of Lords so that he can influence the law and make them all richer. But nothing ever goes smoothly in the upper echelons of power. There are back-stabbing Italian growers, a Mafioso with a grudge, a born-again brother fresh out of rehab, and a lot of dead bodies to deal with.

Unsatisfied with being a prolific filmmaker (he's made nine films in a decade, with two more on the horizon), Guy Ritchie has expanded into television with remarkable efficiency. It's paid off too, with shows like MobLand and Young Sherlock winning over audiences and even some of the critics who would otherwise reject him. The Gentlemen, a loose spinoff of the 2019 film of the same name, is pure unfettered Ritchie, albeit with fewer splashy set-pieces. It’s a shameless slice of profane madness that plays like a full bingo card of Ritchie-isms: slick camera work, rowdy blokes with guns, lots of blood and swearing, and a distinctly English kind of humor that mocks that which it loves. Don’t expect a deviation from the formula with Season 2 of The Gentlemen: the ship is right on course, thank you very much.

Certainly, TV is a good fit for the Ritchie brand, and The Gentlemen is always an entertaining watch. While we don’t get as many showy action moments as we would on the big screen, moments like an art theft bike chase in London scratch that particular itch well. Plus, we’re spoiled with this cast, which has expanded in Season 2 to include the likes of Dune: Part Two’s Amra Mallassi (as a too-wealthy Middle Eastern prince craving a slice of upper-crust English living), acclaimed musician Benjamin Clementine as Eddie’s brother-in-law, and Downton Abbey’s Hugh Bonneville as Lord Hawthorne, a broke aristocrat who’s key to Eddie’s plans for power. Alongside familiar faces from Season 1, including the welcome return of Vinnie Jones and Giancarlo Esposito, this is an ensemble you can tell had a blast firing off hard swears and cheeky threats.

In Ritchie World, there is no such thing as being too ridiculous. The great appeal with his work is his blend of mockery and affection for a murderer’s row of abject twits. His lads, blokes, and good old boys are knuckle-headed creations who lambast the self-seriousness of macho masculinity without sliding into total self-loathing. Eddie’s world is populated by wannabes, has-beens, and Anglophile cosplayers whose fetish for the fantasy of poshness and power has made them all rather stupid. Some are just better at hiding it than others, and the most enjoyable parts of The Gentlemen lie in seeing who is marginally smarter than whom. Lord Hawthorne is the real posh deal but he’s also broke. The Glass clan are strivers but it’s made them paranoid. And Eddie has gotten very greedy.

While the season is light on big thematic swings, Eddie’s descent into corruption provides some meat to this sinewy narrative. It didn’t take much for this one-time soldier and black sheep of the clan to embrace the glory of power. The new season opens with him contemptuously declaring that he plans to reclaim his family’s lands and power that were whittled down by time and pesky democracy. Theo James, once again showing off why he really should be one of those six names in the new James Bond shortlist, gets some of the juiciest scenes with Eddie torn between his arrogance and his humanity. At the heart of it all is a bleak message: money plus the class system equals hell for the 99%.

Still, that isn’t exactly something The Gentlemen is keen to commit to. It wants fun over all else, and to relish its gorgeous country estates and shooting scenes. Yes, these are silly little folks but isn’t their world also rather fun? It’s tough to be too devastating in your commentary when you’re so eager to revel in the thing you’re critiquing. The bubble of The Gentlemen is one packed with OTT silliness that doesn’t desire much heft beyond a scene here or there, but at least James is highly equipped for the job. What you see is what you get with The Gentlemen, and its blend of high drama, violence, dark comedy, and committed performances means a very fun eight hours of TV.

The Gentlemen premieres on Netflix on September 3.