‘The Gentlemen,’ Guy Ritchie’s small-screen take, is fun but forgettable
Best known for highly stylized action-comedy movies, English filmmaker Guy Ritchie hasn’t exactly stepped out of his comfort zone for a foray into television with The Gentlemen, a fairly entertaining eightpart, hour-long action-comedy series that recently debuted on Netflix.
It’s inspired by his similarly enjoyable 2019 film of the same name in which expensive-suit refinement meets drugtrade violence.
(This would seem to be similar to the move Ritchie made as a producer with 2000’s Lock, Stock..., a seven-part series coming two years after his feature directorial debut, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.)
Hey, sometimes it’s best to stick with what you know.
First, know that you need not have seen the big-screen Gentlemen to sip, sophisticatedly, on its small-screen cousin. Although press materials for the series state it “is set in the world of The Gentlemen
film,” we get not so much as a quip about Mickey Pearson, the drug kingpin played by Matthew McConaughey in the film.
In this streaming offering, it is Ray Winstone’s Bobby Glass who oversees a cannabis empire built on high-yielding weed labs existing underneath English country estates. One such estate is Halstead Manor, home to the Horniman family.
In the series’ opening minutes, as the Duke of Halstead (Edward Fox) nears death, his problem-solving son Eddie (Theo James) is called home from duty with the British Army to be with the family.
Father then instructs son to watch out for his brother, Freddy (Daniel Ings). “He won’t survive without you.” We soon get a sense of why that may be true when the now-deceased duke’s will is read, with older brother Freddy not receiving the windfall he anticipates, the estate instead being handed to Eddie. First suggesting there may have been some understandable Eddie-Freddy confusion, Freddy goes ballistic.
And so now we have an important dynamic: Freddy being the Fredo Corleone to Eddie’s Michael – at least if Fredo
were prone to going on cocaine binges and racking up huge debts to dangerous men such as Tommy Dixon (Peter Serafinowicz), a member of powerful drug family.
As Eddie tries to plot a course of action that will free Freddy, he also gets close to Susie Glass (Kaya Scodelario), the daughter of the imprisoned Bobby and the runner of his business’ day-to-day activities.
After learning of the deal his father had made with Glass, which helps to explain how the family has managed to maintain its quite comfy lifestyle, Eddie wants to end the partnership. However, he knows this cannot be done immediately, and he agrees to help Susie with various business-related matters for the time being. The measured-and-steady type, he shows a real affinity for this work, even if he’s hampered by his inexperience at the onset.
Susie, in turn, helps him with his Freddy trouble, which, predictably, goes from simmer to boil at the climax of the first episode. It isn’t easy to rattle her, but she may have a weakness in her pro-boxing brother, Jack (Henry Goodwin).
Among those who may look to exploit such a potential pain point is Stanley Johnson (Giancarlo Esposito), an American with an appreciation for the finer things who affords them with a meth-pedaling organization – a fun nod to Esposito’s great character from Breaking Bad, Gus Fring.
AT LEAST a tick stronger than its movie counterpart, The Gentlemen, is never stronger – or more stylized – than its first two episodes, which see Ritchie making his TV-directing debut. These are highly cinematic installments not matched by the series’ other directors Nima Nourizadeh, Eran Creevy and David Caffrey. (To be fair, your eyes tell you that none of them had the per-budget episode afforded to Ritchie.)
The Gentlemen may feel like a film in stretches, but, as written by Ritchie and six others, it certainly dances to the rhythms of a television show, with lower-stakes middle chapters leading toward a climax that brings together several plot threads.
It possesses many pleasant elements, such as colorful side characters including sincere, stoned-out-of-his-mind pot grower Jimmy Chang (Michael Vu) and Halstead Manor gamekeeper Geoff Seacombe (Vinnie Jones), to whom there’s more than initially appears. The inclusion of Jones is a nod to Ritchie’s past, the actor making his movie debut in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and also appearing in the director’s second film, Snatch.
The Gentlemen almost certainly would have benefited from a ratcheting up of the sexual tension between Eddie and Susie, a bit more will-they-won’t-they energy. As it stands, their mutual attraction rarely rises above the level of a polite flirtation.
All the same, the talented actors are enjoyable together. James (Divergent, The White Lotus) is ideal in the lead role, fitting nicely into his character’s pricey menswear but also is believable when Eddie shows the aggression fueled by his inherent determination. And Scodelario (the Maze Runner movies) is pretty cool and confident herself as Susie, a strong woman operating in a world of violent men, er, gentlemen.
With episode titles such as “Tackie Tommy Woo Woo,” on-screen translations for certain chunks of dialogue and colorful language that’s oh-so-British, to go along with spurts of violence, The Gentlemen is pure Ritchie and will most delight his fans.
For the rest of us, it likely will prove to be as impactful as many, but not all, of his films – a flashy but ultimately flimsy distraction you’ve all but forgotten in a week or so.
(The News-Herald, Willoughby, Ohio/ TNS)*