The Gentlemen TV Series Review
The Gentlemen is a 2024 action comedy television series created by Guy Ritchie for Netflix. It is a spin-off of Ritchie’s 2019 film of the same name. The Gentlemen was released on the 7th of March 2024.
The premise of the series follows the happenings at a late Duke’s estate upon his death and the estate and title of Duke, bestowed upon his son, who must come to terms with the estate being part of a a criminal enterprise’s underground weed empire….
The Good
Its a Guy Ritchie production….
If that isn’t enough to convince one to watch the series, then the social media snap survey I did, asking how people rate this, showed that people generally had a high rating of it… no pun intended.
While the show is a spin-off from Guy Ritchie’s 2019 movie The Gentlemen, you don’t need to have seen that to appreciate this series and if you haven’t watched that and you happen to love this show, then you can also watch the movie.
The show is brilliantly shot with slick visuals and has some riveting action set pieces… a similar benign situation can escalate into so much more, lit with a slow burning fuse.
The cast work well together and Theo James as Edward Horniman has just about enough charm and zen to play the role of someone who can navigate the fine line between the aristocratic and the criminal
Kaya Scodelario as Susie Glass delivers a stellar performance holding the reigns, if not absolutely stealing the entire production had the show been more from her perspective.
Cant talk about the show without mentioning Giancarlo Esposito who plays Mr Stanley Johnston with a T who plays a role that feels like a call back to his previous character as Gus Fring in the cult series Breaking Bed..
The other supporting charaters are also a piece of work, like Edward’s brother, Frederick “Freddy” Horniman who might not be the most reliable person but family is family and Jimmy Chang who usually views the world from the purple of haze of cannabis.
The dialogue is fun and witty with never a dull moment
The Bad
Don’t start watching this show if you have deadlines because the way each episode escalates you will find yourself invested without meaning to..
Some of the characters’ actions can leave you very frustrated and even the favourites can make some really bad judgement calls, that will make you roll your eyes at how someone who has been consistently on point can make such a miscalculation…
The pacing has slow burner aproach and progresses in the form of “side quests” which don’t quite qualitatively add to the “main quest, instead they just drag the storyline with convulated sub-plots that serve no ultimate purpose, although the show does redeem itself by uniting some of the threads and also offers a degree of insight into character motivations…
The Ugly
The Gentlemen isn’t gratuitously violent but it has a couple of rather gruesome scenes…
The show glorifies criminal activities… I mean watching this movie had me wondering how I could start my own weed empire… Marijuana is illegal to cultivate, possess and or distribute in Zimbabwe, although one can apply for an industrial license through Statutory Instrument 218 of 2020 Agricultural Marketing Authority (Industrial Hemp) Regulations….
As a reflection of society, there’s a bleak take from the central theme and subplot on how the world pretends at being civil but its all a zoo and even the nobility arent as noble as they purport..
"People either survive in the jungle or exist in the zoo. Few recognise the significance of the paradoxical reconciliation of the two."
-Stanley Johnston, The Gentlemen
Final thoughts
A witty action comedy that feels like Game Of Thrones meets Shogun but set in a modern English Estate.
The Gentlemen topped the Netflix Charts for several weeks until 3 Body Problem came along which is the current Netflix fave..
Have you watched The Gentlemen… either the series or the movie, or both?
Becoming The Muse 
Your thoughts.. if you will?