CinemaBlind’s Review – 80%
The Gentlemen isn’t your normal crime-drama and that’s made clear from the very first episode and the series is all the better for it. Guy Ritchie’s incredible style in storytelling is front and center and while it may stumble at some points, at the end the series gives the fans what it wants (excluding a cameo from Matthew McConaughey or Charlie Hunnam), and the characters in this series are either balls to walls crazy or so suave that they make criminality look sexy.
The Netflix series follows the story of Eddie Horniman, the second son of the Horniman family who surprisingly gets everything after his father’s death, but Eddie is even more surprised as he finds out that Daddy didn’t make all that money investing in stocks, but had some unsavory cohorts, who work on the other side of the law. Eddie tries to distance himself and his family from anything illegal but he is pulled back into it for one reason or another. Will Eddie be successful in his quest to end the deal with the criminals that his father made, and even if he is successful should he do that?
If we are comparing The Gentlemen movie and the series, then the film comes out on top but there is a lot of fun to be had in the series too. The only reason that the series falls short is because the larger plot is pretty apparent from the get-go and while there is so much entertainment in every episode, no big surprise or resolution is waiting in the end.
Theo James does an incredible with the role of Eddie Horniman, a guy who is being pulled in so many different directions that he doesn’t know what the larger picture is because he has to solve the problem right in front of him. While James is great the real scene stealer in the series is Kaya Scodelario as Susie Glass, Eddie’s liaison in the criminal world. Scodelario is great in every scene and she is the one who gives weight to the series in later episodes. Other cast members including Daniel Ings, Vinnie Jones, Joely Richardson, Alexis Rodney, Harry Goodwins, Gaia Weiss, Freddie Fox, Ray Winstone, and Giancarlo Esposito are also great in their respective roles.
So, there is a lot to nitpick in The Gentlemen but in the end, it’s pretty entertaining and that’s what we are all here for. If you love Ritchie’s style of storytelling then you are not going to be disappointed and if you love big character moments then this might not be the series for you.