‘The Gentlemen’ (2024) Season 1 Review – Cockney Filler

Guy Ritchie’s adaptation of his own film, The Gentlemen, can be highly entertaining, with an excellent Theo James at the series center. The pilot lives up to Ritchie’s signature visual style: fast-paced and energetic, wicked banter, and a healthy dose of visceral violence. However, the series loses original ideas quickly and begins to turn each episode into a mystery of the week, like a network television procedural.

The story follows Eddie Halstead (James), a British Army captain who gets some bad news: his father is ill. Eddie returns home, where his dad passes away. Ed is a Duke, and his family lineage traces back to British royalty. The Halsteads are traditional, which means Eddie’s older brother Freddy (The Crown’s Daniel Ings) will become the head of the Halstead estate, including its 500-year-old country estate.

However, Freddy is a playboy, a cokehead, and a compulsive gambler. That’s something Eddie’s mother, Sabrina (Joely Richardson), and sister, Charly (Shadow and Bone alum Jasmine Blackborow), know. So, it’s no surprise that Halstead’s last wish is to leave Eddie in charge when his last will and testament is read. Freddy is understandably disappointed but in a more immature teenager kind of way.

Yet, there’s a reason for it. Freddy reveals he has run up an eight-million-dollar debt to a Liverpool mobster, Tommy Dixon (Peter Serafinowicz). He’s the brother of a notorious drug kingpin named Gospel John (Pearce Quigley), who runs his criminal empire out of a house of God. Eddie’s life becomes even more complicated when he finds out his father leased part of his land to the Glass family, another notorious bunch that grows illegal cannabis under the Halstead stables.

Halstead’s loyal gamekeeper, Geoff (Guy Ritchie player Vinnie Jones), warns Eddie to tread lightly with them. Run by Susie (Kaya Scodelario), daughter of the patriarch Bobby (Ray Winstone), while he serves time in prison. Oh, and did we mention a third criminal mastermind, an American who goes by the name Uncle Stan (Breaking Bad’s Giancarlo Esposito), wants the estate for himself?

There’s a notable drop in storytelling quality after the first two episodes, unsurprisingly, both under the direction of creator Guy Ritchie. The story can be funny and has exciting moments, mainly from Ings, whose Freddy’s mixture of ego and insecurities put the family in an awful situation. From that point, to fulfill the eight-episode Netflix contract, problems occur in almost every episode.

This seems like an obvious ploy to create more of a story that isn’t there when the story could have been completed in a much shorter time frame.  Some of them fail to come together and engage the audience. For example, Eddie and Susie’s plan (and partnerships) for success seem anything but authentic. There’s too much happening in The Gentleman that does not matter, with designs to distract the viewer from this point.

The Gentlemen is not worth watching because half of the season is needless filler. In fact, if you remove everything between the first and last two episodes, nothing that occurs will help the viewer with any additional insight or clarity. There are at least three episodes where the main characters end up where they started. This is incredibly frustrating and feels like a gigantic waste of time.

However, some of the performances make the series engaging. This is James’s best performance of his career. He gives the series a calming presence to which the audience can hang onto. Ings is by far the series’ most interesting and entertaining. It’s a pleasure to watch Vinnie Jones play against type in a Guy Ritchie project. Here, he’s cerebral, stoic, and kind, on top of added muscle – different from a filmography filled with meatheads.

Unfortunately, they go to waste. The Gentleman doesn’t have enough substance to sustain an eight-episode series. The ending takes some plot point liberties and head-scratching character decisions. This was an obvious attempt to leave a door open for a second season. Ultimately, that decision by Ritchie squanders any goodwill he has built up to that point.

The Gentlemen will be available to stream on Netflix on March 7th, 2024.